The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

CEYLON •
383
Singhalese ivories, even as late as the seventeenth
century, continue to preserve traditional
motifs with little indication of further influence
from the Indian mainland. Notable are the large
ivory plaques with representations of richly
bejewelled divinities [313]. These rather drily
carved figures appear enveloped in a network of
jewelled ornaments, but their descent, both
iconographically and stylistically, from the
stone-carvings of dvarapalas of the earlier
periods is immediately apparent (cf. 296). The
heavy undercutting is the craftsman's exploitation
of the pictorial possibilities of his medium.
Represented is Kama or Rati, gods of love, with
flower arrow and sugar-cane bow.
Singhalese craftsmen have been distinguished
in the art of metalwork since early times, and
ornaments in precious metals, exquisite in
design and technique, have been made until
modern times. 31 Bronze vessels dedicated to
temple use and dating from the twelfth century
and earlier have been found at many sites
throughout the island. There are, for example,
bronze lamps, some recalling ancient Roman
shapes and others in the form of lotus plants
Singhalese jewellers have always excelled in
varieties of goldsmith work, notably in filigree
work and the embedding of tiny jewels in a
setting of soft gold. These exquisite objects -
necklaces, clasps, and single beads, usually
hollow and made of wire and seed-like gems -
have an exquisite and rarefied delicacy of
workmanship that can never be appreciated in
photographic reproductions. 32
314. Bronze lamp from Dedigama.
Dedigama, Museum
like similar types found in Cambodia. A remarkable
example of this kind of temple furniture is
a lamp in the shape of an elephant standing in a
basin, found at Dedigama, the legendary birthplace
of the great King Parakrama Bahu, and
dated to the twelfth century [314]. The magnificent
plastic form of the elephant stands in a
basin, and when the oil in this vessel burned to
a low level, an ingenious mechanism caused the
pachyderm to urinate a fresh supply into this
receptacle. As in the case of so many objects of
Singhalese metalwork of this final renaissance,
it is impossible to tell whether this object is of
local manufacture or an import from South
India. It bears a certain resemblance to the
famous lamp from the Jogesvari caves [262] and
the carved elephants of the Ruvanveli dagaba at
Anuradhapura [289].