POLLANARUA
King Prakrama Bahu—Small-pox—Rain charms—Devil-bird—Legend—Inscription
on the stone book—Temple of the Tooth—Divers temples, relic-shrines,
baths—Porcupine trap—Rock-temple—Gigantic images—Intercourse with
China—Minery Lake—Oath-stone—Temple of the tank gods—Circles of
pottery—Crocodiles—Kantalay tank—Tamblegam oysters.
Although Pollanarua (or Toparé, as the modern village is now commonly
called by the islanders, from Topa-Wewa, the artificial lake on which it
stands) is less interesting to the antiquarian than Anuradhapura, from
the fact that its glory as a city only commenced when that of the latter
had waned, to less critical eyes it is equally amazing, as being a
mighty city now literally buried beneath many feet of soil, and all
covered with green turf and jungle; the busy streets and their
inhabitants have alike disappeared beneath the sod, and the whole is, as
it were, one vast cemetery for houses and men.
Only here and there stately ruins remain to tell of the vanished
glories; and though these are on the whole less impressive than those of
Anuradhapura, in that the imperishable stone sculptures have in many
cases been replaced by brickwork and very fine stucco, the general
effect of the place is more attractive; there are more picturesque
‘bits’ to tempt an artist’s brush, owing perhaps to its utter
desolation, and to the fact that it has as yet scarcely been touched by
the marks of restoration and excavation.
The beautiful lake Topa-Wewa, which was originally fifteen miles in
circumference, was formed by King Upatissa II., who reigned A.D. 368;
but not till A.D. 650 do we hear of a royal palace having been built
here by King Sri Sangabo II. Both these were monarchs of the Sula-Wansae
or ‘Lesser Dynasty,’ so called in Singhalese records in uncomplimentary
contrast to the grand monarchs of the Surya-Wansae or Solar Dynasty
(also called the Maha-Wansae or Powerful race), which had so long
reigned at Anuradhapura.
That ancient capital was not forsaken in favour of Pollanarua till about
A.D. 769, when, weary of battling with continual invasions of the
Malabars, the Singhalese monarchs moved south-eastward to this more
inaccessible district, and created a new city, more beautiful than that
which they had abandoned, with temples and palaces which awakened the
wonder of all comers, while the abundant water-supply was secured by the
formation of enormous tanks, one of which, the great artificial Lake
Minery, is twenty-two miles in circumference. Even now, in its neglected
and ruinous condition, that is its size in wet seasons, although in
years of great drought it now evaporates to a lakelet barely four miles
in circumference.
Of course the Malabar invaders soon made their way to the new city, and
the same weary struggle continued for many generations.
This mediæval capital attained its climax of wealth and power in the
period between A.D. 1153 and 1240, during the reigns of the mighty King
Prakrama Bahu and of his successor, Kirti Nissanga. The former ranks
above all others in the love and reverence of the Singhalese, as having
been pre-eminent in chivalry, in piety, in wisdom, and in power. He had
mastered the various sciences and accomplishments of the age, including
medicine, logic, poetry, and music, and the training of the elephant and
of the horse.
His reign, which continued for thirty-three years, began amid civil war,
from which his energy and popularity brought him forth ‘sole king of
Lanka,’[157] and secured such peace in his own dominions as enabled him
to accomplish an incredible amount of work, while at the same time his
warlike nature found means to wage successful war against the kings of
Cambodia, Pandya, and Chola (the two latter in Southern India). Each of
these had given him cause of offence, for which each was forced to make
ample reparation, and all three became tributary to Lanka.
-----
Footnote 157:
The ancient name of Ceylon.
-----
Whatever this large-minded king undertook was carried out on a scale so
magnificent as to be only rendered possible by the employment of the
unpaid labour of the people. I have already referred to those stupendous
irrigation works, including 1,470 tanks, including lakes so great as to
be commonly called ‘the seas of Prakrama.’ Besides these, he restored
about as many more which had fallen into disrepair during the prolonged
wars, and made or repaired upwards of 4,000 canals and watercourses.
While thus furnishing his people with an abundant water-supply and
securing the means of raising plentiful crops, he built or restored
innumerable temples, relic-shrines, and houses for Buddhist priests in
every part of the Isle, which was the more remarkable considering the
difficulties of communication in those days.
Amongst other meritorious works enumerated in the national chronicles
were the erection of 101 dagobas, 476 images of Buddha, and the building
of 300 rooms for the reception of images, besides repairing 6,100 such
rooms. Besides all the temples which he built, he made 31 rock-temples,
with tanks, baths, and gardens for the priests, while for the
accommodation of travelling priests he built 230 lodgings, with 50 halls
for preaching, and 192 rooms in which to offer flowers. He also built
230 halls for the use of strangers.
At Pollanarua itself everything was done that could enhance the beauty
of the city, and very lovely it must have been, rising from the brink of
the great lake, which reflected its stately palaces, temples, and
dagobas, coated with the cream-coloured cement so like polished marble,
and all the gilded spires and cupolas and golden umbrellas. And to right
and left of the city lay outstretched a broad expanse of richly
cultivated land and verdant pasturage, with groves of flowering trees
and palms and clumps of tamarinds, casting the coolest of all shade.
Prakrama encompassed the city with a strong wall, enclosing an area
about thirty miles long by twelve in width, and at the four great gates
he erected almshouses for the poor and hospitals for the sick, whom he
visited in person, giving them the benefit of his own medical skill.
Within the city were noble streets, with halls for music and dancing,
schools and libraries, public baths and pleasant gardens. Prakrama’s own
palace was seven storeys high, and, according to the chronicles,
contained four thousand rooms, supported by hundreds of stone columns,
besides outer halls and staircases.
Strange indeed it seems, to think of so fair a city, after reigning as
capital of the Isle for five hundred years, being in its turn abandoned
to utter desolation. The only probable solution of the mystery is, that
in the course of the incessant wars which ravaged the Isle in the
centuries succeeding that of the great king, enemies must have devised
means for cutting off the water-supplies by diverting the feeding
rivers, and so the whole irrigation system would be destroyed, and the
millions whose very existence depended on the rice-crops would thus be
suddenly reduced to starvation, and either died of famine or were
compelled to abandon a district which could no longer yield them food.
Once the inhabitants were gone, the downfall of the city would be swift.
Legions of white ants would quickly reduce the woodwork to powder,
insidious parasitic plants would take root in many a crevice, and
rapidly developing into great trees, would rend the walls, and herds of
wild elephants would do their part in hastening the downfall of
tottering buildings; then would follow the amazingly rapid growth of
thorny jungle, which even in two or three years so effectually overruns
all abandoned land, and here the elephants and too luxuriant vegetation
have reigned undisturbed for upwards of six centuries.
Even the sparse population which remained, contriving to subsist in
dependence on the precarious rainfall, were well-nigh swept away by a
terrible visitation of small-pox in the first year of the present
century. This infliction being deemed the special amusement of one of
the goddesses, it is supposed that any attempt to stay its progress
would be specially displeasing to her; so no precautions whatever are
taken (or rather would not be, were they not made compulsory), and in
that year its ravages were such that the great district of Tamankaduwa,
of which Pollanarua is the capital, was literally depopulated, and now
only averages five inhabitants to the square mile—5,000 to 1,000 square
miles; and in all that vast desolate district of 640,000 acres, only
about 2,800 acres are now under cultivation! The people subsist by
hunting and chena-farming; the former rapidly leading to the extinction
of game, and the latter cruelly destructive of timber.
Happily for land and people, the days of tank restoration are at hand,
and the same good work which has brought new life to Anuradhapura and
the great district of Nuwarakalawiya, is about to be wrought in this
hungry and thirsty region around Toparé, not merely in restoring the
eight ancient lakes, sixty of the smaller tanks, several hundred village
tanks, and the general system of irrigation canals, but in the still
more necessary formation of head-works to regulate the overflow from the
rivers in times of flood.
For it is by these ungoverned outpourings from the great rivers,
Mahavelli-Ganga and Amban-Ganga, even more than by the lack of a regular
water-supply, that the rice-lands are rendered desolate, and it will tax
the skill of the ablest engineers to avert these oft-recurring dangers.
At the time of our visit to Pollanarua, the land was suffering from a
prolonged drought, the tanks being dryer than they had been for thirty
years; fields and jungle were alike parched and burnt up, even the hardy
shrubs all scorched and shrivelled by the fierce sun, and all the tender
green of ferns and mosses had utterly vanished, except in favoured
patches within reach of some leak in a tank, or near the river banks.
For days and days together we scarcely saw a blossom, save the scentless
scarlet ixora, whose very loveliness at last became hateful, for it made
us hot to look at it, especially as we well knew what colonies of
vicious red ants made their home among its blossoms.
In these seasons of sore drought the people of this district have
recourse to sundry charms to obtain rain, one of which is that they
clear the jungle from a ridge whereon stands a dagoba, to which they
then repair and pour out offerings of milk, which they say invariably
produce the desired boon. Apparently they deem it unwise to try this
remedy too often!
We had suffered considerably in the last few days from the great heat,
but all was forgotten now in the delight of finding ourselves in such
cool and pleasant quarters, actually on the embankment of the lake, and
thus sufficiently raised to command a perfect view, and also to catch
every breath of air that rustled through the foliage. It was a joy even
to be at rest under the cool shade of wide-spreading trees, looking down
on beds of rosy lotus-blossoms, and on humbler blue and white lilies,
which floated on the blue waters.
Though disturbed by the preparations for our coming, many aquatic birds
soon returned to their homes in the waving reeds and tall flowering
water-grasses, and sometimes a flock of long-legged white cranes or of
rosy flamingoes, or even a familiar grey heron, would alight and stalk
solemnly along the shallows.
When the sun began to lower we went off to explore the wonders of the
silent city, returning to our quarters beside the lake in time to watch
the glories of sunset colouring and of the gorgeous afterglow, till it
faded away in the darkness.
What a standing mystery it is! What can there be about the horizon to
act the part of so wondrous a prism, that, for a few short moments at
the outgoing of morning and evening, earth, lake, and sky should thus be
bathed in rainbow colours?
How beautiful those nights were, with the brilliancy of glittering
starlight and the various voices of the forest, which now and again
broke the utter stillness—the whirring of night-moths, the rustling of
grasses, the chirping of grasshoppers, the croaking of frogs, the
querulous yapping of jackals, the hooting of owls, of which there are
several varieties, from the beautifully-marked brown wood-owl, and the
rich orange-buff screech-owl, which cries like an infant wailing in
distress, to a delightful little creature peculiar to Ceylon (_Scops
minutus_), which is only six inches long, and has a little feeble cry.
It is brown and grey, and has yellow eyes and a horny feather-crest; it
feeds on bats and tiny birds. But the one voice which I did wish to hear
was silent, namely, that of the far-famed devil-bird, or Guamala, as the
natives call it, whose excruciating cry has been so often described, but
whose identity has ever been under dispute. Even Sir Samuel Baker, who
says he heard it continually, never succeeded in catching sight of the
bird. That cry is sometimes like the shout of a man in distress—a shriek
of torture, followed by a gurgling sound as if a victim were being
strangled; then follow piercing screams and convulsive cries agonising
to hear, so suggestive are they of murder; then follows a silence as of
death, perhaps broken once more by dismal wails and pitiful cries.
It is a voice so very eerie that it is said no one can hear it without a
shudder, and all natives hold it in superstitious horror, believing it
to be a warning of death; and doubtless this awe has been intensified by
the mystery as to what creature utters these horrid sounds. At last,
however, Mr. Stephens of Gampola has succeeded in shooting a bird in the
very act of emitting these unearthly yells, and the victim proved to be
the forest eagle-owl (_Bubo Nepalensis_), which is known to the
Singhalese as _Loku Bakamuna_, and to the Tamils as _Peria Anda_. It is
a large strong bird of beautiful plumage—another proof that fine
feathers do not secure melodious voices!
The Singhalese account for a bird being endowed with so agonising a cry
by a legend of how a wicked man, being angry with his wife and child,
took the child to a wood and murdered it. Then taking some of its flesh,
he returned home, and sending his wife out on an errand, he popped the
flesh into a curry which she was preparing. Unheeding the child’s
absence, the woman presently ate of the curry, when the inhuman father
told her what he had done. Crazed with horror, the unhappy mother fled
to the jungle and there destroyed herself. In her next transmigration
her soul passed into a ‘devil-bird,’ which thenceforward has made night
hideous with its cries of anguish.
If night in the forest is beautiful, how entrancing is the delicious
freshness of the tropical dawn, when the stars pale in the clear vault
of heaven! Then the hills stand in sombre purple against a
primrose-coloured sky, and suddenly the darkness is replaced by a flood
of pure dazzling light; all living things in the forest awaken, and a
thousand varying notes blend in one harmonious chorus. It is so odd to
hear the deep bass supplied by a booming note not to be distinguished
from that of the great monkey, but which is really produced by a most
gentle dove.
How ethereal were the lovely violet hues of the distant mountains in
that early dawn, changing so rapidly from purple to pink, and then the
mellow glow of the risen sun casting clear dark shadows where a moment
before all was even-toned, and bringing out the rich greens of the great
trees and of the rank succulent herbage all round the muddy shores of
the lake, the ‘moist and reedy grass’ fringing the still waters, which
form quiet little bays and inlets separated by wooded peninsulas!
Our little regiment of coolies, composed of Moors, Hindoos, Buddhists,
and Veddahs, were camped on the brink of the lake beneath the cool shade
of overhanging trees, and the blue smoke of their camp-fires added a
picturesque touch to the scene.
The embankment on which our huts were built, and which is the dam to
which the lake owes its existence, is about sixty feet wide on the
summit, and about two miles in length. The whole was faced with hewn
stone, but the roots of large trees have dislodged the great blocks, and
overthrown this massive masonry.
We were close to the ruins of Prakrama’s audience-hall and lion-throne,
marked by a number of dwarf stone pillars and by a solitary finely
sculptured lion with curly mane and twisted claws and tail. He is about
7 feet long by 6 feet 6 inches high. We were fortunate in seeing him in
the right place, as he was shortly afterwards removed to Colombo, there
to grace the museum. His date, in common with that of most of the ruins,
must be about A.D. 1153.
On the farther end of the embankment stands a cyclopean statue of King
Prakrama, sculptured in full relief from a mass of dark rock. He is
represented reading an ‘ola,’ _i.e._, a long scroll, and the sculptor
has not given him a pleasant expression. The height of the statue is 11
feet 6 inches. By some accident the upper half of his head was broken
and has been replaced rather on one side. The Government Agent (Sir F.
Dickson), who was with us, bade his men climb on to the shoulders of the
statue and put it straight. With undisguised horror they refused to
stand on the shoulders of a king, but they climbed up the rock behind
him, and with great difficulty contrived to reach it and do what was
needed.
I found a very attractive spot for a comprehensive sketch at the Wata
Dágé or round treasure-house, a circular building of red brick on a
raised and terraced mound. It is surrounded by a low wall of huge stone
slabs, all covered with a sort of diaper pattern of four-leafed flowers,
which is quite unique in my experience of Oriental sculpture. Between
each slab stands a tall monolithic column with finely sculptured
capital. The terrace wall round the mound is all very richly sculptured
with rows of grotesque fat men, lions, and lotus blossoms all round it.
It is approached by four very handsome stairways, all most elaborately
carved, and with very perfect guardian figures, with the usual headdress
or canopy of seven-headed serpents. The moonstones at the base of these
steps are also in most perfect preservation, with semicircles of geese,
elephants, and horses round a central lotus flower. These stones are 7
feet 8 inches in diameter.
Within the circular building there remain only the mutilated fragments
of a sitting image of Buddha, whose head lies on the grass, with stony
face upturned to the sky, alike heedless of the gay butterflies that
hover around, and of the white woman from a far-away isle who dares to
invade his sanctuary.
[Illustration:
THE WATA-DÁGÉ, OR ROUND TREASURE-HOUSE, POLLANARUA.
(Looking to the Sat Mal Prasadé, or Seven-Storied Building.)
]
Beside the broken statue lies an oblong stone marked with diamond-shaped
holes. A similar stone lies in the outer quadrangle of the ‘Temple of
the Tooth.’ They were probably yoga stones, on which devotees might gaze
fixedly to intensify their meditations.[158]
-----
Footnote 158:
See Chapter xiii.
-----
The circular brick wall is only about twenty feet in height, but on its
summit a noble banyan has established itself, and throws out such a
network of great white roots, reaching to the base of the mound, that
its roots are in truth as conspicuous as the wide-reaching arms, which
were the chosen playground of a large troop of frolicsome monkeys of all
ages and sizes, jumping, swinging, chattering, scolding, grimacing, as
if they were trying to show off their accomplishments to the strange
invader of their sanctuary. Several had the neatest little babies, which
cuddled in the maternal arm, rode on her back, or held on by her long
tail, as the case might be.
The clear blue of the sky forming a background to the warm rich reds of
the brickwork, the white banyan stems and stonework, and the greens of
foliage and grass, made a pleasant scene, and presently a solitary
priest ascended the steps, and his brown skin and saffron drapery and
palm-leaf fan added just the needful touch of yellow light. To the right
of the picture rises the Sat-mahal-prasada, or ‘Palace of Seven
Storeys.’ It is a small building in very perfect preservation, but it is
only 28 feet 6 inches square at the base, and there is nothing to
indicate what it was used for; possibly a cell for some fanciful priest.
Between it and the Wata Dágé lies a very remarkable huge block of stone
known as the ‘Galpota’ or stone book. It measures 28 feet in length by 5
in width, and averages 2 feet 6 inches in depth; but only the top and
the four sides are hewn so as to represent a gigantic book. For some
reason unknown, King Kirti Nissanga caused his ‘strong men’ to carry
this enormous stone all the way from the sacred mountain of Mihintale, a
distance of upwards of eighty miles. This is recorded on the stone
itself, which is entirely covered with writing, except that the
inscription is encircled with a procession of sacred geese, and at
either end a neat little image of Buddha sits cross-legged between two
tall elephants, which uplift their trunks and so form a canopy for his
protection.
The inscriptions, which date from about A.D. 1187, are chiefly Oriental
adulation of King Kirti Nissanga by his prime minister. After
enumerating proofs of his miraculous powers and wisdom, the inscription
tells how he reconstructed the embankments of great lakes and
watercourses, thus restoring prosperity to the people; how he got rid of
robbers by giving them whatever riches they desired (!); how he expelled
evil-doers from the monasteries, and provided the priests with food,
raiment, lodging, and physic.
Very curious are the details of some of his almsgiving, and also of his
care for the prosperity of his own race. We are told how, considering
that the continuance of religion and of the sciences depended on the
royal dynasty, the king sent to the country of Kaalinga (_i.e._, Orissa
in India), whence he himself had come, and caused many princesses of the
Soma Surya Wansae (_i.e._, the Luni-Solar race) to be brought to his
court, and he married these royal virgins to his son, and so increased
the royal family.
Then with regard to alms, every year his Majesty, wearing the crown and
all royal ornaments, caused himself, his two chief queens, and his son
and daughter, to be weighed in a balance, and he bestowed five times
their united weight of goods on the Buddhist and Brahmin priests, the
blind, the lame, the deformed, and other destitute and friendless
people. ‘He quenched the fire of poverty with showers of riches, gold
coin, copper, bell-metal, gold, silver, pearls, precious stones,
vestments, and jewels.’ ‘Thus he made the poor happy, and caused a
constant supply of rain.’ The last allusion to the favour of the gods is
one which would eminently appeal to this rice-growing community in a
district so subject to drought.
On the same huge tablet another inscription tells of the numerous
temples and relic-shrines which he either built or repaired, of the
enormous sums he expended in regilding the seventy-two images of Buddha
placed by his predecessor in the rock-temples at Dambulla, and restoring
the shrines at Anuradhapura, in building almshouses, which he furnished
with vessels of gold and silver, and where the poor were provided with
abundance of victuals, and how he dedicated his son and daughter to the
Sacred Tooth, and subsequently redeemed them by offering in their stead
a dagoba of solid gold and other precious objects.
This very literal reading of a man being worth his weight in gold seems
to have commended itself to the Singhalese sovereigns. The same
inscription on the rock at Dambulla which records how the great King
Prakrama Bahu made and gilded the aforesaid seventy-two statues of
Buddha, also tells of his annual donation of five times his own weight
in gold and jewels for the relief of the poor. And here at Pollanarua
another rock-tablet tells of another king of the Kaalinga dynasty, who,
like his predecessor, Kirti Nissanga, annually distributed five times
his own weight of gold, precious stones, jewels, and rich vestments for
the good of the needy; and, moreover, for five years relinquished all
his royal revenues in order to relieve the people from the distress
occasioned by the exactions of former kings.
[Illustration: THE JETAWANARAMA AND THE KIRI VIHARA AT POLLANARUA.]
Very special interest attaches to the Delada Maligawa, a temple built
for the reception of Buddha’s famous tooth. It is thought that the Wata
Dágé was built for it when it was first brought here from Anuradhapura,
for the Mahawanso records how the great Prakrama, arrayed in royal
apparel and mounted on an elephant, with a golden umbrella over his
head, came with much military pomp to return thanks for his victories at
the shrine of the Holy Tooth. This second temple seems to have been
erected in its honour a few years later by King Kirti Nissanga. After
the lapse of seven centuries it remains in wonderful preservation, the
sculptures on the walls and the very remarkable pillars round the inner
shrine being almost perfect.
I found another very pictorial subject in the ruins of the great
Jetawanarama Temple, with a foreground of exceedingly ornamental pillars
and admirably sculptured stones overgrown with tangled creepers, while
beyond these in the near distance stands the Kiri or Milk-white Dagoba,
so called from the beautifully smooth white chunam with which the whole
huge building was once coated. And very well it must have looked when
crowned with its gilded _tee_ or symbolic umbrella. The chunam and the
gilding have disappeared, otherwise it is almost perfect, though large
trees have contrived to root themselves in many a fissure, and veil the
now naked brick, or rather tile-work (for the building material here is
all tiles), with delicate foliage and a network of roots and branches.
The great Jetawanarama Vihara is likewise almost shorn of its coating of
once dazzling chunam, but the rich warm colours of its crumbling
brickwork, standing in strong light and dark shade against a blue sky,
and all softened by the cool greens of many a tree and creeping plant,
are certainly more attractive to an artist than the temple could have
been in the days of its glory. A stairway of the usual type, but of
which each stone is twenty feet in length and very finely sculptured,
leads up to the eastern entrance between two polygonal turrets, which,
like the rest of the walls, are about eighty feet in height.
Against the western wall, facing the rising sun, stands a huge and now
hideous image of Buddha about 60 feet in height, which when coated with
chunam must have resembled polished marble, but is now only broken
brickwork. From the fact that some very low windows seem to have been
the only means of lighting this shrine, Sir James Tennent infers that
the roof was perhaps constructed on the same principle as that of a
pagoda on the Irawaddi River known as the ‘Cave of Ananda,’ in which a
similar statue of Buddha is mysteriously illuminated by means of an
opening in the roof, unseen by the worshippers, but so contrived as to
throw a full ray of light only on the head and shoulders of the image,
thus forming a very effective halo, in striking contrast with the gloom
of the temple.
I spoke of the Kiri Dagoba as ‘huge.’ It is really about 100 feet high,
with a diameter of about 70 feet, which is pretty well for a mass of
solid brickwork, but it is effectually dwarfed by the Rankot or
Golden-spire Dagoba (which is also called Ruan-welle-saye, ‘the place of
golden dust’). This gigantic pile is 200 feet high, and about 186 feet
in diameter. It is surrounded by eight small shrines with conical roofs.
There are several other dagobas of the same type, and innumerable
sculptured pillars, which alone remain to suggest vanished glories, for
the buildings which they supported have wholly disappeared. Near the
so-called fort were the royal baths. In the centre of the ‘kumara
pokuna,’ the king’s own bathing pond—a stone-lined tank—there is a
circular stone on which the king sat and submitted to the delicate
attentions of bathers; for one of the penalties of monarchy was that he
had not even the privilege of washing himself. Three stone lions which
lie close by are supposed to have supported this ‘bath-chair.’
But it is useless to attempt to describe the numerous ruins which lie so
thickly scattered all through the jungle, which now overspreads the
whole of what was once so great a city—mounds of brickwork, broken
columns, an inexhaustible supply of sculptured stones, geese, elephants,
lions, horses, lotus-blossoms, and grotesque figures, with here and
there fallen images lying prostrate on the earth.
Now temples and palaces are utterly deserted save by the beasts of the
forest, which find in these silent sanctuaries the stillness they love,
a secure retreat, and deep cool shade where they can make their dens and
rear their young undisturbed. Bears, leopards, and porcupines share the
inner shrines with owls and flocks of evil-smelling bats. Radiant
peacocks and emerald-green parroquets, orioles, barbets, and many other
birds of gay plumage, flash athwart the sunlight from the shelter of
dark foliage, and herds of wild deer couch fearlessly beside the broken
idols with the calm passionless faces which so little heed their own
downfall.
[Illustration:
THE GAL-VIHARA: ROCK TEMPLE AT POLLANARUA.
(Sitting Buddha is 15 ft. above pedestal; erect, 23 ft.; recumbent, 46
ft.)
]
In one ruined shrine I collected a handful of porcupine quills as a
memento of the spot. These creatures conceal themselves so effectually
in the daytime, that even in the districts where they abound many people
have never seen one. They are often captured at night by the simple
stratagem of digging a deep ditch with perpendicular sides, and
narrowing gradually towards one end. The porcupine enters the ditch in
search of food, and walks on till he sticks fast, and can by no
possibility turn round, as his quills stick in the mud; then the poor
‘fretful porcupine’ falls an easy victim. His flesh, which resembles
that of a nice young pig, is prized as a great delicacy.
To me the shrine of greatest interest was the Gal Vihara, which lies to
the north of the city, a quite unique rock-temple, hollowed in a mass of
dark-brown gneiss rock; from the colour of which the temple is also
called Kulagalla, ‘the black rock.’ From this rock three gigantic
figures have been sculptured in almost full relief. One represents
Buddha sitting in contemplation in the usual attitude, arms and legs
alike folded in complete repose. This image is 15 feet high, and sits on
a pedestal 5 feet deep by 18 feet wide. The background is all most
elaborately sculptured, and all as sharp and clean-cut as though it were
the work of yesterday—not a trace of weathering after the lapse of seven
centuries.
Then comes the rock-hewn temple, which is built up in front and adorned
with columns, but within it is an altar on which is another sedent image
of Buddha, all hewn from the rock. It is only about half the size of the
image outside, but the whole interior of the shrine is elaborately
decorated. Unfortunately, modern piety has renovated ancient art with
grievously crude colours.
The temple is approached by rock-hewn steps, and on either side the rock
has been smoothed so as to form two inclined planes, one of which, 18
feet high by 13 feet 9 inches in width, is covered with a long
inscription in the ancient Pali character, which, however, is not
specially interesting.
Next to this, standing at the head of a huge recumbent image of Buddha,
is an upright statue, 23 feet high, representing Ananda, Buddha’s
favourite disciple, with his arms crossed on his breast. He stands on a
circular pedestal, edged with the conventional lotus-leaf, which
generally marks the throne of Buddha; hence this image has generally
been mistaken for Buddha himself, but wise authorities have decided
otherwise, chiefly because the Mahawanso records the formation of this
rock-temple by King Prakrama, and describes only two images of Gautama,
one sitting, the other reclining. All three wear the robe so as to leave
the right arm and shoulder bare.
The recumbent statue is 46 feet in length, and represents Buddha as in
the dreamless sleep of Nirvana, his head resting on the right hand, on
the palm of which is engraved a lotus-blossom, and the hand resting on a
bolster. The attitude is that of perfect repose. The difference of
stature between Buddha in contemplation and Buddha in his last rest is
very striking. Eastern symbolism always seems to suppose corporeal
growth in the holy dead, hence the necessity for graves of preternatural
length, as in the case of that of Eve at Jeddah, which measures at least
60 feet.[159]
-----
Footnote 159:
This great image is, however, a mere pigmy as compared with some in
other Buddhist countries, notably at Bamian in Afghanistan, where, on
the road between Cabul and Balkh, the early Buddhists excavated
monasteries and rock-cells literally by the thousand in the high
cliffs of conglomerate, some of which have been fashioned into the
likeness of gigantic images of Buddha. One of these, which was
measured with the theodolite by the Hon. M. G. Talbot, R.E., was found
to be 173 feet in height. Another, also a standing figure, was proved
to be 120 feet high. A sitting figure is 30 feet, and of two others
now in ruins, one must have been about 60 feet high. All these statues
were originally either gilt or covered with metal. Burmah also glories
in great images of Buddha, one near Moulmain being fully 120 feet
long. It is built of brick, and represents Buddha in Nirvana. In China
and Japan also he is represented on a colossal scale.
-----
I fear that the mere description of all this may not sound very
impressive, but it certainly is so in reality, and so I felt it to be
while myself sitting on another great mass of dark chocolate-coloured
rock, separated from the temple by a belt of grass and shrubs, and
looking above and beyond it to a background of silent solemn forest. One
or two brethren of the yellow robe hovered about the door of the inner
temple, but the throng of worshippers who in bygone ages bowed before
these gigantic idols has passed away; yet there these remain, heedless
as ever of the coming and going of men, and of all their joys and
sorrows.
To this great capital came embassies from distant lands, even from
China, chiefly to do homage to the various objects of Buddhist worship.
There is, however, evidence of very early commercial intercourse with
China, chiefly gathered from Chinese books of extracts from ancient
records now lost, showing how Chinese fleets came to Galle to trade.
Swords and musical instruments were among the things imported to Ceylon,
and in later days, A.D. 1266, Chinese soldiers served in the army of
Prakrama III.
But in 1405 King Wijaya-Bahu VI., who seems to have adopted the Hindoo
faith, tyrannised over the Buddhists and maltreated strangers,
plundering their ships. Among those thus treated, a Chinese embassy
bringing gifts to the shrine of Buddha were treacherously waylaid, and
escaped with difficulty. Nevertheless, when, in 1407, the Emperor of
China sent his great general, Ching-Ho, with sixty-two junks and a
strong military force, on an embassy to Sumatra, Java, Cambodia, Siam,
and other places, Ceylon was included, the embassy arriving there in
1408.
Wijaya-Bahu, however, endeavoured treacherously to capture his visitors
and to plunder and burn their ships. The tables were turned, and he and
his queen, his children, his officers of state, and the Tooth were
carried back to China, where the Tooth was long kept in a monastery at
Nankin.
The Emperor of China, having compassion on his prisoners, desired the
officers of state to elect ‘the wisest of the family’ as their king.
This honour was conferred on Pula-ko-ma Bazac Lacha, which is evidently
Chinese for Prakrama Bahu Rajah. All the prisoners were sent home, and a
Chinese envoy was sent to invest him with regal power as a vassal of
China, and thenceforth annual tribute was paid till A.D. 1459, when it
suddenly ceased.
Now the intercourse between the nations seems to be limited to the
visits of traders, who explore certain caves on the coast in search of
the glutinous nests used in the manufacture of soup, and who trade in
the sea-slugs or _bêche-de-mer_ which are turned to similar account. The
former, however, form a very small item. From a recent table of exports
from Ceylon to China, I see the total value of edible birds’ nests for
the year was only 40 rupees, that of _bêche-de-mer_ was 27,300 rupees.
Sharks’ fins were valued at 13,667 rupees. Fish, dried and salted, and
fish fins and bones, were 18,327 rupees, and birds’ feathers amounted to
1,240 rupees.
We made the very most of several long days at Pollanarua, and then
abandoned our peaceful, pleasant camp, with much regret. A lovely
morning ride of about nine miles brought us to beautiful Lake Minery,
halting on our way at Giritale, a charming little lake, with massive
stone embankment and some sculptured stones. It has the usual
surroundings of fine trees, and view of near wooded hills and blue
distant ranges. We had previously visited Sevamputti, another of these
minor tanks, beyond which lies Gunner’s Quoin, one of the principal
hills in the neighbourhood. There the scene had a touch of human
interest from the lonely watch-huts on the brink of the swampy ground,
mere rudely-thatched platforms of boughs raised on high poles, wherein
some lonely watcher kept ceaseless guard to scare marauding animals from
the crops. By day he shouts and pulls long lines of clacking rattles,
and by night he kindles fires for the same purpose.
The great lake at Minery was made about A.D. 275, and owes its existence
to King Maha Sen, who, as we learnt at Anuradhapura, atoned for his
early apostasy from Buddhism by most energetic construction of temples
and of tanks for the irrigation of temple-lands. It is said that Minery
was designed to irrigate twenty thousand fields belonging to the
Jetawanarama Vihara at Pollanarua. In order to form it, he diverted the
waters of the Kara-Ganga (now called Amban-Ganga) near Matale, which is
distant about forty miles, and formed a great canal by which to convey
them to Minery. Besides this, he constructed sixteen other tanks,
including that of Gantalawe (now called Kanthalay) near Trincomalee.
So great and numerous were his works, that the people deemed him
godlike, and believed that he received supernatural aid; yet strange to
say, though all his works were beneficent, yet when, after his death, a
pestilence swept the land, they commenced to worship him as an
incarnation of the Indian war-god Kataragama—an angry deity to be
propitiated, chiefly with a view to the healing of malignantly inflicted
bodily suffering (see page 464).
In the very picturesque village of Minery a humble mud-hut is the temple
of the deified king, whose iron sword, with a square hilt, peculiarly
decorated with small brass chains, is treasured as a precious relic. In
presence of his image there is a holy stone, about two feet square, let
into a large one for greater security. To this temple persons accused of
any crime, or having any cause of dispute with their neighbours, repair,
and having kept solemn vigil for a night in an open shed near the
temple, deposit on the stone a fanam, which is a very small coin, equal
to the sixteenth part of a rupee, and swear their most solemn
oaths,[160] with the firm conviction that perjury would involve death
within six months. In the village we also saw a curious circular
thatched building all closed up, in which, we were told, various sacred
relics were stored, including an arrow once used by King Maha Sen.
-----
Footnote 160:
As our ancestors did on the Oath-stone of Iona. See ‘In the Hebrides,’
p. 70.
-----
We had heard a rumour of the existence of a place of exceeding sanctity,
known as the Grove of the Tank Gods, and were exceedingly anxious to see
it, but the people were unwilling to lead us to it. The headman declared
he could not take us, as it would require three months of purification
ere he dared approach the spot with necessary offerings! However, having
gone off by myself in the evening for a long walk, with only a villager
for my guide, I discovered this holy of holies, to his great disgust and
my own unbounded satisfaction.
[Illustration: A FOREST SANCTUARY.—OFFERINGS OF RED POTTERY TO THE GOD
OF THE TANK AT MINERY.]
And such a poor, contemptible little place as it is! simply a small
space cleared in the dense vegetation on the embankment of the lake, and
round this are ranged broken fragments of images and a variety of
sculptured stones, the body of a headless lion, an odd hunchback figure
_minus_ legs, a broken image with a seven-headed snake-canopy, a rather
graceful female figure, and a good many others, all broken, and propped
up with heaps of fragments. Two only, namely, the hunchback and the
lady, are unusual, and are supposed to represent Maha Sen and his wife.
Is it not strange to think that the descendants of the race who
constructed these grand tanks and built these splendid cities and
temples can rise to no loftier conception than collecting broken
fragments of images in some shady corner, which is thenceforth invested
with sanctity and mystery, and only approached in trembling dread?
In the same walk I came on several queer little holy places in the
forest—mere circles of small stones, within which were deposited a
multitude of offerings of rude red pottery, very varied in shape, some
being simply water-jars, but the majority resembling the tee on the
summit of a relic-shrine. I never saw anything of this sort anywhere
else; but a few days later, near the tank at Kanthalay, we came on a
sandy circle beneath great trees, where red earthenware votive-lamps
stood ready for lighting at night. Some of these were such neat little
curios that I felt sorely tempted to appropriate one, but, happily,
refrained from such sacrilegious theft. It is certainly remarkable that
the very monkeys respect those unprotected accumulations of crockery. A
sudden impulse on the part of one of the numerous troops would make
short work of the whole.
One of these circles was guarded by a familiar spirit in the form of a
splendid lizard, about eighteen inches long, a chameleon, I suppose, as
he rapidly changed colour with indignation at my intrusion. To begin
with, he was bright green with a crimson head; then he turned brown and
yellow, and afterwards appeared of a rich olive colour. After a while he
turned black, to frighten me, I suppose, as he stood puffing like a
little demon and raising his dorsal spines. When he saw I was not bent
on mischief, he once more assumed his green robe and ruby cap, and
seemed satisfied. Another of these harmless lizards has a red-and-orange
pouch under his chin, and small horns which give him a most demoniacal
appearance. They love to lie basking in the noonday sun.
A family of screaming, flying foxes returning to roost in the trees
overhead were well in keeping with the scene, and as evening drew on,
the large green frogs in the lake commenced their night concert of
croaking.
The quaintness of the aforesaid circles was greatly enhanced by their
surroundings of huge vines—climbing plants of various sorts—originally
mere twisted tendrils, which have swung from branch to branch, thence
hanging in huge festoons, till the whole forest is thus linked together
by this intricate living cordage. Sometimes the beautiful treacherous
creepers crush to death the trees and boughs around which they have
twined, and the stem decays and crumbles away, leaving the great coils,
now grown into hard wood, old and self-supporting, twisting spirally in
every direction, like legions of writhing snakes, and forming a very
distinctive feature in the undergrowth. One of these creepers[161] bears
a gigantic bean, always suggestive of Jack-in-the-beanstalk. Its pods,
which are from four to six feet in length, and about four inches wide,
are divided into sections, each containing a handsome chocolate-coloured
bean, which, when hollowed out, makes a neat match-box.
-----
Footnote 161:
The _Entada pursætha_, called by the Singhalese the Maha-pus-wuel, or
great hollow climber.
-----
Another of these climbing plants, which mounts to the top of high trees,
bears large clusters of yellow flowers, which are succeeded by prickly
pods containing pretty, smooth grey seeds, so round that they might
almost be used as marbles.
The temporary bungalows prepared for us at Minery were less fascinating
in point of situation than our last camp, being farther from the lake
and much nearer the village. They were, however, near a very picturesque
stream, in which groups of natives bathed with infinite enjoyment within
the shade of pleasant trees all matted with large-leaved creepers,
forming ideal ‘green-rooms.’ Graceful tree-ferns grew beneath the tall
palms and overhung the stream, and the luxuriant elephant creeper, with
its large heart-shaped leaves and lilac blossoms, formed the loveliest
screen, mingling with the beautiful Granadilla, starred with
passion-flowers and with the large green fruits which, with sugar and
milk, are very pleasant food. Handsome basket-ferns had niched
themselves on the boughs of many trees, from which also hung divers
orchids.
I have already mentioned that even now in a rainy season, Lake Minery
fills so as to have a circumference of fully twenty miles. At the time
of our visit the waters had contracted to about a third of that size, so
not only was the hewn stone-work of the great embankment all uncovered,
but promontories and islets, which then rise charmingly from the waters,
were all high and dry. The said embankment is about a mile and a half in
length, about 200 feet wide at the base, and about 60 feet high. The
view thence, looking to the mountain ranges of Matala and Kandy, greatly
resembles that of the Cuchullin Hills in Skye as seen from Ross-shire,
though the latter could not show such a foreground of fine timber.
We had been told that what should really be the bed of the lake was
bordered with firm, springy turf, on which horses can canter safely, but
our experience was of a soft, muddy shore, very bad riding ground, and
in places all undermined and thrown up into soft hillocks, as if an army
of moles had been at work: this was due to the boring of huge
earthworms.
But this rich, juicy grass forms delightful pasture, and the swampy
ground about this lake used to be one of my brother’s favourite
hunting-grounds. Then herds of elephants and ungainly, often savage,
buffaloes (the latter perhaps numbering a hundred or more) would come to
enjoy the delight of wallowing in the thick, soft mud and long grass.
But since cheap guns and gunpowder have placed weapons of destruction in
the hands of natives as well as foreigners, the harassed, over-hunted
survivors have disappeared to forests yet more remote, and now the
extensive pasture-grounds here and at Pollanarua, and around all the
great tanks, are frequented by very large herds of domestic buffaloes
and black cattle brought over from the mainland _viâ_ Manaar.
In some places the swampy shores of the lake are edged with
cable-rattans, which one would naturally suppose to be bamboos, but
which are really members of the palm family—Calamus—long slim canes
which grow to a length of a hundred feet or more,[162] climbing to the
tops of the highest trees, and all armed with hooked thorns and
interwoven so as to form an impenetrable mass. This grows to the very
brink, where rank grass borders an expanse of soft dark mud, forming a
treacherous crust on which the unwary treads, and sinks through into
deep slime and decaying vegetable matter, a mud-bath delightful to the
wild elephants, who love to smear their whole bodies with it, and so are
protected against mosquitoes.
-----
Footnote 162:
Tennant mentions having seen a specimen 250 feet long and an inch in
diameter without a single irregularity, and no appearance of foliage
other than the bunch of feathery leaves at the extremity. In the
southern forests, where it grows most luxuriantly, these slender canes
are used by the natives in the construction of light suspension
foot-bridges, consisting of a frail woven platform, with a rattan
hand-rail, swaying in such a manner as sorely tries the nerves of any
European who finds himself obliged to cross a stream on so frail a
roadway (the stream perhaps roaring in a ravine a hundred feet below).
-----
The apparent extent of the lake is much diminished by the luxuriant
growth of the lotus, with its tall, artistically untidy leaves and great
rosy blossoms; but here and there lies a reach of very still water, a
calm mirror reflecting the pure blue of heaven, and on which float the
creamy cups of white lilies—an image of peace, marred, however, by ugly
suggestions of scaly monsters swimming languidly to and fro among the
lovely lilies.
These horrid crocodiles (the largest of lizards, and oh, how unlike
their dainty little cousins!) lie basking on the dry mud, looking so
like boughs of fallen trees that it is quite startling to see them glide
into the water as one draws near—indeed, I often felt rather nervous as
I made my way on foot through the low brush and tall grasses which
fringe these lagoons, lest I might inadvertently stumble over one and
awaken him from his noonday sleep. One snap from those enormous jaws
would be a remembrance not quickly forgotten, even supposing one got
away. I had a recollection of hearing of one, measuring 17-1/2 feet in
length, which swallowed a native whole, barring his head and one hand,
which it had previously bitten off. It was killed on the following day,
and the remains of the man’s body were found inside of it.
These brutes seize their prey and drag it under water to drown it, and
then eat it when hungry. But they are not at all particular as to what
meat they devour, and being cannibals are always ready to feast on the
carcase of their nearest relation who has been shot and left on the
shore. They vary in size from new-born babies just hatched by sun-heat
from the sixty to eighty eggs which the mother buried in the sand, to
full-grown reptiles, perhaps eighteen feet in length. Strange to say,
those which inhabit tanks liable to dry up in summer have the power of
hibernating, and bury themselves in the mud, which dries over them, and
there they lie torpid till the next rainy season reawakens them. These
never grow larger than about eight feet. With regard to longevity, in
the case of one recently captured, scientists decided, from certain
developments of horny growth, that it must be fully three hundred years
old.
One peculiarity of these very unpleasant creatures is, that in the
course of their long lives they renew their sixty-eight long sharp teeth
several times, so that even in extreme old age those appallingly strong
jaws are always well furnished for offensive warfare. When they have
something to eat afloat, you see only their noses and foreheads above
water, but as soon as they see that they are observed down they drop to
the bottom.
Often they lie embedded in mud among tall reeds and water-grasses, and
often only the quivering of these betrays their presence. On land they
waddle slowly, but once they take to the water they prove swift
swimmers.
To do them justice, they are most diligent scavengers, rejoicing in
every sort of decayed animal matter, whether fish, flesh, or fowl.
Nevertheless, their numbers are in excess of even this need; and since
it is so very desirable to find an incentive for thinning the ranks of
these terribly prolific and dangerous monsters (which in the northern
lakes, near Mullaitivu, literally swarm), it is satisfactory to know
that, although no use has as yet been discovered for their
horrid-looking scaly backs, the belly skin has a high commercial value,
being the finest, strongest, softest, and most durable of all leathers,
and is greatly prized for the manufacture of travelling-bags,
portmanteaus, boots and shoes, pocket-books, &c.
The skin must be removed in as large and clean a piece as possible,
without any tear or cut; then it must be steeped in strong brine, and
afterwards well rubbed with salt and alum, and then forwarded to England
in a secure packing-case. The tanning is done in London. The value of a
skin is chiefly determined by its width. Sportsmen who have sent
consignments to London say that they have received 18_s._, 20_s._, and
26_s._ apiece for them, so that crocodile-hunting is now practically
useful in more ways than the mere destruction of dangerous animals.
More agreeable denizens of the waters are sundry kinds of fish, which
are good and abundant. The natives catch them with nets and in
trap-baskets of bamboo wickerwork rather like lobster-pots, much wider
at the base than at the top. The fisherman dexterously drops one of
these over a fish as it lies in a muddy shallow, and then inserting a
hand through a hole at the top, captures the fish and drops him into a
creel slung by his side. The best of these is the ‘lola,’ which is
rather like a very large ungainly trout, but is considered excellent.
Once more we took the road, or rather what the fine old village chief
who led the way on foot was pleased to call the path, sometimes along
the dry bed of rocky streams, passing as best the horses could under or
over fallen trees, then through parched jungle, all burnt up with the
drought, except the scarlet ixora; even the great tree cacti and bare
knotted ropes of giant lianas looking more weird than ever without their
accustomed veiling of delicate foliage.
At last, after four hours of this slow, hot march, we suddenly emerged
on the high-road, with telegraph posts and all other proofs of a return
to civilised life, and found ourselves at the village of Gal-Oya, where
a most wretched mud-hut was dignified with the name of a Government
rest-house. There we spent a broiling day, and repeated the programme on
the following day in the rest-house at Alutoya. The third day brought us
to the margin of the great ancient tank of Kanthalay, which is
apparently about as large as Minery, but with a more deeply indented
shore-line. I had to explore alone, my companions being too thoroughly
exhausted by the great heat.
This also is a very pretty scene—a great ruined embankment of huge cut
stones all overgrown with fine old trees; an enormous pile of hewn
blocks marking the site of the ruined sluice, masses of dark
chocolate-coloured rock, dreamy ranges of far distant hills, and the
calm lake reflecting all the beauties of earth and sky. Not a sound to
break the stillness save the occasional shrill cry of passing wild duck
or other water-fowl. Now and again a flash of lovely colour as a dainty
kingfisher or some other fairy of the bird-world flew by. Shortly after
that date, however, this tank was effectually restored, and though the
people were very slow in profiting by the boon, it is now a centre of
extensive cultivation and of a flourishing population.
The lake, as I have mentioned, was originally formed by King Maha Sen
about A.D. 275, but it, and the great feeding canal connecting it with
Minery, were practically remade by Prakrama Bahu about 1153, forming
part of that vast series of navigable waters known as the Seas of
Prakrama. (I think I have mentioned that he is said to have constructed
1,407 tanks, and to have repaired 1,395.) Prakrama’s great canal is
believed to have carried its water-supply twenty-four miles farther, to
irrigate the once fertile plains of Tamblegam, close to Trincomalee.
But, in some time of overwhelming flood, these plains were transformed
to a great lake, whose waters forced a passage to the sea, and then, in
turn, received the tribute of the great ocean in an influx of salt
water.
Once admitted, it has never again been possible to exclude the sea, so
that Tamblegam is now a large, brackish lake swarming with fish, but
chiefly notable for its immense beds of small semi-transparent oysters,
about six inches in diameter, and very flat. They are largely used in
China as a substitute for glass in ornamental windows, so many are
exported thither, and many more are burnt as yielding peculiarly fine
lime for betel-chewers. So wonderfully are creatures adapted for their
varying conditions of existence, that these oysters flourish only in
brackish water, and serious mortality results when either fresh or salt
water predominates, as happens in season of flood or drought.
We passed this wide, glassy lake on the following day, on our way from
Kanthalay to Trincomalee (a distance of twenty-six miles), the latter a
very beautiful spot, which was destined to prove the farthest point of
this expedition, and where our stay was considerably prolonged owing to
the Bishop’s very serious illness.