Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/261

CHAP. VIII. CEYLON. 227 When Fah Hian, for instance, visited the island in A.D. 412-413, he describes an accompaniment to the procession of the Tooth relic as follows : " The king next causes to be placed on both sides of the road representations of the 500 bodily forms which the Bodhisattwa assumed during his successive births" the jatakas in fact. "These figures," he adds, "are all beautifully painted in divers colours, and have a very life-like appear- ance." 1 It was not that they could not sculpture in stone, for, as we shall presently see, some of their carvings are of great delicacy and cleverness of execution, but they seem to have preferred colour to the more permanent forms of representa- tion. Early figures of the Buddha are comparatively few : possibly they were destroyed by the Tamil invaders ; still the excavations of the last thirty years have brought to light quite a considerable number of various ages. On the embank- ments of many tanks there are slabs carved with five or seven headed serpents, which may be of any age, and at the foot of every important flight of steps there are two dwarpals or door- keepers with this strange appendage, and attached to each of the chapels of the Abhayagiri dagaba are figures of a great Naga. These may be regarded as an evidence of the early prevalence of the worship of serpents in the island. Another peculiarity of the Ceylonese monuments is their situation in the two capitals of the island, for, it will have been observed, none of the remains of Buddhist architecture described in the previous chapters are found in the great capital cities of the Empire. They are detached monuments, spared by accident in some distant corner of the land, or rock - cut examples found in remote and secluded valleys. The Buddhist Palibothra has entirely perished so has vSravasti and Vaual! ; and it is with difficulty we can identify Kapila- vastu, Kusinara, and other famous cities, whose magnificent monasteries and stupas are described by the Chinese travellers in the 5th or 7th century of our era. In a great measure this may be owing to their having been built of brick and wood ; and, in that climate, vegetation is singularly destructive of the first, and insects and decay of the second. But much is also due to the country having been densely peopled ever since the disappearance of the Buddhists. It may also be remarked that the people inhabiting the plains of Bengal since the extinction of Buddhism were either followers of the Brahmanical or Muhammadan religions both inimical to them, or, at least, having no respect for their remains. 1 Beal, 'Buddhist Pilgrims,' p. 157; or 'Buddhist Records,' vol. i., introd. pp. Ixxv., Ixxvi.