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| Sunday, 3 November 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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'Sigiri' Raja has his day
Raja's rendering was expected to stir up a hornet's nest (Sigiriya known for this literally) but the heavyweights who could have taken him on kept away leaving the floor to laymen who rose to the occasion. Among them were those who had just seen his work on display that day - Saturday October 26 when the book 'Sigiriya and its Significance: A Mahayana Theravada Buddhist Monastery' was launched at the ideal venue, Hotel Sigiriya, which boasts of providing the best view of Sigiriya Rock of all the vantage points in the vicinity. Serendib Leisure Chairman Abbas Esufally and Chairman Hotel Sigiriya E. J. (Sandy) de Zoysa following the welcome address of CEO Srilal Miththapala were quick to point out that Sigiriya was the 'Icon of Tourism'. View points expressed would add to the already existing source material on Sigiriya however divergent they would be. The pair threw cheeseparing to the winds and provided grand entertainment at the Jungle Bar and Wild Otters' Restaurant while a traditional dance troupe and drumbeat kept up the atmosphere of a welcome setting far removed from Colombo just after moderator Gamini Weerakoon called it a day. Saturday's proceedings were a sequel to a programme organised over two years ago when a seminar and discussion had taken place at the same venue. In the handbook prepared on the basis of those discussions Dr. Raja de Silva is reported thus: "Dr. Raja de Silva presenting a startling view on Sigiriya said that Sigiriya was a Mahayana Monastery built over several hundred years. His view was contrary to the accepted view that Sigiriya was built by Kassayapa, that it was a short-lived capital and its paintings were also done by Kassayapa during his eighteen-year reign. Dr. de Silva said that his background was from a scientific point of view. Therefore, he accepted the writings of anybody, only if the facts were reasonable and once he knew the background of the party concerned. The Mahavamsa in its very brief information given on Sigiriya says that Kassayapa came to Sigiriya, cleared the land around and about, built a staircase in the form of a lion, built a palace on the summit and lived there like God Kuvera on Alakamandawa. Dr. De Silva insisted that there is no evidence of a Palace. What you see is a platform or a terrace surrounded by a parapet wall or a higher wall. There is no evidence of any roofs, rooms, structures of setting of timber pillars or evidence of a building. There however, is clear evidence of a stone seat - "Asana" or throne which is a hundred feet away at a lower level, with evidence of four posts for the setting of pillars and roof against the escarpment. No roof would have withstood the gales of the monsoons from May-September. The evidence of a wall round the rock, the evidence of a dagoba and the gardens and terraces were well-known in monastic buildings. Monks walked up and down in "Sakman Maluwa" while meditating and the enclosed stone seat with steps leading to this would have been from where monks delivered religious discourses to devotees. Except for Paranavitana, nobody explained as to what a lion was doing there, constructed at tremendous cost. The lion was a symbol of royalty but Paranavitana went on to say that this particular lion was in keeping with the "Manothathava Lake on Alakamandawa" which was an integral part of the Kassayapa story, where it was said that he lived like Kuvera. In early India, the lion was associated with the Buddha - the Sakyasingha. At the Sanchi gateway, you see a number of lions. In Asoka's Capitals, the lion is on all the inscriptions. The lion was part of Buddha's monuments. At Sigiriya, Buddha was at the highest level and the lion below at the entrance. Mr. Manik Sandrasagara of 'God King' fame reiterated the position he took up at the seminar held in May 2000. The seminar report quotes him thus: Sigiriya was a venerated Mahayana temple and let us take monuments, various material, oral-tradition, poetry, art, written texts, parallel stories in other traditions, sacred texts with multiple meanings as sources of history after which we will understand the religious significance of Sigiriya. We will then stop treating Sigiriya as a site for mass tourism. Mr. Sandrasagara described Sigiriya as a spiritual journey - a pilgrimage. What the Mahavamsa wrote about Sigiriya was just an exterior as what was found out was something quite different. In India and Sri Lanka, it was one culture and Kataragama today, is a living example of how it worked. There is a king who is not seen. 550 courtiers gather at Kataragama every year and perform their functions. The king is called "Mahasen", the "Kataragama deyyo". Every year, somebody makes the king's presentation, and this king was a mystery figure. Sigiriya likewise, is a mystery-story. "When you look at Sigiriya, you are looking at the concept of Bodhisatva, when everyone was attaining their total possibility and where suppression was not the basis. This was an era where 'Dhammaruchikas' had been handed over most of both the Mahavihara and the Abeyagiri and Mahayanism was on the rise. Mahayana thrived in Anuradhapura. Tantra was the basis of the culture where sex played a vital role. For the country to be happy, for the dhamma to continue, passion had to be allowed. In Sigiriya, once you passed the triple moats which represented the "pretha loka", the "manushya loka" and the "deva loka", you reached the structural gardens where water which cools passion played a massive role. When you reached the frescoes, passion had been erased. Hence the frescoes minus bottoms. At the bottom caves, the frescoes are with legs in one or two caves. But once you go up above a line, frescoes have no legs. Mr. Sandrasagara suggested that suppression of Mahayana was the cause for today's violence." You have to have the profane, you have to have the sacred. A well-matched nation does not fight." Lawyer Paul Ratnayaka pleaded in mitigation and suggested that the two extreme positions could be resolved if we accept that Sigiriya had been a monastery which was later occupied by Kassayapa rather than alleging that the Mahawamsa version had been spun out of nothing. But this was shot down by Dr. de Silva claiming that his view was based on sound scientific evidence. This writer expressed concern over the possible damage to the tourist industry by touting the 'Icon of Tourism' in different ways at different times. Raja held that the truth must prevail. The lively discussion was carried on at and after dinner under the Eighth Wonder - Sigiriya. Ranil (this writer's son) butted in that according to cricket commentator Tony Greig 'Little Kalu' is the eighth wonder! That was long hours after Dilshan, Nadika and Shaun had whisked us away from foul in Colombo to fair weather in Sigiriya to sample all that was on offer co-ordinated by Amila at the pleasure of Serendib Leisure managed by Telson Fernando at Hotel Sigiriya. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
'Sigiri' Raja is not to be mistaken for a pachyderm on heavy duty in a
monastery dedicated to Goddess Tara. He is our own Archaeological
Commissioner Dr. Raja de Silva, now retired, as all those over the hill
are required to do. Raja has at long last got together 150 pages of glossy
paper and fed into them a mass of verbals and a few visuals, bound hard to
boot! propounding his turnaround view of Sigiriya - that it was a Mahayana
monastery and not the abode of God King Kassayapa.
