How Sigiri frescoes inspired Muse

by Amal HEWAVISSENTI

The rock of lion which proudly crouches over the bluish green canopy of jungle stretching to the far horizon is by far a creation unparalleled, of both nature and man. With its unmatched watergardens, rock garden, palace and other architectural marvels atop, the Sigiriya rock commands a spectacular view of the undisturbed jungle spotted with lakes and ruins on the North Central plains of Sri Lanka.

This rock citadel which had once been a safe haven for King Kashyapa in disguise is really a freak of nature with a perpetual attraction. A visitor while climbing rather perilously up the rock, catches sight of a mirror wall and a cave that houses some of the superb frescoes of half naked, beautiful young ladies painted by contemporary Sri Lankan artists during 5th century AC.

Not even King Kashyapa might have had the slightest sureness that these frescoes would inspire the poetic instincts of visitors from all corners of the country who were responsible for the immortal poetic lines in the form of graffiti on the mirror wall. Most probably those visitors baffled by the devastatingly charming ladies on the walls of the cave, "lived" with them mentally for a few seconds and left the mirror wall with poetic lines or rather songs with broad appeal. In short, they made the paintings 'reflect' on the mirror wall by writing verses about the beauty of the ladies together with a flash of personal ideas.

The full credit of reading and interpreting the graffiti, written in old Sinhala language goes to Prof. Senarat Paranawithana who identified 685 verses altogether and defined the mutual relationship between the mirror wall and the frescoes. The visitor poets lovingly addressed the ladies as 'ranwanun' (gold coloured ladies), 'mahanelvanun' (ladies with the skin colour of blue water lily) 'himabiyan' etc. The ladies are pictured to be somewhere in their twenties. Some ladies are in gold colour while the others are in dark colour and according to Senarat Paranawithana, the gold ladies and dark ladies symbolise lightning and clouds respectively.

But whatever the symbolism the paintings might convey, the visitors are absolutely kept spellbound by the glances postures and the alluring beauty of the ladies. During 8th, 9th and 10th centuries visitors who came to Sigiriya were highly impressed with the frescoes of the beautiful ladies, the palace atop and the irresistibly magnetic natural surroundings. Highly imbued with the beauty of Sigiri, they composed poetic outbursts on the mirror wall. The graffiti on the mirror wall show the nature of the contemporary Sinhala language and they reflect the poetic imagination of non-literary folks who were full to the brim with joy at seeing the beauty of the ladies and produced immortal lines after a few seconds' thoughtful pause. Unluckily much of their poetry has gone into ruination and only a few hundred songs have survived to bespeak the intuition, the Sri Lankan poets had been blessed with.

Athin mal gath kalu me duta pawehi sira wey

Sihimiyan thaman duta nowanney sihi thama hata

"When I see the lady with flowers in hand, I am unable to move forward. (I am stuck on the rock). I am so impressed with the lady that I am even heedless of the lord of lion, if he comes before me."

The lion is symbolic of the power of danger while the lady is symbolic of natural charm.

The figure of lion that frightens everybody is in the rock itself and the beauty of ladies is straight before him on the wall but the speaker is so much absorbed in the lady's beauty that he does not see the danger of the lion. Here the poet draws a dramatic contrast between charm and the power of danger which is made less important by the charm of the ladies.

Me Palada warada leda ma nogath kee wadan tha

Athin gilihuna malgath melen warala mudath himi.

"Though this is generally known as wrongful you did not quite understand what I wanted to say. You have taken flowers that have dropped (on the ground) when your husband died."

What an interesting statement this sounds! It is virtually against the moral tradition for a bereaved lady to have flowers in hand when her husband is dead. But it is the poet who has taken everything amiss. Finally the truth is brought home to him that when she tore her flower decorated hair on learning that her husband (King Kashyapa) died, the flowers on her head fell on the ground. It is thus a fallen flower that she is holding in her hand. Usually we see a woman holding a flower in her hand which implies the fact that she is expecting her lover or husband. This exactly is how the poet saw the gold skinned ladies with flowers.

Thopa nuyuna mini witni wemhen pehe disey

no kele thaman the mam ein danimi thopa sura bawa.

"The soothing light of a jewelled lamp is seen in your eyes. It is not something you did purposely, but (by the light in your eyes) I knew that you are mymphs."

The poet is signally impressed by the bewitching eyes of the ladies depicted on the wall. This is a powerful example of the inventive creativity of the Sri Lankan poet who expressed simple poetic concepts in an absolutely novel framework. But it must be remembered that they were by no means pedantic and they touched nothing of higher literary works to compose poetry but were simple men with simple ideas nurtured by folklore.

Balay sita tha mun dakuth mekee sitha thada

mehi tha a thama dee mana thamahata me sow dee gatha.

"You (poet's friend) said that their mind is insensitive and cruel just when you saw them. You having come here, gave them your mind and received sorrow in return." The writer has presumably gone to the Sigiri rock accompanied by a friend of his who has fallen in love with the nymphs on the wall and has fallen under depression that they are unresponsive to his pleadings of love.

On seeing the love lorn and heavily distraught friend, the writer says that his friend has sacrificed all his love to the insensitive ladies, and has got nothing more than sheer grief as a reward because the ladies show no tendency to be reciprocal of love.

Endi sasa lapa se sukiduhu sad madale

Pawathuwa dahasak ek dawasak se menehi ma

"Just like the image of the hare that God Sakra drew on the moon, please live in my mind for thousand years like one day." This song is a classic reference to the mythical belief in the Buddhist literature that God Sakra drew the image of hare on the moon to last forever. The poet implores the lady to live perennially in his mind and enthral him with the memory throughout his lifespan. He knows that he is unable to have her in real world so he adopts self satisfaction of having her in his memory. Sigiri poets not only represent varied social classes but are also distinguished from one another in their level of concepts, taste, emotions and scholarship. Subject matter too varies in their poetry apart from that of the beauty of the ladies around whom the majority of songs have centered.

"Seneheththi elmen hedi no hoy werejed beloo

belmen nowan thama wetha kow, hendu, ahas hi a koho

"Don't be displeased with me for looking so lovingly at her (your wife). I thought she made a call of love. But it was a cuckoo who made a call in the sky."

The poet has come to Sigiriya with a friend of his and the friend's wife to whom the poet is irresistibly attracted because of the sweetness of her voice.

While they are on the way, the poet happens to hear a sweet call of a cuckoo just overhead and happily mistakes it for a supposed loving call by the friend's wife.

So the poet romantically casts a glance at her in response and immediately realises that the sweet voice was not hers but that of a cuckoo.

He begs pardon from his friend for looking "so wrongly" at his wife and acknowledges the sweet call to be that of a cuckoo.

The poet ironically says that the friend's wife had a very sweet voice. This is only one of the many blithe experiences the poets were voicing on the mirror wall and some other ideas embodied in the songs evoke humour and happiness.

Banawath meno bana yu wee anna hai giriyak

Karay sas giya raja ekal me ranwanun ranwan

"Having strongly advised not to speak to, anybody, though spoken to the King went away. Then the gold coloured ladies came to the wilderness rock." Here the poet implies that the king (Kashyapa) died after giving an order to the ladies, not to speak to anybody in the palace after his death. However, it was highly impossible for the ladies to remain speechless in a heavily frequented palace and populated town. As the final resort, they came to the rock and stuck themselves on the walls maintaining total silence. It is obvious that these poets had a surprising poetic technology of conveying a complex, but beautiful idea through fairly simple language still unspoilt by influence of scholarly works of art. These graffiti mirror the simple folk poet with high level of intuitive calibre, no matter what social class he represented or what level of education he had chalked up.

Thana ranmali wena athini gath ho ranwan li

nirindu melen ekal nome benei anna hai ya wath

"She with her breasts decorated with a gold necklace and having a 'Weenawa' (violin) in her hand, is a gold coloured lady., Because the King, her husband died, now she does not speak with anybody." Most of the graffiti deal with the apparent melancholy in the eyes of the ladies supposedly owing to the death of their beloved husband and it is this melancholic look that made the poets to compose brilliant lines of poetry, in different viewpoints. Some songs reflect highly philosophical ideas which prove that there had been some sober poets who were not carried away by pure sensationalism.

Sasara kathara bawa minis piya nosulaba bawa

nokisi wee jannawun etha esathu nowana nesennata

"Let he who does not realise that the circle of birth is like a desert and humanity is rare, not get close to them and get destroyed." Thus the poet philosophically signifies that when a weak minded person happens to see the beautiful ladies on the wall, he definitely gets highly taken up with the beauty of them and thereby prolongs his circle of birth. He adds that such people perpetually suffer because they are unable to get for themselves, what they crave for (ladies) and reach a gradual destruction in the long run. They should not look at the painted ladies or develop any penchant for them as it would only bring in sorrow or disappointment that, in turn brings about total destruction in them. The poet reprimands firmly and advises the feeble minded people that attaining humanity is an uphill struggle and spiritual salvation in the end is the most important thing.

The Sigiri poetry has a wide thematic variety. Not all the poetic lines have centered around the figures of the ladies but some songs deal with philosophy of life the success of the painter release of personal admiration for scenic beauty and hilarious dialogues with friends whom the poets have accompanied. A poet has written a puzzle in the form of a song and has resolved it in the second song which give out a broader philosophy of life in which he compares the admirers of the ladies to animals lethally trapped in the flattering smiles and glances of hunters (ladies). He further says that the charm of the ladies is effectively symbolised by the flowers they hold, that is, their charm is as transient as the flower which loses its vitality and life in the evening itself. Another poet levels his bitter sarcasm on the supposed 'avarice' of the king for the group of ladies. His song says that it is absolutely unfair to keep excess of anything with one person without sharing it with anybody. The King felt jealous of others' pleasure and kept all the ladies with himself. But what happened? According to the poet the King had to depart from the world leaving the ladies bereft of speech on Sigiri walls and it is poetic justice. All the same, in spite of all discriminations and disparities, we see, for the first time, princes, merchants, farmers, monks, soldiers and other officials on the same social level expressing their undisguised appreciation of Sigiriya through superb poetry.