How the Kandyan painter took a turn for the better

by Amal HEWAVISSENTI

The rock ceiling of a rock temple, an interior wall of a "Pilima ge" or a wall of a building was simply enough for the Sinhala "Siththara" to create an epic gallery of paintings which rendered thematically religious with no tendency whatsoever to be secular. Culturally inspired religious outlook definitely made him pour forth his imagination with the brush and colours on the rock walls and to symbolically represent what conceptually turned out to be good or evil. To bring out the best in him and to spawn the masterpiece of the era, the traditional Sinhala painter lived in an exotic world of fantasies haunted by mythical creatures and fabulous shapes or decoration. In this way, the typical Sinhala elite regarded him an absolute sine qua non to convey, otherwise complex religious concepts to common people in a very effective and captivating way. Paintings which thus depicted religious or secular themes happened to be part and parcel of everyday life.

The first paintings

A mural by a Kandyan painter.

Ancient Sri Lankan literature bears scattered allusions to exquisite paintings that had been drawn in some particular places as prime source of entertainment and an emphatic reminder of moral values. Historical chronicles like Maha Vansha, Pali texts, and records of Fa Hien speak of the splendour of paintings depicting important stages of Buddha's life on rock ceilings and Dhathu Gharbas (relic chamber). The earliest visible evidence of ancient Sri Lankan frescoes is the fragmentary painting on Karambagala cavern that represents the concept of Bodhisathwa and dates as far back as to second century B.C. Next, we have perfect preservations of Sigiri frescoes which are highly suggestive of Ajantha genre of India and signifies the masterly skill of the Sinhala artist in free hand drawing and synergy of colouring. Then influence of Ajantha style of painting in India is clearly implicit in the extand fragments of frescoes of Hindagala, Mahiyangana and Mihinthale, with a wide spectrum of themes ranging from the concept of Bodhisathwa to enlightenment of Buddha.

These priceless murals belong to the Anuradhapura period (7th century). The Dimbulagala paintings show the scenes of "Sasa" Jathaka and Devadaththa holding an elephant with one hand and killing it with the other hand to show his strength in defiance of Prince Siddhartha. The 12th century paintings at Thivanka Pilimage of Polonnaruwa undoubtedly betray the naturalness of spirit and techniques and are placed second only to those of Sigiri rock.

Great revival of art

Apart from the conventional religious themes, the Kandyan painter employed secular themes such as the famous battle between Rama and Ravana, striking events from the Indian epic, "Maha Bharatha", the battles between Iswara and Asuras etc. as revealed by contemporary Sinhala literature. During the Kandyan period, the South Indian influence is seen reshaping the painting style and the art of mass composition in which a large picture was comprised a number of smaller pictures in a montage of movement that clearly marked the development of the story. King Keerthi Sri Raja Sinha and Rajadhi Raja Sinha were highly responsible for restoring and building temples replete with priceless masterpieces and it earned them the label of "great sponsors of art". Their Tamil blood was answerable to the South Indian genre of painting gradually invading the local style of painting (adopted from Ajantha style).

The Kandyan Siththara assigned a prominent place to the most important figure or incident of the story and arranged the less important events round it to create animation and rhythmic movement of the story. This movement of the story was successfully indicated by the figures depicted in profile. It is dramatic to note that only the figure of Buddha, kings and gods were portrayed in front view on account that they were the centre of the picture and that they possessed the outstanding position in a particular narrative painting. Contrary to popular convention, the new style made the painter to employ a natural screen such as a tree or a river to separate one picture from another in the long mural. Jathaka stories are presented in elongated panels of unbroken narration with same figures or characters used repeatedly in new situations to display the forward movement of the story. In dramatic contrast to Ajantha Paintings in which the progress of the story is shown within one picture itself, here the observer has to move forward to note the development of the story.

The best art gallery of Kandyan era, the temple of Degaldoruwa houses some of the superb murals created by a Samanera, Devaragampola Silvattenne Unnanse.

Some of these murals are based on Suthasoma Jathaka, Vessanthara Jathaka and Mahaseelawa Jathaka while other paintings display social customs moral values and contemporary social conditions. The famous village scene at the well and the donating of the sacred elephant in the "Vessanthara Jathaka" are really striking examples of Kandyan style of paintings. In Suthasoma Jathaka the artist very successfully portrays the scene of Ambalama, the king's kitchen and "Paya Ula Anunu waga" with special effects. However, these paintings have a magnetic charm and are profusely marked with decorative effects. Yet the colouring by the artist is totally flat with no attempt whatever to use shading. The artist has employed the technique of swimming fish to indicate the direction to which a river flows and the story advances.

Elements of decoration

Along with picturesque scenes from Ummagga, Vidhura, Guththila or Vessanthara Jathakas, the Kandyan "Siththara" employed some strikingly unusual decorations of imaginary objects and creatures. Here the Sinhala painter gave prominent place to conceptual idealism and symbolism rather than being fastidious about shading, shadow, light and consistency of colouring. What he wanted was to narrate a classic tale illustrative of moral values by means of captivating pictorial representations. The human figure and animals were non realistic in his art and that added an idealistic and individualistic dimension to his paintings. For example, in the figure of the Buddha, the neck and shoulders were portrayed to be massive while waist was comparatively very slim and the hands were fully rounded like a woman's.

To add an embellishing effect to his paintings, the artist used imaginary figures. For example, "Makara", - a combination of multiple animals and birds, "Kindura" - a half man half fish and Narilatha wela - in which the flower is a woman surrounded by artistic leaves and flowerbuds, are among the unique products by the Sinhala painter. The lotus designs in multiple versions, Kadupul mala, and other imaginary flowers were well used by the painter to add decorative effect to the narrative paintings. The extant murals at Mulgirigala, Lankathilaka, Dodanthale, and Dambulla temples illustrate the intuitive calibre of the Kandyan painter who broke the common rules of realism to impress the nature of sin and its destructive repercussions.

Colour in use

His paintings were well marked with visible outline in black and there is ample proof that he highly preferred different shades of yellow and red. He used brilliant colours to immediately impress the paintings in a dark interior on the viewer who was able to catch the figures in black out line even in half darkness. Though the Kandyan painter was left with totally limited choice of colours his inventiveness was more powerful to make his painting spectacular.