GUIDE TO THE COLOMBO MUSEUM. 157 



Dagaba should be mentioned, and the friezes from Ruwanweli 

 Dagaba. Perhaps it would be necessary to the visitor to the Island 

 to explam what a dagaba really is — specimens of which in gold, glass, 

 bronze, crystal, and silver are found in the Museum. They are rehc 

 shrmes, and m many cases in the old capitals are gigantic masses 

 of solid brickwork built in the form of a haK-egg or a bell, and 

 crowned with a sort of spire, called a tee, Avhich symbohzes the 

 honorific umbrella . In these huge piles a secret chamber or chambers 

 were constructed wherein offerings were deposited , and in the older 

 dagabas some worshipful fragments of Buddha or one of his saints 

 were enshrined. Round these dagabas are to be found many tall 

 monohths of stone or granite beautifully carved, which in some 

 cases must have supported a roof or a building. The platforms on 

 which the dagabas rise are paved with stone slabs, and have small 

 buildmgs on the platform with beautiful ornamental stone work. 

 (See Plate V.) 



Jetawanarama, from where some stone karandwvas or rehc 

 boxes are exhibited in the Gallery, was built by Maha Sen about 

 275 A.D. — was originally 316 and is now 249 feet high— the summit 

 being 600 feet above sea level. The diameter is 360 feet, and Sir 

 Emerson Temient estimated the contents of the whole at twenty 

 milhons of cubic feet. He says : — 



" Even with the facilities which modern invention suppUes for 

 economizing labour, the building of such a mass would at present 

 occupy 500 bricklayers from six to seven years, and would involve 

 an expenditure of at least a million sterling. The materials are 

 sufficient to raise 8,000 houses each with 20 feet frontage, and these 

 would form thirty streets, half a mile in length. They would con- 

 struct a town the size of Ipswich or Coventry ; they would line an 

 ordinary railway tmmel 20 miles long, or form a wall 1 foot thick 

 and 10 feet high reaching from London to Edinburgh." 



There are several exhibits from Mihmtale. The different incarna- 

 tions of Kali, such as the Durga, Maha Mari, and Kaw Mari, come 

 from Mihintale. Eight miles from Anuradhapura the sacred moun- 

 tain of Mihmtale rises from the plain ; it "' is undoubtedly the most 

 ancient scene of mountam worship in Ceylon." (See Plate V.) 



The specimens in the Stone Gallery are sufficient in themselves to 

 convey to the mmd the fallen greatness of the Sinhalese, but taken 

 together with the ancient ruined cities and their marvellous buildings 

 the stupendous grandeur of the ancient capitals, during the palmy 

 days of mihtant Buddhism, can well be understood. 



WEST VERANDAH (Room A). 



Opening out of the Stone Gallery on the extreme western side is 

 the West Verandah, in which a number of inscribed stones will be 

 found. The work of collectmg and coUatmg the numerous ancient 

 inscriptions scattered over the Island was properly organized durmg 

 the Governorship of Sir Wilham Gregory, when Dr. P. Goldschmidt 

 was appointed Archaeological Commissioner to the Government of 

 Ceylon in 1874. His reports were published as Sessional Papers 

 from 1875 until his death in 1877. Dr. Goldschmidt was followed 

 by Dr. Edward Miiller, who compiled a valuable manual on "Ancient 

 Inscriptions in Ceylon" (London, 1883), illustrated by a separate 

 quarto book of plates, Dr, Miiller left Ceylon in 1881, and was 



