( 1« ) 



for horoscopic purposes ; for example, it is worn by a person born 

 under an unfavourable star, and its constant usage is supposed to 

 avert disasters. 



STONE GALLERY. 



Many remarkable remains of fallen greatness, illustrating the 

 stupendous grandeur of the ancient religious monuments of 

 Ceylon during the palmy days of militant Buddhism, are exhibited 

 in this gallery. The statues, pillars, friezes, and slabs are carved 

 out of gneiss, the country rock of Ceylon, some of them, however, 

 consisting almost entirely of crystalline limestone. 



Among the more notable pieces are the three principal archaeo- 

 logical treasures of the Colombo Museum mounted in position along 

 the centre of the room. Facing the south window at the front end 

 of the gallery is a perforated carved slab, 4 feet 8 inches high, 

 2 feet 10 inches wide, and 7 inches thick, known as the Yapahil 

 window, from Yapahu or Yapahuwa, a village in the North-Western 

 Province, about twenty miles north of Kurunegala. It consists 

 of a single block of gneiss cut into the semblance of a frame, which 

 surrounds a composite hieroglyph consisting of forty-five circles 

 in five vertical rows joined together in a moniliform pattern, each 

 circle containing an emblematic figure repeated on both sides of 

 the stone. The matrix of the slab between the carved portions 

 was removed by the artist who designed and executed this unique 

 triumph of stone tracery. In the 13th and 14th centuries there 

 was a royal palace at Yapahu, and the hall of the palace was 

 lighted by two of these tracery windows of exquisite workmanship. 

 We are told by Mr. F. H. Modder that one of these windows " was 

 perfect in 1850, but the other had fallen and its fragments were 

 scattered around. The remaining one would doubtless have soon 

 shared its fate had not Mr. O'Grady, then Government Agent of 



the North-Western Province, removed it to Kurunegala 



Thence it was transported to Colombo, and now occupies u 

 prominent place among the archuiological exhibits at the Museum." 

 The human figures in the lowest circles represent grotesque 

 manikins, above these are nautch girls, then animals, some of which 

 are provided with a trunk and appear to represent the fabulous 

 "gaja-sinha" or elephant-lion. The star-shaped radiating emblems 

 are the " dharma-chakra " symbols, the wheel or circle of the laws 

 and teaching of Buddha. The birds in the top row are the 

 " hansa " or sacred birds, usually represented by geese, sometimes 

 by conventional representations of birds.* 



* For further remarks quoted from an article by Mr. John Bailey, C.C.S., who 

 explored the ruins in 1850, see the paper by Mr. F. H. Modder on " Ancient Cities 

 and Temples in the Kurunegala District : Yapahuwa." Journ. Ceylon R. Asiat. Soc. 

 vol. XITL, 189», pp. 97-113. 



