478 SCIEK'CES AND SOCIAL ARTS. [Part IV. 



temple lias one or more effigies, either sedent, erect, or 

 recumbent, carefully modelled in cemented clay, and 

 coloured after life. 



Architecture. — In Ceylon, as in Eg}^3t, Assyria, and 

 India, the ruins which survive to attest the character of 

 ancient architecture are exclusively sacred, with the 

 exception of occasional traces of the residences of theo- 

 cratic royalty ; but everything has perished which 

 could have afforded an idea of the dwellings and 

 domestic architecture of the people. The cause of this 

 is to be traced in the perishable nature of the sun-dried 

 clay, of which the walls of the latter were composed. 

 Added to this, in Ceylon there were the pride of rank 

 and the pretensions of the priesthood, which, whilst they 

 led to lavish expenditure of the wealth of the king- 

 dom upon palaces and monuments, and the employment 

 of stone in the erection of temples ^ and monasteries, for- 

 bade the people to construct their dwelhngs of any other 

 material than sun-baked earth. ^ This practice continued 

 to the latest period ; and nothing struck the British army 

 of occupation with more surprise on entering the city 

 of Kancly, after its capture in 1815, than to find the 

 palaces and temples alone constructed of stone, whilst 

 the streets and private houses were formed of mud and 

 thatch. 



Though stone is abundant in Ceylon, it was but 

 sparingly used in the ancient buildings. Squared 

 stones ^ were occasionally employed, but large slabs 

 seldom occur, except in the foundations of dagobas. 

 The vast quantity of material required for such struc- 

 tures, the cost of quarrying and carriage, and the want 

 of mechanical aids to raise ponderous blocks into position, 

 naturally led to the substitution of bricks for the upper 

 portion of the superstructure. 



There is evidence to show that wedges were employed 



1 Rajaratnacari, pp. 78, 79. I ^ Rqjavali, p. 210; Valenttn, Ond 



^ Rajavali, p. 222. | eti Nieuw Oost-Indien, ch, iii. p. 45. 



