NO. 46.— 1895.] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY, SIGIRIYA. 55 



year,* Mr. D. A. L. Perera, First Draughtsman, Archaeo- 

 logical Survey, has made drawings to scale of — 



(a) "Gallery" (plan). 



(b) " Audience Hall Rock " (plan and sections). 



(c) " Cistern Rock " (plan and sections). 



(d) Cave below (b) (plan and sections). 



(e) Cave below (c) (plan and sections). 



(/) " Preaching Hall Rock " (plan and sections). 

 (g) Gal-dsanaya on the summit of the Great Rockf 

 (plan and sections). 



57. Mr. Perera was prepared with all requisite materials 

 for copying in oils the fresco portraits^ in the small caves or 

 " pockets " situated nearly 50 ft. above the " gallery " floor 

 and some 160 ft. from the ground. The brow of these caves 

 projects, so that a plumb line from it falls only just within 

 the " gallery " wall. 



58. In 1889, Mr. A. Murray, of the Public Works Depart- 

 ment, by the aid of a trestle and rope ladder, gained access 

 to the larger "pocket" and made facsimile tracings and 

 drawings of the figures (portraits of queens). These were 

 done in crayons, and are now hung above the staircase in 

 the Colombo Museum. 



59. I have always held the view that, most admirable as 

 are these drawings in themselves, they do not exhibit fully, 

 first, the vividness, and secondly, the actual coarseness of the 

 original colouring. A risky scramble into the " pocket " up 

 a make-shift ladder of jungle-sticks lashed to jumpers,§ and 

 hugging the concave face of the overhanging rock, confirmed 

 this opinion. The portraits are painted in brilliant colours, 

 and with that coarse " dabbiness " characteristic of scene- 

 painting, which renders them so clear, yet soft, from a 

 distance. 



* Plan (B). This, the first survey made of the summit of Sigiri-gala, 

 does both officers much credit. 



f Mr. Perera also made a painting in oils of Sigiri-gala from the fields on 

 the south-west. [Since shown at the " Ceylon Art Exhibition " of 1895.] 



t Album, C 182, 183, 457. 



§ Album, C 451, 452. I had this unsafe ladder removed before quitting 

 Sigiriya, to prevent unnecessary risk to life, and chance of vandalism. 



