NO. 48.— 1897.] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY, SIGIRIYA. 



113 



the hurdle had to be further held up by a central hawser 

 and side ropes, hauled taut round trees on the summit of 

 the Rock nearly 300 ft. up. When finished, this improvised 

 platform stood out from the cliff 15 ft. horizontally.* 



Other " pockets " there are " scooped within the living 

 stone," further north along the western face of the Rock 

 and higher up still. The larger of these were also plaster- 

 coated and painted ; but the colouring has disappeared 

 almost entirely, and it is doubtful whether the caves them- 

 selves can now be reached in any way.| 



It is reasonable to conclude, from their being found in so inacces- 

 sible a spot, that the frescoes are merely the last remnants of a large 

 number of similar paintings which covered the bare and perpendicular 

 rock immediately above the terrace [gallery]. It is unlikely that the 

 only frescoes should have been painted where they can be so hardly 

 and so little seen ; but they are found in almost the only part of the 

 precipice protected partially from sun and rain, so that the destruction 

 of any others that may have existed was inevitable."^ 



To pass to the frescoes themselves. 



In an " Interim Report " such as this, it is not possible 

 to do full justice to these unique paintings. They demand 

 special treatment in detail, and that I hope to give later. 



Here I must limit myself to a rapid general description, 

 drawing attention merely to certain broad features which 

 un through the frescoes as a group. 



It is usual — and convenient — to style the Sigiriya paintings 

 "frescoes." But in reality — like their coeval and even 

 more remarkable congeners at Ajanta — they have no claim 

 to be thus honoured. Says Mr. Griffiths, when reporting to 

 the Indian Government on the Ajanta paintings : — 



They are not " frescoes " in the true acceptation of the term: nor do 

 they appear to correspond to the Italian fresco secco (where the entire 

 surface of the wall was first prepared for painting on and then 

 thoroughly saturated with lime water before the painting was com- 

 menced), as the groundwork upon which the paintings were executed 

 would hardly admit of this treatment. § 



* Photographs C. 778-82. f See Plate {ante), " Sigiri-gala, West face." 

 % Rhys Davids, in Journal, R. A. S., vol. VII., Part. X., 1875, p. 193. 

 § Ind. Ant., vol II., 1873, p. 153. 



