118 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XV. 



garments— a " strange conceit " which artworks of ancient India amply 

 illustrate. 



The Ajanta paintings abound in female forms apparently 



" clothed on with chastity " alone, but each in reality, like 



old Chaucer's Venus, " kovered wel " : — 



R-yght with a subtil keverchefe of Valence ; 

 There was no thicker cloth of defence. 



Every queen, princess, or court lady depicted in the 

 Sigiriya frescoes is in reality modestly clothed in a coloured 

 Jcambaya from the waist downwards, and above, in short- 

 sleeved jacket of finest material — "a wondrous work of thin 

 transparent lawn," so thin, indeed, that the painter has 

 (as with figure No. 12) occasionally contented himself by 

 indicating it only by a touch of orange colour at the neck. 



Whatever opinion be held as to scarcity of clothing, there 

 can be but one regarding the redundancy of ornament 

 affected equally by queen or serving-woman. Coronets, 

 tiaras, aigrettes crown the head ; flowers and ribbons adorn 

 the hair ; whilst ears, neck, breast, arms, and wrists are 

 loaded with a plethora of the heaviest ornaments and 

 jewelled gaucls. Some of the gold necklaces are exceedingly 

 chaste, and the emeralds and rubies worn so " rich and 

 rare" that each, if real, would be worth a king's ransom. 



The figures in " pocket " * A ' may irave no connection 

 with those of the larger cave, though both seem to represent 

 the same scene painted by two different artists ; for the 

 rendering is as commonplace in the former as in the latter 

 it is natural and spirited. 



The paintings appear to have been first outlined in with 

 red or black— perhaps by an artist different from the finisher 

 of the pictures. Be this as it may, it is certain that the second 

 worker did not slavishly follow the original outlines — indeed, 

 the altered left hand of figure No. 8 ' B ' shows that at 

 times he used his own discretion boldly .f 



* C. A. S. Journal, vol. XIV., No. 47, 1896, p. 256. 



f Mr. Murray has been misled by this ultimate departure from the 

 curves as first put in, and varied, into the assertion that to the hands " have 

 been added, in almost every case, an extra finger." 



