No . 48.— 1897.] 



APPENDIX. 



127 



insistence of this Society, especially as regards Archaeology. If the 

 Government has acted up to its responsibility as regards Archaeology, 

 it is due to the exertions of the Ceylon Asiatic Society. 



I thank you very much for having received me so well, and for the 

 honour you have conferred on me in making me a Patron to the 

 Society. I hope I may again have the pleasure of attending your 

 Meetings, not as Patron, but as a student sitting at your feet to receive 

 instruction {cheers). 



11. The proceedings then ended, but many ladies and gentlemen 

 lingered some time to examine the copies of the frescoes painted by 

 Mr. Perera, and the plans, drawings, photographs, &c. 



APPENDIX. 



The Sigiriya Frescoes. 

 To the Editor, Ceylon Standard. 



Sir, — I had accepted the kind suggestion made by your contem 

 porary, the Ceylon Observer, and had begun collecting materials 

 for a Paper on oil-painting in general, both in ancient and modern 

 Ceylon, when my attention was drawn to the remarks of two of your 

 correspondents, and your own editorial comments on the subject. I 

 would now point out that besides the frescoes at Polonnaruwa, there 

 are to be found, at the present day, modern frescoes in nearly every 

 vihare in the Island, mostly descriptive of the incidents in the many 

 lives of Gautama Buddha. 



What I understood Mr. Bell to say was that the Sigiriya frescoes 

 were the only ones of the kind in the Island. In other words, that they 

 formed a particular style of painting of their own, just as in Europe a 

 picture of the Raphaelite school would differ in style from other 

 paintings. The only frescoes of a similar style known to me are 

 those in the Ajanta caves. These and the Sigiriya frescoes are 

 co-temporaneous in date. Hence the conclusion, first put forward by 

 me in 1895, and in which both Mr. Bell and I are agreed, that they 

 represent the work of the same hands, or at least of the same school 

 of artists. Taking this for granted, the question next arises as to 

 whether this school consisted of artists from the Deccan, or of 

 Sinhalese artists. This is the point of difference between Mr. Bell 

 and myself. 



Mr. Bell's Paper was not printed and circulated before its reading ; 

 and thus Mr. Bell's theory of u exotic " artists came as a surprise to 

 me at the recent Meeting of the Asiatic Society. Otherwise I should 

 have been in a position to deal more fully and exhaustively with his 

 theory, which, after all, is a mere surmise, for he adduces no reasons 

 in its support. 



