72 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIX, 



SOME SURVIVALS IN SINHALESE" ART, 



By Ananda K. Coomaeaswamy, D.Sc 



I began the study of Kandyan arts and crafts and the 

 kind of life that lay behind them, having a little knowledge 

 of the art and life of mediaeval England, but not much 

 of early Indian life and art. I found that life in the 

 Kandyan Districts a hundred years ago resembled in many 

 ways the life of mediaeval Europe, and one may gather 

 from what remains of the social organization of that time 

 a more vivid realisation of mediaeval England than years 

 of study in England alone would give. Thus, the village 

 communities were still to the fore a hundred years ago, largely 

 democratic and communistic in principle ; in other respects, too, 

 the Nindagama reminds one of an English Manor, the Gama- 

 rdla corresponding to the Bailiff, and the Vel-viddna or village 

 headmen to the English Praepositus. Moreover, there was no 

 class of free agricultural labourers working for hire ; all land 

 not owned outright was held on a service tenure. Although 

 there was no approach to political equality, the security of 

 tenure and general stability of social relations were very mark- 

 ed ; the caste system upheld the former, for men of high caste 

 could not and would not own or receive lands to which a low 

 caste man's service was attached ; and it produced the latter 

 by removing the possibility of social ambition. The vast 

 majority of people cultivated the soil with their own hands ; that 



* I use this term in preference to Kandyan, in order to avoid 

 making unnecessary and misleading distinctions between different 

 sections of the Sinhalese people ; nevertheless most of my remarks 

 apply only to the Kandyan districts, where alone Sinhalese art has 

 been preserved in any quantity. 



