No. 63 —1910] 
ANNUAL REPORT. 
51 
cleared without damaging either the frescoes on these screen walls , 
or what remains of the colossal statue of Buddha {hiti-pilima) 
which stands erect against the back wall. This immense figure, 
formed of brick heavily plastered, is headless and had lost its 
right leg below the knee.* 
The frescoes are full of interest. They depict legendary episodes 
from the life of Gautama Buddha. The main piece on the south 
wall shows the " Tathagata," stiffly posed in a boat with two 
rowers, who are admirably represented. Though not so well 
preserved as the paintings in the " pockets " at Sigiri-gala, those 
found on the walls of " Demala Maha Seya " yield nothing to the 
latter in variety and spirited execution. Many of the figures are 
larger than life-size. 
The extreme fiimsiness of the screen walls (clay conglomerate 
packing, plaster coated) on which the frescoes are painted threatens 
their rapid disintegration, if not entire destruction. Every effort 
has, therefore, been made to preserve them for at least some 
time, in order to secure, before it is too late, copies in oil as far as 
the worn paintings can be reproduced. 
A jungle stick roof, thatched with cadjans, has been thrown 
across the shrine to shelter it from the north-east monsoon rains. 
The Buddha has also been specially protected by temporarily 
trussing the figure in a stick " crate " with ramba grass. But the 
image is tottering to its fall, and may not survive long. 
Circular Ruin. 
About a hundred yards south of " Demala Maha Seya " is a 
brick ruin, with remains of circular wall. The excavation of this 
structure (presumed to be a " Wata-da-ge " hitherto) has yielded 
no satisfactory identification at present. 
It has proved to be pillarless, and the walls did not apparently 
enshrine a dagaba, as at the well-known " Wata-da-ge " near 
" Thuparama" Vihare. The diameter within the wall is about 
58 ft. 
Vihare. 
Between the " Pabulu Vehera " (Dagaba) and the little Hindu 
temple of granite sacred to Siva (Devale No. 2) a mound with 
crude masses of brickwork was next tried. 
Excavation has shown it to be an oblong Vihare, with vestibule 
once stoutly columned, and a shrine heavily walled in brick and 
mortar so as to bear up a vaulted roof. One or two broken 
images were exhumed here. The floor is laid in lime concrete 
coloured in a pattern of blue and red framing. 
" Pabulu Vehera.'" 
This is the present-day name of the third in size of the completed 
Dagabas of Pojonnaruwa. It lies some distance south of the 
two larger Thupas and within the City wall. 
* The leg was roughly renewed to save, if possible, further dismem- 
berment, or not improbably total fall, of the figure, 
E 2 
