58 
SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
The king called Sigiri Kasyapa rendered a lasting service to the 
chronological history of Ceylon by murdering his father in the fifth 
century a.d. ; but for this signal act of parricide Ceylon dates 
would be in a greater state of confusion than they are. This central 
fact in the history of Ceylon broadly marks an epoch separating 
the Mahawansa Period from the so-called Suluwansa Period, which 
terminated in the year 1815 a.d. 
It would appear that the antiquity of the bronzes is not very 
great, and that we have no examples belonging to the Mahawansa 
Period. Consequently it may be assumed that all the ancient 
bronzes of Ceylon belong to the period known in Europe as the 
Middle Ages. In his “ Report on Archaeological Discoveries at 
Tissamaharama ” in the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal 
Asiatic Society, Vol. VIII., 1883-1884, Mr. Henry Parker, who 
estimated the date of the remains at about 100 b.c., noted that 
“ working in copper had arrived at considerable perfection,” but he 
discovered no bronzes. 
Professor Albert Griinwedel (“ Buddhist Art in India,” translated 
by A. C. Gibson, revised and enlarged by James Burgess, C.I.E., 
London, Quaritch, 1901), states that “ Indian Art is the most modern 
of all Oriental artistic efforts. No important monument goes 
further back than the third century b.c.”* Until the Middle Ages 
“ the sculptures are executed in stone, and frequently on a large 
scale, but gradually the Buddhist sculpture becomes a miniature 
manufacture in different materials—wood and clay in place of stone, 
and later, in metal casts—carried on as a trade.” 
Sigiriya Bronzes. 
The Sigiriya bronzes appear to be the earliest that have been 
discovered in Ceylon, and they are few in number and of miniature 
proportions. The following contains the descriptions of those sent 
to the Museum in 1906, the numbers prefixed to the names of the 
objects being those which have been painted upon them. When 
we consider the magnitude of the stone work at Sigiriya, and 
remember also the celebrated Sigiriya frescoes or rock-paintings, 
the insignificance of the bronzes is particularly noticeable. 
The occupation of Sigiriya by King Kasyapa happened during 
the years 479-497 a.d. References to literature dealing with this 
romantic history are given in Mr. H. C. P. Bell’s Annual Report for 
* Marco Polo, the Venetian, who touched at Ceylon near the end of the 
thirteenth century, refers to the Saracen belief that Adam’s Peak is “ the 
sepulchre of Adam, our first parent ; but the idolaters say that it is the 
sepulchre of [Gautama Buddha], before whose time there were no idols. They 
hold him to have been the best of men, a great saint in fact, according to their 
fashion, and the first in whose name idols were made.” (The Book of Ser 
Marco Polo, the Venetian, translated and edited by Col. Henry Yule, 1871.) 
