NOTES. 
133 
the head only is shown. The figure represents a man of grave and 
noble aspect, absorbed in thought, and apparently unconscious 
of the presence of the horse; the figures are so cut as to appear as if 
occupying the mouth of a cave or recess in the rock. 
The sculpture belongs to the finest period of Indian art, being- 
characterized by the abstraction of form, suppression of anatomical 
detail, and dignified grace which belong to the classic period of 
Indian art. It may be compared in these respects with the bronze 
figure of Avalokitesvara from Ceylon, figured by Mr. Ha veil in his 
‘ 4 Indian Sculpture and Painting ” (PI. XI.), and by myself in an 
article on “ Art and Yoga ” in ‘‘ Orpheus ” for June, 1909, and in 
the J. R. A. S. for April of the same year. The date of the stone 
sculpture, like that of the small bronze, may be about the seventh 
century A.D. The object of the present note is to suggest an 
identification of the Isurumuniya sculpture. No satisfactory 
identification has I think been proposed. 
There can, I think, be little doubt that the figure represents the 
sage Kapila. The story is given in the Balakanda of the Ramayana. 
Briefly, it runs as follows :— 
King Sagara of Ayodha had sons by his wives, one son by one 
and sixty thousand by the other. The gods were angered by their 
violent and unruly behaviour. Sagara engaged in a horse-sacrifice 
(Asva-medha). On the horse being stolen, he commanded his sixty 
thousand sons to search for it. Digging at last deep into the earth, 
they found it grazing beside the sage Kapila in Patala. Recog¬ 
nizing him to be the thief and destroyer of the sacrifice [acting as a 
matter of fact on behalf of the gods, with the object of destroying 
the sixty thousand], they rushed upon him with clubs and 
weapons, but are destroyed by his glance. 
The necessity of water for their funeral rites afterwards led to the 
calling down of Ganga from heaven, by means of the penance of 
Bhagiratha, but with this part of the story we are not now 
concerned. 
It is I think evident that the sculpture represents the sage Kapila, 
with the horse, in Patala (the nether regions of the earth). 
A. K. COOMARASWAMY. 
September 18, 1909. 
7. A Sinhalese Game .—There is a game in Ceylon identical with 
what Mr. Crooke in his “ Natives of Northern India ” (page 189) 
describes as the 44 Dom Crow ” played by the Punjabi boys. 
44 Each boy in turn,” says Mr. Crooke, 44 is abused as the 4 Dom 5 
(scavenger), and he rushes away and mounts a pile of sticks or 
cow-dung fuel cakes, shouting out 4 Raja above and Dorns below,’ 
