Sigiriya Frescoes

Sigiriya Frescoes at Sigiriya Lion Rock Citadel (an UNESCO World heritage Site) in Sri Lanka
The earliest examples of Sinhalese paintings in a good state of preservation surviving in Ceylon today are the world famous frescoes  at the rock fortress of Sigiriya (fifth century A.C.). These twenty one three-quarter length figures of women bearing a close affinity, if not a resemblance, to the frescoes at Ajanta display a full knowledge of a human form and a sureness of line associated with a Master. There is a lyrical quality of rhythm and a subtle sense of refinement about these sensuous ladies whose portraits are perhaps the only example of art for art's sake we have in the past.

In "Wall Paintings of India, Central Asia & Ceylon" Benjamin Rowland Jr. comments on  Sigiriya Frescoes  as follows:-
"We have the immense advantage here of dealing with works of art that, thanks largely to their ainaccessible position, are almost perfect preservations. We are struck at once by the robust strength of both drawing and color. That the drawing was absolutely free-hand becomes apparent when we note the many corrections,changes not only in the contours but complete alterations of the positions of the hands in certain figures. the draughtsmanship lacks perhaps the delicacy of Ajanta and Bagh-certain strength that is lacking in the more refined works on the Continent.
"The swelling nubile breast, the tiny waist hardly greater in girth than the neck-the shaply taperes arms and exquisitely flower like hand-these are all elements of the cannon that determined the types of physical beauty in the cave shrines of India. Here these charms are even more provocative through exaggertion. The resemblance of these ladies at Sigiriya to the maidens in the sculpture of Amaravati is interesting for it was from this region, the territory of the Kistna River on the east coast of India, that Ceylon derived the sculpture style popular at this period.it is an interesting speculation at least the Sigiriya Frescoes reflect a now-completely lost school of painting under the Andhra Dynasty. Just as drawing is more vigorous than that of the more sophisticated artists of India, so the colors are bolder and more intense than the tonalities employed in the temples of the Deccan. if these artistic features are specifically Sinhalese so even more evidently are the types, these girls with heavy-lidded eyes with their sharp rather aquiline noses and full red lips can be recognised as typical of Ceylon today. A small nut by no means minor stylistic feature of the Sigiriya Frescoes  is the method of the drawing noses. there are two distinct types of noses: in one, the nose is represented in profile although the face may be in three quarter view with the farther nostril clearly visible."

Bell [1] has described the Sigiriya Frescoes thus:
 'Grouping in pairs is chiefly favoured throughout: usually a queen, or princess, attended by a lady-in-waiting of the same or kindred blood or by a dark skinned damsel of alien race. The latter are given an oilve green complexion a badge of servitude which clearly marks them off from the high-born dames, their mistress, whether pale yellow blondes or orange-hued brunettes-all three colores types reproduced frequently at Ajanta.

"Every court lady depicted in the Sigiriya Frescoes is in reality fully clothed in colored Kambahaya from the waist downwards, and above in short-sleeved jacket of the finest material so thin indeed that the painter has occasionally contended himself by indicating it by a mere line of deeper color.
"A redundancy of ornament is affected equally by green or serving-women. Coronets, tiaras,aigrettes crown the head; flowers and ribbons adorn the hair; and ears, neck, breast, arms and wrists are loaded witha plethora of the heaviest ornaments and jewelled gauds.
'The portraits are all painted in brilliant colors and with the broad 'daubiness' characteristic of scen painting, which renders them so clear, yet soft, from a distance.
"The type of face is Aryan-oval face, thick fleshy lips, but straight, almost Grecian, nose and forehead.
"The paintings are for the most part 'portraits.' Conventionalism rules the stiff disposition of arms and hands; yet each figure is imbued with divergent traits in face, form, nose and dress, which seem to stamp it as an individual likeness."

Raghvan dealing with postures of the  Sigiriya Frescoes comments:
that the heads are not held high or erect; the bodies have a decided bent forward or sideways; the eyes are cast down, with either a downward look or a side long glance. the eye lids are definitely narrowed which gives the eyes the look of being half closed.

What do the Sigiriya Frescoes represent?
There have been many theories. Bell thought they were ladies of parricide Kasyapa's court on their way to a near-by temple because they were carrying flowers and moving in one direction. Ananada Coomarswamy [2] was of the opinion that they were Apsaras because the figures were cut off at the waists byconventional clouds.
Havell mixed up both these theories  and wrote; 'the subject is a procession of royal ladies, supposed to be Kasyapa's queens with attendants  bringing floral offerings to a  shrine which seems to be located in the Thuitha heaven for the figures appear to be half immersed in the clouds the usual convention for heavenly spheres."
Martin Wickramsinghe [3] surmised they were women engaged in water sports and has identifies one of the instruments in one woman's hand as a water-throwing gadget.
Nandadeva Wjesekera [4] considered these figures Kasyapa's queens mourning for the Royal husband.
Senerat Paranvitana [5] has suggested that they are symbolic representations of clouds and lightening painted round the rock to make it resemble Mount Kailasa.
Raghvan comments:
'To interpret the past in the light of the present is the method of Ethnology. No one who has seen the Society ladies of Cinnamon Gardens with flowers and garlands proceeding for worship of the Sacred Relics during the time of their exposition at the Colombo Museum in the summer of 1947, closely followed by their maids with trays of offerings, could fail to be impressed by the parallelism which the Sigiriya representation bears to the women of the present day on their way to perform religious worship.

Above is an extraction from the book titled 'The story of  Sinhalese Paintings" authored by D. B. Dhanapala, June 1957, Sri Lanka.
Copied herein by kind courtesy of Mr. D. B. Dhanapala