The Ladies of Sigariya

Goddesses or ladies of King Kassapa's court (or perhaps members of his harem)?

What does it matter?

The the frescoes of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka are so spectacular that whether the subjects were mere mortals or divine, is really immaterial!

There is ofcourse considerable controversy about why those frescoes were created and who the beautiful ladies depicted in them might be.

There are three primary claims.

(a) These frescoes are portraits of ladies from the court or harem of King Kassapa I, who built his palace and capital city on the Sigiriya rock

(b) The frescoes are pictures of apsaras or demi-goddesses Mega-Latha and Viju-Kumari - personifications of clouds and lightening respectively. And they were painted to project King Kassapa himself as a divine being (thus commanding the services of Apsaras and demi-goddesses!)

and

(c) Sigiriya was in fact a Buddhist monastery and not King Kassapa's seat of power at all. The pictures are therefore depicting the Goddess Tara (an important deity in Buddhism) being worshiped in her various forms, moods and postures.

This is perhaps the oldest (5th Century AD) surviving example (reminiscent of the style of paintings in the Ajanta caves) of colors prepared as an oil emulsion, being used for the paintings. Prior to painting the frescoes the surface of the monolithic rock was prepared by applying multiple layers of paddy-husk, clay and lime to make is smooth as a mirror. The techniques used to prepare the surface and the mineral colors, have certainly proved to be very effective, since the paintings which survived the ravages of time and man, still retain their vibrancy and vividity of color after 1600 years.

Without actually visiting Sigiriya, it is difficult to appreciate how hazardous it must have been to do all this on the sheer wall of the Sigiriya rock. The photo below will perhaps give some idea. If you zoom in you will see on the right side of the rock face, a bit of scaffolding and a few people. That is where the paintings are.

But Sigiriya is not just an "art gallery".

Firstly, it itself is a marvel of nature, a huge rock with sheer, vertical walls abruptly rising almost a thousand feet from the surrounding dense forest!

Secondly, according to the most accepted account, it has a bloody, sinister past. King Kassapa who is supposed to have built this as the capital city of his kingdom, was not originally destined to ascend to the throne. Kassapa was the son of a lesser queen (according to some not even a queen but a concubine). His half brother Moggallana the son of King Dhatusena's senior queen was the rightful heir. However Kassapa had his father murdered and usurped the throne and Moggallana, fearful of his life fled to India. Here Kassapa was also afraid that Moggallana may gather an army and come back to take revenge. So concluding that the then capital of his kingdom Anuradhapura, was too difficult to defend against an invading army, he decided to build his capital on top of the unassailable sheer rock of Sigariya.

The ruins of the city he built are a testimony today to the grandeur, artistry and engineering prowess of 5th century Sri Lanka. The garden surrounding the rock of Sigiriya can be seen in its full majesty only from the top of the rock and will rival in its conception, scale and beauty that once was, the most famous gardens, in the richest kingdoms of historical times anywhere in the world.

There is however another theory that Sigariya was not in fact the political capital but a pleasure palace built by Kassapa who is described as a playboy in these stories. Still others claim that in fact Sigiriya was a Buddhist monastery - which is partly true but that may have happned AFTER King Kassapa's death and not before. Because the ousted brother Moggallana eventually returned with an army, and in the ensuing battle, Kassapa was killed (again multiple stories about the nature of his death including suicide, poisoning, killed in battle etc) and Moggallana moved the capital back to Anuradhapura and handed over Sigiriya to the Buddhist monks.

However, colorful as this history is the art on display on the rock face of Sigiriya and in the ruins of the city, is today far more enchanting.

Jan 2015