Part 84 (1/2)

cotton was the ordinary material, but ”linen cloth” is mentioned in the second century before Christ.[2] White cloths are spoken of as having been employed, in the earliest times, in every ceremony for covering chairs on which persons of rank were expected to be seated; whole ”webs of cloth” were used to wrap the _carandua_ in which the sacred relics were enclosed[3], and one of the kings, on the occasion of consecrating a dagoba at Mihintala, covered with ”white cloth” the road taken by the procession between the mountain and capital, a distance of more than seven miles.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p.48; _Rajavali_, p.173.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch, xxv. p.152.]

[Footnote 3: _Rajaratnacari_, p.72.]

[Footnote 4: A.D. 8. _Rajavali,_ p. 227; _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xiv. p.

213.]

In later times a curious practice prevailed, which exists to the present day;--on occasions when it is intended to make offerings of yellow robes to the priesthood, the cotton was plucked from the tree at daybreak, and ”cleaned, spun, woven, dyed, and made into garments” before the setting of the sun. This custom, called _Catina Dhawna,_ is first referred to in the _Rajaratnacari_ in the reign of Prakrarna I.[1], A.D. 1153.

[Footnote 1: See _ante_, Vol. II p. 35. _Rajaratnacari_, pp. 104, 109, 112, 135; _Rajavali_, p. 261; HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, ch. xii. pp.

114, 121.]

The expression ”made into garments” alludes to the custom enjoined on the priests of having the value of the material destroyed, before consenting to accept it as a gift, thus carrying out their vow of poverty. The robe of Gotama Buddha was cut into thirty pieces, these were again united, so that they ”resembled the patches of ground in a rice field;” and hence he enjoined on his followers the observance of the same practice.[1]

[Footnote 1: HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism,_ ch. xii. p. 117. See _ante_, Vol. I. Pt. III. ch. iv. p. 351.]

The arts of bleaching and dyeing were understood as well as that of weaving, and the _Mahawanso_, in describing the building of the Ruanwelle dagoba, at Anaraj.a.poora, B.C. 161, tells of a canopy formed of ”eight thousand pieces of cloth of every hue.”[1]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.x. p. 179, See also ch. x.x.xviii. p.

258.]

_Earliest Artisans._--VALENTYN, writing on the traditional information acquired from the Singhalese themselves, records the belief of the latter, that in the suite of the Pandyan princess, who arrived to marry Wijayo, were artificers from Madura, who were the first to introduce the knowledge and practice of handicrafts amongst the native population.

According to the story, these were goldsmiths, blacksmiths, bra.s.s-founders, carpenters, and stone-cutters.[1]

[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, _Oud en Niew Oost-Indien_, chap. iv. p. 267.]

The legend is given with more particularity in an historical notice of the Chalia caste, written by Adrian Raj.a.paxa, one of their chiefs, who describes these immigrants as Peskare Brahmans, who were at first employed in weaving gold tissues for the queen, but who afterwards abandoned that art for agriculture. A fresh company were said to have been invited in the reign of Devenipiatissa, and were the progenitors of ”Saleas, at present called Chalias,” who inhabit the country between Galle and Colombo, and who, along with their ostensible occupation as peelers of cinnamon, still employ themselves in the labours of the loom.[1] All handicrafts are conventionally regarded by the Singhalese as the occupations of an inferior cla.s.s; and a man of high caste would submit to any privation rather than stoop to an occupation dependent on manual skill.

[Footnote 1: A History of the Chalias, by ADRIAN RAj.a.pAXA. _Asiatic Res_. vol. vii. p. 440. _Ib_., vol. x. p. 82.]

_Pottery_.--One of the most ancient arts, the making of earthenware vessels, exists at the present day in all its pristine simplicity, and the ”potter's wheel,” which is kept in motion by an attendant, whilst the hands of the master are engaged in shaping the clay as it revolves, is the primitive device which served a similar purpose amongst the Egyptians and Hebrews.[1]

[Footnote 1: Pottery is mentioned in the _Mahawanso_, B.C. 161, ch.

xxix. p. 173: the allusion is to ”new earthen vases,” and shows that the people at that time, like the Hindus of today, avoided where possible the repeated use of the same vessel.]

A ”potter” is enumerated in the list of servants and tradesmen attached to the temple on the Rock of Mihintala, A.D. 262, along with a sandal-maker, blacksmiths, carpenters, stone-cutters, goldsmiths, and ”makers of strainers” through which the water for the priests was filtered, to avoid taking away the life of animalculae. The other artisans on the establishment were chiefly those in charge of the buildings, lime-burners, plasterers, white-washers, painters, and a chief builder.

_Gla.s.s_.--Gla.s.s, the knowledge of which existed in Egypt and in India[1], was introduced into Ceylon at an early period; and in the _Dipawanso_, a work older than the _Mahawanso_ by a century and a half, it is stated that Saidaitissa, the brother of Dutugaimunu, when completing the Ruanwelle dagoba, which his predecessor had commenced, surmounted it with a ”gla.s.s pinnacle.” This was towards the end of the second century before Christ. Gla.s.s is frequently mentioned at later periods; and a ”gla.s.s mirror” is spoken of[2] in the third century before Christ, but how made, whether by an amalgam of quicksilver or by colouring the under surface, is not recorded.

[Footnote 1: Dr. ROYLE'S _Lectures on the Arts and Manufactures of India_, 1852, p. 221. PLINY says the gla.s.s of India being made of pounded crystal, none other can compare with it. (Lib. x.x.xvi, c. 66.)]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xv. p. 99, ch. x.x.x. p. 182.]

_Leather_.--The tanning of leather from the hide of the buffalo was understood so far back as the second century before Christ, and ”coverings both for the back and the feet of elephants” were then formed of it.[1]