Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 84

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]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., ch. xxv. p. 152, ch. xxix. p. 169.]

_Wood-carving_.--Carving in sandal-wood and inlaying with ivory, of which latter material "state fans and thrones" were constructed for the Brazen Palace[1], are amongst the mechanical arts often alluded to; and during the period of prosperity which signalised the era of the "Great Dynasty," there can be little doubt that skilled artificers were brought from India to adorn the cities and palaces of Ceylon.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., ch. xxvii. p. 163, 164.]

_Chemical Arts_.--A rude knowledge of chemical manipulation was required for the extraction of camphor[1] and the preparation of numerous articles specified amongst the productions of the island, aromatic oils[2], perfumes[3], and vegetable dyes.

[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 133. Dr. ROYLE doubts whether camphor was known to the Hindus at this early period, but "camphor oil" is repeatedly mentioned in the Singhalese chronicles amongst the articles provided for the temples.--ROYLE'S _Essay on Hindoo Medicine_, p. 140; _Rajaculi_, p. 190.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxv. p. 157.]

[Footnote 3: B.C. 161. _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.x. p. 180.]

_Sugar_.--Sugar was obtained not only from the Palmyra and Kittool palms[1], but also from the cane; which, besides being a native of India, was also indigenous in Ceylon.[2] A "sugar mill" for expressing its juice existed in the first century before Christ in the district of the "Seven Corles,"[3] where fifteen hundred years afterwards a Dutch governor of the island made an attempt to restore the cultivation of sugar.

[Footnote 1: "Palm sugar," as distinguished from "cane sugar," is spoken of in the _Mahawanso_ in the second century B.C. ch. xxvii. p. 163.]

[Footnote 2: "Cane sugar" is referred to in the _Mahawanso_ B.C. 161, ch. xxvii. p. 162, ch. x.x.xi. p. 192.]

[Footnote 3: A.D. 77. _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xiv. p. 208.]

_Mineral Paints_.--Mineral preparations were made with success. Red lead, orpiment, and vermilions are mentioned as pigments; but as it is doubtful whether Ceylon produces quicksilver, the latter was probably imported from. China[1] or India, where the method of preparing it has long been known.

[Footnote 1: See _ante_, Vol. I. Part I. ch. i. p. 29. n. Both quicksilver and vermilion are mentioned in the _Rajaratnacari_, p. 51, as being in use in the year 20 B.C. Vermilion is also spoken of B.C. 307 in the _Mahawanso_, ch. xxvii. p. 162, c. The two pa.s.sages in which _vermilion_ is spoken of in the Old Testament, Jerem. xxii. 14, and Ezek. xxiii. 14, both refer to the painting of walls and woodwork, a purpose to which it would be scarcely suitable, were not the article alluded to the opaque bisulphuret of mercury; and the same remark applies to the vermilion used by the Singhalese. The bright red obtained from the insect coccus (the _vermiculus_, whence the original term "vermilion" is said to be derived) would be too transparent to be so applied.]

There is likewise sufficient evidence in these and a number of other preparations, as well in the notices of perfumes, camphor, and essential oils, to show that the Singhalese, like the Hindus, had a very early acquaintance with chemical processes and with the practice of distillation, which they retain to the present day.[1] The knowledge of the latter they probably acquired from the Arabs or Chinese.

[Footnote 1: "I was frequently visited by one old man, a priest, who had travelled through Bengal, Burmah, Siam, and many other countries, and who prided himself on being able _to make calomel_ much better than the European doctors, as his preparation did not cause the falling out of the teeth, soreness of the mouth, or salivation. He learnt the secret from an ancient sage whom he met with in a forest on the continent of India; and often when listening to him I was reminded of the mysteries and crudities of the alchemists."--HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, Lond.

1850, ch. xxiii. p. 312.]

CHAP. V.

WORKING IN METALS.

METALS. _Iron_.--Working in metals was early understood in Ceylon.

Abundance of iron ore can be extracted from the mountains round Adam's Peak; the black oxide is found on the eastern sh.o.r.e in the state of iron-sand; and both are smelted with comparative ease by the natives.

Iron tools were in use for the dressing of stones; and in the third century before Christ, the enclosed city of Wijittapoora was secured by an "iron gate." [1]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxv. p. 152.]

_Steel_.--The manufacture of arms involved the use of steel, the method of tempering which was derived from the Hindus, by whom the _wootz_ was prepared, of which, the genuine blades of Damascus are shown to have been made, the beauty of their figuring being dependent on its peculiar crystallisation. Ezekiel enumerates amongst the Indian imports of Tyre "_bright iron_, calamus and ca.s.sia."[1]

[Footnote 1: ROYLE _on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine_, p. 98.

EZEKIEL, ch. xxvii. 19.]

_Copper_.--Copper was equally in demand, but, like silver and gold, it is nowhere alluded to as a production of the island. In ancient, as in modern, times, therefore, the numerous articles formed from this metal were probably imported from India. The renowned Brazen. Palace of Anaraj.a.poora was so named from the quant.i.ty of copper used in its construction. Bujas Raja, A.D. 359, covered a building at Attanagalla with "tiles made of copper, and gilt with gold,"[1] and "two boats built of bra.s.s," were placed near the Bo-Tree at the capital "to hold food for the priests."[2] Before the Christian era, armour for elephants[3], and vessels of large dimensions, cauldrons[4], and baths[5], were formed of copper. The same material was used for the lamps, goblets[6], kettles, and cooking utensils of the monasteries and wiharas.