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The Mystery Figure of Polonnaruwa
It is early morning. May be around 6.30. The chilly breeze is pleasing. The stillness takes you back eons into perhaps the Great Parakramabahu period. I sit with my feet crossed at the feet of my teacher; a tall bearded person with the perfection of dignity and scholarly grace. The whole place has an air of learning about it; a spirit of scholarship. I listen, and with my eyes I conjure the sermons on stone. Pothgul VeheraThe rustling of the trees above pulls me unwillingly to reality. The birds have awoken. The piercing shriek of the hornbills and the whistle of the golden oriels. They seem to bring life to the environs high on the tree tops as they race each other in search of food. For a moment I am distracted. My meditation disturbed and when I look back at the face of my teacher the shadows of the rising sun play on him as if to try to bring him back to life. Mesmerised I watch as it gives up hopelessly. The first tourist bus has arrived, crowds of Germans I think, start clicking their cameras. My teacher is world famous . The silent bearded figure on the rock whose eyes have been fixed on his book for centuries is perhaps the most photographed figure in the world, and yet nobody really knows his name. Mystery surrounds him, debate rages, theories abound Who is he?? The controversial statue cut in high relief on a rock boulder is accepted by many as one of the finest sculptures in Sri Lanka. Eleven feet six inches in height the work is believed to be the skill of a South Indian sculptor and if one is to interpret the object in his hand as an ola book, it is said to represent the short fat type commonly used in India and not the long ones of Sri Lanka. The mustache and the beard too is in keeping with the South Indian style depicting maturity and the wisdom of a scholar. However popular belief is that it is of King Parakramabahu I who ruled Polonnaruwa from 1153 to 1186 A.D. Yet some scholars are of the opinion that the statue is of a rishi or sage. Some even venture further in identifying it to be the statue of sage Pulasti after whom the ancient city was named as Pulastinagara i.e. the city of Pulasti and there are others who think that it is of the sage Agastya or Kapila. H.C.P. Bell was of the opinion that this was not a statue of a King or Buddhist abbot but that of a famous guru, perhaps Kapila. Vogel thought that it is the statue of either Agastya or Kapila. Professor Paranavithana thought the object in the hands of the statue is a yoke, a symbol of sovereignty thus opining in favor of King Parakramabahu. This same object in the hands of the statue has been thought by others to be that of a ola book or palm leaf manuscript. Some scholars say that there is a worn out rock inscription behind the head of the statue which reads Pula-sa-ta (Pulasti) If this is so it could support in favour of sage Pulasti Looking around there is all probability that the statue is connected with the adjoining building whose modern name Pothgul Vehera suggests a Monastic library. This makes some Scholars deduce that the figure is of a scholar Brahmin priest carrying a palm leaf book symbolizing both scholarship and wisdom. It is interesting to note that the debate is still raging regarding the identity of the statue. New evidence may be needed. Some scholars point out that just near the statue is a pile of earth resembling a ruined dagaba, which has not been identified as yet. Professor Paranavithana believes that this could be the cremation grounds of King Parakramabahu the great and if so it is open to question if this could not be a commemorative to the great king.
The adjoining building - Pothgul Vehera is also shrouded in mystery. The modern name given to this structure translated as the Library shrine implies it to be a place where important religious texts were kept as objects of worship. Yet some believe the monument though named library shrine does not show evidence that it housed a library. This building was excavated in 1906 and H.C.P. Bell thought it was a circle house built by Parakramabahu I to listen to the Jathaka stories related by a teacher. According to him this structure is unique in ancient Buddhist architecture of Ceylon and certainly no other ruin like it has been discovered in the Island. The present structure is laid out in four terraces on a square ground bounded by a wall and contains nine buildings, including dwelling cells. The main building at the centre is of the gedige architecture - a circular shrine, with a domical roof being a vault corbelled inward from all sides instead from two sides (like in other gediges like Lankathilaka Vihara, Tivanka Pilimage) The roof and much of its architectural decoration has disappeared. The Plaster on the inside walls show that it may have been covered with paintings and it is said that the acoustics here are excellent even today. On the four corners of the terrace are four small dagobas. The entrance is through a stone doorway. The exterior of the walls contain niches which may have housed divinities. The drainage system here is interesting. Each side is provided with two stone drains to let the rain water out of the parapet wall. Bell in1906 commenting on the architectural features of this monument says that " lithic records points to the "Kambodian Quarter" of the old city probably lying to the south. What more natural than to find further evidence of Khemer influence in the isolated monastery established a mile or more distance from the city enceinte on this side" Dr. Raja de Silva commenting on the architectural features of this monument says that there is remarkable evidence of the influence of Cambodian on monastic buildings constructed in 12th century Polonnaruwa. The monastery of Mi Baume in Cambodia is very similar in layout to the Pothgul Vehera. A Pali inscription found on a door jamb of the pavilion records in 24 lines that this monument was originally built by King Parakramabahu and his second Queen Chandravati, caused the erection of a mandapa by Kishanie S. Fernando
February 11, 2007
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