Jain Journal 1974 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 12

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referred to in connection with the chequered life of Vattagamani Abhaya (2nd-1st century B.C.).24 One may obviously expect important relics of Jainism in the archaeology of Sri Lanka. The monument of Sigiriya, the partly lion-shaped rock associated with the parricide King Kassapa (473-491 A.D.) has obviously a history of its own. As V. W. Archer states: "The name Sigiriya allows various derivations. The most popular translates Giri as 'throat', an etymology lent colour by the partial restoration of the fantastic ruin (on the terrace half-way to summit) of a lion through whose throatliterally the way to the summit passes. Others render Giri by 'mountain'. There is no quarrel over Sinha: 'lion'. The name Lion Mountain could well be older than Kassapa's time and there is no doubt the Rock was known before him. (A few sites incorporated in Kassapa's city were, in fact, already venerable when it was built. An inscription on the so-called Rock of the Cobra's Hood is in pre-Christian script) Certainly, Sigiriya does resemble some great tawny beast Couchant."25 Archer has also recalled a suggestion of the Ceylonese Palaeontologist Deraniyagala : "It is possible that the extinct lion of Ceylon, Leo Leo Sinhaleus, persisted into historical times and that it once inhabited the area."26
JAIN JOURNAL
While the massive figuration of a lion at Sigiriya must have a history of its own which has sunk in oblivion it may be tempting to search for an iconography in the heraldic concept involved. This may be felt especially in the perspective of the stylistic resemblance and link between the Jaina paintings of Arivar-Kovil (i.e., 'the temple of the Arhat') at Sittannavasal in Tamilnad and the frescoes of Sigiriya.27 Any association of the lion of Sigiriya with Mahavira does not seem to be beyond the range of possibility. It is known that Jaina preachers disembarked at Ceylon mainly migrating from South India even before the age of Bhadrabahu and Visakhacarya the reminiscences of whose religious activity in the Peninsula have now relegated to legends. The Gana of Bhadrabahu stirred up such a movement in the South especially under Kondakundacarya in the first century A.D. that the art and institutions involved must have transmitted
24 Ceylon: Ancient Cities.
25 lbid.
26 lbid.
27
Jain Journal, Vol. III No. 4 (April 1969), pp. 252-53.