Once a Week (magazine)/Series 1/Volume 11/Yapahoo - Part 2
YAPAHOO.
Part II.
I have described the palace as being built upon the sloping ground, at the base of the wall of rock which rises many hundred feet above the surrounding plain. The foundations were consequently of the most substantial description, and the masonry raised upon them very massive; but nothing can exceed the regularity of the courses of cut stone, and the perfect fitting and bonding of each block. Both the terrace which projects in advance of the main building, and the main building itself, are ornamented with carved stone mouldings, below which are groups of figures in bold relief, resting on a lower moulding, designed to represent the up-turned leaves of the lotus. The figures are excellent, and in great variety of attitude. They represent nâtch girls, not oppressed with clothing, who are dancing with great spirit to the energetic music of tom-tom beaters and flageolet players, whose whole souls are in their work. The intense gravity of their faces is admirable; while the whole scene is so well "told," that you can almost fancy you can see their heads nodding in time to their music, and hear the castanets in the girls' hands. The overhanging moulding has protected these figures from the weather, and the details are perfect. The ornaments of the female figures and the expression of their faces are as though the sculptor had but just completed his work.
The doorway opens upon the terrace, and it is impossible not to be struck with its very graceful proportions. It is composed of three huge blocks of stone. The door-posts, or jambs—each a single stone—measure eleven feet six inches, exclusive of foundations, and are in girth one foot six by one foot four. The lintel, or traverse, is a single stone eight feet six inches long, but of greater bulk than the jambs. They are beautifully fluted, and the carving is as sharp as when the mason laid his chisel down. On either side are columns, whose capitals represent the lotus flower depressed. These are sadly out of their perpendicular, and, if indeed they have not already fallen, I fear they soon will leave the doorway
Entrance Doorway.
standing by itself, for they are built, and not, as most of the columns are, hewn out of a single block.
Near the door lies a fallen pillar of exceeding beauty—a monolith—which measures ten feet in length and two feet square, and is in excellent condition.
The huge trees, which have overthrown so much, have spared two of the walls of the vestibule on the left hand as you enter the doorway; but to judge from the displacement of the stones, it is evident that they must soon share the fate of the corresponding wing on the right, which has quite fallen away. But one of the windows which lighted the hall, as I have before said, remains quite perfect. It is so beautiful that it deserves a minute description.
It consists of one slab of stone, measuring four feet seven inches by three feet three, and seven inches thick. This thickness, however, is only preserved along the mouldings at its outer edges. Within the mouldings it has been reduced to an uniform thickness of three inches.
The name given to it by the natives exactly describes it, "Siwoomædurukawooloowa," "the perforated palace window." The surface of the slab of stone has been perforated into forty-five rings or circles, which admitted the light into the entrance-hall, somewhat in the fashion of the tracery work at the Tâj at Agra. In each circle is a sculptured figure, and scarcely two figures are alike.
On page 283 is an accurate drawing of this very beautiful window, which is unique of its kind in Ceylon. No verbal description will convey a proper idea of it.
The circles of the lowest row, it will be seen, contain grotesque Bacchanalian figures, which represent jolly, laughing fellows, and are executed with great humour. Above them are nâtch girls, all slightly different in attitude. They occur again in four circles near the centre of the window, and in a row near the top.
The row of circles above the nâtch girls contains figures of animals, which are repeated vertically along the mouldings on each side of the window, and continued in a horizontal row, the third from the top; in short, they form the outer ridge of a square pattern, comprising the twenty-five centremost circles of the window. The figures of these animals, it will be noted, vary considerably. Eight have the elephant's trunk, and are evidently intended to represent the gaja-singha, before described. It is remarkable that this is, so far as I know,—and there are very few ruins in Ceylon that I have not thoroughly examined,—the only example in which this fabulous animal is represented in any but a couchant attitude. Seven appear to be the same animal without the trunk, in which case, since the gaja-singha is the elephant-lion, the characteristic of the former being removed, the latter should remain; but I am bound to say the resemblance to a lion in these seven circles is the very faintest. But the centre circle of the third row from the bottom contains a pair of perfect lions rampant.
The nine circles remaining of the twenty-five before mentioned form again a distinct square pattern within the other, of which four lotus flowers, or stars, mark the angles.
The row of circles at the top of the window contain figures of the Hansa, the royal rather than the "sacred" bird, of which Tennent has given so many curious particulars, and which, in Ceylon as well as in Burmah, was one of the
Burmese Hansa. (From Tennent's "Ceylon.")
emblems of the national banner. If this be intended for the Hansa, as I believe it to be, it certainly greatly differs from the usual representation of it, and much more nearly resembles the Burmese figure as given by Tennent, vol. i. p. 485, first edition. It is very unlike the bird as it appears in the sculptures at Anaradhapoora (vol. ii. p. CI 9), and the clay figure of it in the palace at Kandy (vol. i. p. 487). It is equally unlike the following sketch of one of the oldest Hansas I have seen—a beautifully
Brick from the Naga Wihare.
moulded relief on a brick, from the very ancient Naga Wihare, in Màgampattoo, in the south of the island, the "Maha Naga Wiharó," mentioned in the Mahawanso, and founded by Maha Naaga, brother of Devenipia Tissa, b.c. 306, the founder of the ancient city of Maagama.
The peculiar beauty of the window consists rather in the general effect produced by the arrangement of the figures with which it is so profusely decorated, than in the ornamentation itself. Seen from a little distance the details are lost; and the window appears to be of beautiful tracery work, and of regular pattern. It is only when closely examined that the quaint designs I have endeavoured to describe
Fragment of Broken Window.
are observed. If my sketch did justice to the original, the effect I have described would be visible by looking at the drawing with partially closed eyes.
It is much to be regretted that the rough texture of the stone should be so unworthy of the skill of the sculptor. Had it been executed in white marble, or even in the magnesian limestone which abounds in Ceylon, the effect would have been infinitely more lovely.
Window at Yapahoo.
The corresponding window, as I have said, is gone. But the fragments, which lie scattered about, show that it entirely differed in design from the existing one, which I shuddered to think must so soon share its fate. This, I am happy to say, has been averted; for Mr. O'Grady, the government agent of the province, has removed it to Kurnegalle, where, in the beautiful grounds of his official residence, itself the site of the royal palace of Hastisailapoora, he has erected it, with other choice specimens of stone carving, as a monument to ancient art.
Yapahoo, or more correctly Yapawu,—called Subhapabbata in the Mahawanso,—appears to have been founded in the beginning of the thirteenth century, during the usurpation of Maagha, who came from Kalinga (the northern Cirears) a.d. 1219. At this time several Buddhist chieftains fortified themselves in hills in retired parts of the country, and protected the people and the priesthood. Amongst these a noble, named Subha Sénapatí, a devoted adherent of the Buddhist religion, “disgusted at the impious profligacy of the king, determined on no longer remaining at court.” He accordingly resigned his office, and, assembling his followers, quitted Pollanarua, and fortified the hill of Yapawu, where, in the words of the Mahawanso, “on the summit of the Subha mountain, inaccessible to enemies, having built a city like Alakamanda (the most beautiful of celestial cities) he resided, like another Wessawanno (the regent of the north) protecting that part of the country and the religion from the Kerala monsters.”[1]
The city, as I have said, lay at the base of the rock; but a winding path, with rude steps, leads to the top, which doubtless was a place of refuge in times of danger. A similar in stance of this occurs at Seegiri, which however, unlike Yapahoo, partakes more of the fortress than the palace.
About the year a.d. 1267, Yapahoo, as well as Pollanarua and Kurnegalle, were greatly embellished and ornamented by Bosat Wijaya Bahoo, son of Pandita Praakrama Bahoo III., who, in a.d. 1303, after his succession to the throne, was murdered at Pollanarua by his adigar, Mita Séna. The army, however, remained faithful to the royal family, and proclained his brother, who had fled to Yapahoo, under the title of King Bhuwaneka Bahoo I. This king, who, prior to his accession, had lived at Yapahoo, now made it the seat of I government, and removed the sacred Dalada thither.
During this reign, Koola Saikera Raja, king of Pandi (Madura), sent an army into Ceylon, and placed it under the command of his tributary, Aareya Chakkrawarti, king of Jaffna. Yapahoo was taken, and the sacred relic carried off to Madura.
From this time Yapahoo ceased to be the capital; but it still appears to have been a place of considerable importance for the next 200 years.
In the reign of Sree Praakrama Kotta, a descendant of the royal family was made Dissave of Yapahoo, and shortly after the accession of Jayaa Bahoo II., a.d. 1464, he rebelled, put the king to death, and was raised to the throne under the title of Bhuwaneka Bahoo VI.
In a.d. 1527, Yapahoo was the place of refuge of the two elder sons of Wijaya Bahoo VII., when they fled from their father, who sought to put them to death. They assembled their forces, and, attacking him in their turn, murdered him, and the eldest became king, as Bhuwaneka Bahoo VII.
The last mention of Yapahoo in history is in the reign of Don Juan Dharmapaala, whom the Portuguese set up in A.D. 1542, when, among the many aspirants to the throne, one,a Malabar, took up his residence here. It was probably at this time that the city was destroyed by the Portuguese, and it has been ever since deserted.
It has scarcely borne out its title of Yapawu, or Subhapabbata, the city on the “auspicious rock.”
- ↑ I am indebted for these particulars to two very intelligent native gentlemen—Messrs. L. Dc Zoysa and S. Jayeillleke.