Dimbulagala

At the ancient forest monastery of Dimbulagala, in the caves known as Maravidiya, survive fragments of painting from the Polonnaruwa age, the twelfth century. On the plastered walls of two rock shelters can still be made out the Sasa Jataka and scenes from the life of the Buddha: the Buddha seated in meditation beneath an arch with worshippers at his side, a row of geese in a decorative frieze, figures gathered in devotion. Dimbulagala lies close to the shelter of Pulligoda Galge, and the two together mark the eastern reach of the classical tradition.

Little now remains to be seen. In 1954 much of the Maravidiya painting was deliberately destroyed, smeared over with cow dung, a loss that leaves the surviving fragments the more precious. As everywhere in the classical record, the painters are unknown.