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Cave temple turns impregnable fortress

by R.S.Karunaratne

"Parricide Kassapa who took refuge at Sigiriya might have altered the palace to suit his purpose and fortified it against his enemies; and instead of erecting a magnificent palace to equal that of Kuvera, Sigiriya suffered considerably at Kassapa's hands during his occupation."

An aerial view of the Sigiriya fortress

Sigiriya was not the fortress palace of King Kassapa. It was not the short-lived capital of Ceylon and the famed frescoes are not paintings of queens, cloud ladies or Apsaras. Sigiriya was a Mahayana Buddhist monastery built several hundreds of years earlier and it continued to be as such for many centuries after Kassapa said,Wilfred M. Gunasekara .

The Kassapa theory took a beating when Dr. Raja de Silva, former Commissioner of Archaeology, at the launching of his book " Sigiriya and its significance" cast doubt on the authenticity of the few slokas in the Mahavamsa. He said the Mahavamsa could not be depended upon when the authors wrote on secular matters.

Swami Gourbala who spent a long time in Sri Lanka concluded that Sigiriya was a Mahayana Buddhist monastery dating back several centuries before Kassapa and the paintings were those of Goddess Tara. He said there were remains of a dagoba and a large terrace at the highest level of the rock. There were also reservoirs, ponds and innumerable gardens and a stone seat or asana at a low level of the rock where monks were seated and delivered religious discourses.

The old theory was that Kassapa had abandoned ancient Anuradhapura and built a new capital in Sigiriya. Then he became a "God King" like Kuvera. The concept of the deification of the monarch was a new cult sweeping through Asia. Thus Sigiriya was conceived by Kassapa. As a living god, Kassapa wanted to reside on the summit of the rock and rule. Dr. Paranavitana drew on his knowledge of Indian classical literature to find parallels that supported his theory. According to him, the paintings were of celestial maidens. The mirror wall reflected the red arsenic fields of God Kuvera's kingdom. However, Dr. Paranavitana did not deny the belief that Sigiriya was a temple but concluded it was a vast construction meticulously planned to deify Kassapa.

Bell an early Archaeological Commissioner said the paintings represented the wives or ladies of Kassapa's court. However, the fact that their figures were cut off at the waist by clouds suggested that they were celestial images or Apsaras. Dr. Paranawitana said they were lightning princesses and cloud maidens. Dr. Raja de Silva says Sigiriya was never meant to be a palace in the sky, but rather a monastery of Mahayana Buddhism supported by Kassapa and the golden girls were none other than Tara, consort of Avalokitesvara a popular Bodhisatva of that faith.

Lion Symbol

Except for Dr. Paranavitana nobody explained as to what a lion structure was doing there. The lion was a symbol of royalty but Paranavitana said the lion was in keeping with the Anothathva lake in Alakamandava.

In early India, the lion was associated with the Buddha-the Sakyasinghe. At the Sanchi gateway you see a number of lions. In Asoka's capital, the lion is on all the inscriptions.

The lion was part of the Buddha's monuments.

History needs to be reviewed in the light of new discoveries. Archaeological excavations at the time urged Dr. Paranavitana to conclude that Sigiriya was the abode of Kassapa.

Sigiri frescoes

The absence of any religious edifices on the summit helped him to confirm that the buildings were those of a royal palace. However, both Dr. Paranavitana and the compiler of Mahavamsa stand challenged today.

The theory that Sigiriya was from pre-Christian times an abode of Buddhist monk-hermits and a cave temple par excellence of ancient Lanka was put forward by Wilfred Mendis Gunasekara in the course of a radio talk entitled "Abode of a God king or a cave temple."

"Parricide Kassapa who took refuge at Sigiriya might have altered the palace to suit his purpose and fortified it against his enemies; and instead of erecting a magnificent palace to equal that of Kuvera, Sigiriya suffered considerably at Kassapa's hands during his occupation. "When peace of mind was lacking and one was haunted by fears real and imaginary and possessed a guilty conscience, was it possible for such a person to desire to liken himself to a God-king? Mr Gunasekara questioned.

The late Mr. W. A. De silva was of the opinion that Kassapa fled to Sigiriya to the monks of another fraternity viz., that of Dhammaruci, and there he secured himself in their principal cave temple.

The Sagalika and Dhammaruci fraternities were noted for their skill in the fine arts and crafts.

The natural inclination of the Sinhala people to this day towards music, dance, drama, sculpture, painting etc. could be traced to their ancestors having been involved in those sciences for centuries on end.

Sigiriya was pre-eminently a cave temple originally inhabited by a Nikaya belonging to the Wajjiputtaha sect, the Dhammaruci.

When Kassapa committed suicide after his defeat, Sigiriya was handed over to monk Mahanama of Mahavihara. The original founders had left by that time, Mr. Gunasekara cited several authorities in support of this theory.

In a paper read before the annual general meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society on March 10, 1950 he said the impression that one gets by reading the story in the Mahavamsa is that the stupendous achievement at Sigiri had no other motive than a parricide's fear of retribution for his crime in the world.

According to the accepted interpretation of the historical records, it was to serve as a refuge in a possible trial of strength between his brother Moggallana, and himself that Kassapa built his palace on the top of Sigiriya and it was to serve as an approach to the royal abode that the unique pathway- what we now refer to as the gallery- was constructed on the precipitous side of the rock.

Refuge

The chronicles do not say anything about the existence before Kassapa's time of a fortress at Sigiriya which the king could have taken up his abode.

The caves, it is true, contain Brahmi inscriptions indicating that they served as the abodes of Buddhist authorities in or about the second century B.C. There may have been religious structures at the foot of the rock; these however, would not have served as a refuge for Kassapa.

Paranavitane further said Kassapa's palace surpassed any other royal residence that ever existed in Ceylon. The chronicler characterises the palace on the summit of Sigiriya as a second Alakamanda and adds that Kassapa dwelt therein as if he were Kuvera. Dr. Paranavitane drawing a parallel says, "When Jayavarman wished to be created a "Cakravartin", it was necessary for the purpose that he should take up his abode on the summit of a mountain.

In fact, Kassapa wanted to appear in the character of a god- Kuvera- honoured by his people. The female figures personifying clouds and lightning, called Lightning Princesses and Cloud Damsels would have suggested that the palace of Kassapa was above the Sphere of clouds, i.e. in the Heaven of Kuvera.

From the time that Major Forbes discovered Sigiriya in 1829 enveloped in thick jungle, archaeologists have, by patient toil unearthed remains of extraordinary labour which compel wonder and excitement in the minds of tourists and students.

The 39th chapter of the Mahavamsa puts us on a sound footing; and after that, that wicked ruler of men (Kassapa) sent his groom and his cook to his brother (Moggalana) to kill him. And finding that he could not, he feared danger, and took himself to the Sihagiri rock that was hard for men to climb. He cleared it about and surrounded it by a rampart, and built galleries in it, with figures of lions, wherefore it took its name of Sinhagiri.

Fugitive

"Having gathered together all his wealth, he buried it there carefully, and set guards over the treasures he had buried in diverse places. He built there a lovely palace, splendid to behold, like unto a second Alakamanda and lived there like Kuvera.

Mr. Gunasekara in his radio talk said, "Conscience-stricken Kassapa, through fear of the legitimate claimant to the throne, Yuvaraja Moggallana, betook himself to this impregnable rock fortress, where he dwelt not as a god-king but as a murderer in constant dread of capture, torture and death.

He was a fugitive 400 feet above the plain. The guilt of his great crime for ever haunted him.

He had no reason to be conceited and consider himself a God-king. The religion of the land, the clergy of the Buddha, were averse to deifying a miserable parricide.

The Maha Vihara fraternity was definitely out to denounce him. Oral as well as written history and tradition that is popular with the masses and hitherto believed by them, stamp Sigiriya unmistakably as an invulnerable fortress built by the parricide Kassapa.

At best, Kassapa might have made some alterations to the then existing building to suit his purposes. He would have fortified Sigiriya with guard rooms, watch huts, moats and drawbridges for safety.

Instead of erecting a magnificent palace to equal that of Kuvera, Sigiriya suffered at Kassapa's hands.

W. A. de Silva too supports this theory. Sigiriya was a rock temple. Kassapa sought refuge in it in 479 A.C. The temple must have been conceived and built earlier by Dhammaruci monks. The design of the rock cave and its paintings bear a striking resemblance to the cave temple of Ajantha.

Sigiriya was from pre-Christian times an abode of Buddhist monk-hermits and a cave temple par excellence.

Kassapa decided to ensure security by converting Sigiriya into an impregnable fortress- another crime which hastened nemesis to drive him down from his fastness to drain the cup of defeat and drain his own blood by slashing his own throat.

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