Sigiriya City below the place in the sky

Prof. W.I. Siriweera

Pre-historic findings at Pidurangala, Potana, Dambulla and Mapagala and proto-historic evidence from Ibbankatuwa and Pansalgodella shed some light on the initial settlements around Sigiriya. As elsewhere, the historic era in Sigiriya has commenced with the official introduction of Buddhism to the island in the third century BC. The cave inscriptions at Sigiriya and its suburbs testify to the existence of dwellings of Buddhist monks as well as a settled suburban population who sustained them during the early historic era.

The construction of Sigiriya by Kasyapa I (477-495) within a short period is an amazing feat. Its intricate and meticulously designed layout pauses the question whether it was built solely as a fortress city for purposes of security and defence. It was the capital of Kasyapa, but it was not certain whether he was at Sigiriya for the full eighteen years of his reign.

Sigiriya is one of the best preserved examples of urban planning in a single phase construction of South Asia. Its royal complex or the citadel extended for three kilometres in length and one kilometre in breadth. The citadel had three ramparts and two moats on the west and a single rampart and a moat in the east. Perhaps, Kasyapa could not complete the other two ramparts and one more moat in the east. The height of one of the ramparts was 29 feet. The axis of the royal complex and the urban centre was the Sigiriya rock rising 200 metres above the surrounding plain. The royal palace was located on the 1.5 hectare plateau on its summit the remains of which are still visible.

The palace on the summit, the gigantic lion on the way to the summit, the fortress walls; all symbolized the splendour and grandeur of royal authority. They differentiated the royalty and nobility within the fortress city and the ordinary people living outside the city walls. Those symbols invariably compelled the ruled to subserviently accept the hegemony of the rulers with fear and veneration.

The Western precinct of the royal complex was an elaborate royal pleasure garden. The boulder-strewn hill slopes in the area have been utilized to the utmost for garden planning. These Sigiriya city gardens are the oldest surviving landscaped gardens in South Asia. In between the pleasure garden and the palace on the summit, the western face of the rock had been beautified with paintings. Of these, only 22 have survived to the present. There are also indications that there were drawings in several caves near the pleasure garden.

As Senaka Bandaranayake has stated, the eastern and western precincts of the royal city were laid out on a precise square module around north-south and east-west axes which met at the centre of the palace area on the summit of the rock. The elaborate planning mathematics demonstrated in the overall Sigiriya layout show a brilliant combination of geometrical and symmetrical concepts and organic natural features.

There may have been a small monastery within the citadel which performed the functions of a ritual centre for the royalty. But the proper royal monastery was at Pidurangala to the north of the city.

The extensive Mahanaga Pabbata Vihara or modern Ramakele monastery lies to the south of the city but its functions in relation to the royal complex cannot be determined as yet. In any case ritual complexes at Sigiriya occupy a secondary place when compared with those of Anuradhapura or Polonnaruwa.

Beyond the inner city wall in the east, there was an outer wall forming an outer city. Suburban settlements had been beyond the outer perimeter. The Sigiriya reservoir located beyond the south eastern section of the urban complex has a dam of about seven kilometres in length. It has served the domestic needs of water of the urban complex as well as the agricultural needs of the suburbs. The drip ledges visible on the rock face and the fountains operating on pressure through underground conduits in the pleasure garden are testimony to the excellent methods of water control, preservation and storage.

The suburban settlements in the east as well as on other sides were service centres of the city providing its requirements of grain and other commodities. The high ground to the west of Mapagala, Ramakale and the areas surrounding Pidurangala perhaps contained the hamlets of agriculturists. The iron ores and crucibles found at Alakolavava and Kuratiyava in the perimeter of Sigiriya suggest the sustenance of industries based on iron technology. Roman and other foreign coins as well as ceramics from China and West Asia found at Sigiriya speak of the importance attached to international trade by Kasyapa I. It is believed that the blue paints for drawings on the rock face were imported from Afghanistan.

After Kasyapa I (477-495), Sigiriya was abandoned by the Sinhala kings and they reverted the capital to Anuradhapura. The Sigiriya complex was donated to the Buddhist monks for their habitation. But apparently the monks also did not have any love for the place as a residential centre and abandoned it soon thereafter. Nevertheless people of all walks of life from all over the country visited Sigiriya from the seventh to twelfth century to view its marvels and its beautiful paintings and some wrote verses on the Mirror Wall on the western side of the rock.

This poetry not only suggests that the literacy rate in the country at the time was advanced but also points to a well organized administration to supervise Sigiriya, visitors who went there, their literary compositions and the manner in which they were inscribed in the Mirror Wall.

Sigiriya had its aesthetic excellence but not functional merits. Almost all the capital cities which sustained for a long time in Sri Lanka as well as in the world developed by the side of perennial rivers which ensured the function of water supply to an increasing population. But Sigiriya was an exception. Perhaps scarcity of water was one of the main reasons for its abandonment soon after it was established as the capital.

That may also explain the short duration of early medieval capitals such as Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa and Kurunegala.