Sigiriya

Sigiriya was a fortress built into sheer granite rock in 477-495 A.D. by the ruler of an ancient Sinhalese civilization on the island of Sri Lanka. An engineering wonder, its story is full of intrigue. In the earlier part of the 5^th century, King Dhatusena held the throne in the capital of Anuradhapura after overthrowing a Tamil ruler. According to Sinhalese custom at the time, he arranged a marriage between his dearly beloved daughter and his sister’s son. After his daughter was beaten by her husband at the instigation of her mother-in-law, the king killed his sister in a fit of rage. This prompted Kassapa, the king’s first son, to kill his father and take the throne.

The Fortress

Unable to trust anyone after his violent rampage, King Kassapa abandoned Anuradhapura to build an impenetrable fortress to the south on Lion’s Rock. Lion’s Rock is the hardened magma plug of an extinct and eroded volcano and rises 1200 feet from the jungle of the surrounding plain. It is sheer on all sides and overhangs the rock below in some places. The only entrance to the palace was a path that clings precariously to the ledge of a cliff which leads to a terrace where visitors are confronted with two giant lion’s paws, the sole remains of a brick and stucco figure the size of the sphinx. The lion would have glared northward, anticipating the revenge of Kassapa’s brother Moggallana. A brick stairway between the paws ascends to the palace complex on the three-acre peak.

The foundations left at Sigiriya are a faint whisper of its original glory, but it is impressive nonetheless. The entire peak is crowded with the foundations of buildings. There is still a storage pool for water carved into the rock and a pink granite throne. In the outer city below the rock there is evidence of moats, fortifications, and pathways.

Sigiriya is perhaps most famous for its frescoes of nearly life-sized figures known as “The Golden Ones.” These beautiful women are representations of the Indian ideal of feminine beauty, but their aloof detachment is characteristically Sinhalese. No one knows for sure who the women are. Bell, the first archeologist to give a detailed account of Sigiriya, thought they represented the wives of King Kassapa. Others have speculated that they are apsarases, celestial nymphs, especially because they are cut off at the hips by clouds. Some of the women bear platters of flowers in a manner similar to women who offer flowers at temples today. Dr. Senarat Paranavitana suggests that the plan of Sigiriya is a symbolic representation of the Paradise of Kuvera, the God of Riches, who lives in the clouds and that the women of the frescoes are lightning princesses attended by cloud damsels.

Poetic graffiti near the frescoes attest to the fact that the site was visited and admired long after it was abandoned. Visitors also left inscriptions on a plastered wall-surface, evidence that the site was visited by royalty, monastics, and foreign merchants as well as the common people.

The Fall of Kassapa

The entire complex of Sigiriya was built in 18 years and Kassapa’s reign was equally as short. His brother, Moggallana, returned from exile in South India with a Tamil army and ironically Kassapa left his carefully built fortress to meet him on the plain below. After Moggallana defeated Kassapa he returned to Anuradhapura and turned Sigiriya over his great-uncle, a wise sage and author of the Chronicles that record the history of this time period. Buddhist monks inhabited it for an unknown length of time and eventually it was abandoned to fall into ruin.

Sources 

Raven-Hart, Rowland

    1964  Ceylon: History in Stone. The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. Lake House, Colombo.

Swaan, Wim

    1966  Lost Cities of Asia. G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

To view pictures of Sigiriya visit: 

Wayfaring Travel Guide: http://www.wayfaring.info/2007/07/22/sigiriya-the-8th-wonder-of-the-world/.

World Heritage Centre

    2008 Sacred City of Sigiriya. Electronic document, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/202/gallery/,

           accessed 5/16/08.

Written by Melissa Lorentz, 2008.