Kathaluwe Purwaramaya…..a temple in south Sri Lanka.. a treasure to the art lover

Vesak in 2013 was observed with a pilgrimage to distant Somawathiya. Vesak in 2014 also fell amidst a long line of holidays but the enthusiasm to go places was not to be. Nevertheless an opportunity to fulfil a childhood wanting of mine, to visit the Kathaluwe Purwarama Temple in Ahangama was fulfilled. This yearning being linked to a school time hobby of  collecting stamps and a series of Vesak stamps issued then had a painting from Purwaramaya.The temple is rich with its unusual paintings done to the Kandian style and depict the colonial influence on the maritime society then. 

The Chaithiya or Stupa has an arched entrance pandal with the British insignia. The four corners of the foundation podium of the main stupa has four smaller stupas.

Wilson, our like-minded pal who has been here before  guided us  to the location. My wife Hemamala was more on a pious mind-set on this thrice blessed day, was ready with fresh flowers picked from the garden and the maiden bloom…a Golden Trumpet from her newly planted ‘Ruk-attana’ creeper[Allamanda cathartica] was offered at this old shrine.

  

Belfry done on 1908

       Shrines set into the stupa



Religious observances completed we explore the paintings on the outer walls of the ancient shrine room. 

The image house building that do not show alienation to the Kandian era, unlike the paintings, is founded about a meter and a half above ground possibly to counter termite attack, shows relation to the technique of the Tam-pita Vihara buildings of the Kandian era that were founded on thick solid timber frames placed on large boulders on ground to defend termite intrusion. 

The Bodhigara is a totally modern day structure

The building does not resemble Kandian Architecture and is founded high above the ground

Seven doorways provide access to the outer chamber. Two each on three walls and one on the front wall which is the main entrance. The main door leads to the two openings that provide access to the inner chamber. The inner chamber has one other side exit leading to the two doorways on the sidewall. Three windows provide light to the otherwise dark outer chamber. The inner chamber which is the shrine room has no windows. All the doors and windows show relation to Dutch architecture.

 

The main doorway  to colonial grandeur 

The mural above the main door-head is done to British colonial grandeur and says the year is 1886 AD. However close observation reveal the temple is much older. It could be that the inner chamber or the shrine room which is more in relation to the Kandian era may have been added with the outer chamber in 1886. This outer chamber shows Dutch influence in architecture while  the murals on the walls show the British influence on the society. 

The inner chamber resembles much Kandian style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Doorways to the inner chamber with British insignia set in the Makara-thorana. The word Purwaramaya is written in English

The two main entrances to the inner chamber have the British insignia painted above and are set within the traditional makara-thorana. The main attraction inside the image house is a beautiful reclining Buddha showing links to Kandian sculpture and is larger in dimension to the standing image looking across a seated image that are positioned on the sidewalls. The general practice of locating the two chief disciples besides the Buddha has been avoided here. 

 

A guardian image and images of Kinnara & Kinnari. Depicting the Sanda kinduru jataka

The beautiful reclining Buddha

       

       The standing Buddha and the Meditating Buddha face each other

The outer walls of the inner chamber is different to those seen elsewhere.  The three sides besides the one with the entrances has the 28 images [Atavisi] of the previous Buddha mounted in line and are enclosed within a large glazed polished timber cabinet spanning the length of the walls. This is a special feature not generally seen during the Kandian era. This could be an addition to the outer chamber that was incorporated later. Polished timber outfits were not common in the Kandian era then. The floor of the outer chamber is laid with terracotta paving showing its age with the immense foot traffic it had had to cope with. 

The Atavisi Buddha images

The doratupala rupa or the guards at the doorway  show British soldiers instead of the traditional guard stones. Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe the last King is drawn smaller than the soldier probably showing the hold the British had on the society.

 

The temple and the murals have survived a timeline of 128 year to date. However  its future wellbeing is very bleak and is of concern. As already seen… the doors have come off the hinges. Lighting of oil lamps and josticks within for fragrance will cause damage to the vegetable dyes and colours in the murals.  Ground salinity with dampness is affecting the lower most murals and have faded them off completely. The murals around the windows are fading and have begun to scale. Stray mongrels are seen taking shelter within the chambers to nobodies concern. The contribution of the village community towards the temple is but shocking. This was evident with the fewness of floral offering on the altar on this most venerated day for the Buddhist…the Vesak?

A traditional pageantry showing an insignia of Briton and colonial parasol

The lion flag in procession

Story of Patachara

  

Note the Buddhas abode being illuminated with Dutch period lamps

Note the minute detailing of the paintings

Vesantharsa Jataka

Donating the Ele Etha [Albino Elephant]

A better preserved painting of the Vesanthara Jataka . Note the monkey on the roof. A problem then as now

The Victorian stagecoach  the mode of conveyance of the elite

Bullock carts and the thirikkala the mode of conveyance of the peasantry.

Note the glass bottle with the dented bottom and the household pets

Note the wine served in stemmed glasses

Women and children in Victorian gowns

British social gatherings of revelry with drums and harps. Note the gent in tinted eyeglasses.

Royalty shown in British attire. Note the background is filled will nature

Topless women shown wearing bibs to avoid obscenity

Scene of hell the Satan wearing western attire 

The coconut palm native to the area

Note the clock with roman numerals

The ceiling motif 

Rivers are drawn flowing upwards in the Kandian style. Note the type of fish and the turtle native to the coastal habitat.

 

 Hemamala and Wilson with the author

On the way back we glimpsed into the Ranwella temple in Giniwella. This temple too has an octagonal image house with the outer walls done with murals to the same style but in recent times.  The doors and windows have Gothic features as those in the christian churches. 

Gothic windows

The remains of the press after the fire

 

What is significant here is the old printing press donated by the King Chulalongkorn of Siam in 1860 [locally pronounced Chulalankara] on the request of Ven. Bulathgama Dhammalankara Siri Sumanatissa Thera, the chief incumbent at the Paramananda temple in Minuwangoda, Galle; who felt the need of a Sinhala newspaper then

The first Sri Lankan newspaper being ‘Lakmini Pahana’ printed in 1862  was in fact after the ‘Lanka Lokaya’ that was published two years before on this machine,  but it  was not registered as a newspaper.

It is said the press was of immense service during the Panadura wadaya when all of the information about it was printed on this press.  

The press was closely guarded by the monks at the Ranwella temple for nearly 140 years, until a fire destroyed the monastery building in November 2012 bring in destruction to the artifact. The metal  braved the blaze but for the timber components, the letter-sets and other.

BISO KOTUWA – A Sri Lankan Engineering Marvel

THE SRI LANKAN INVENTION OF AN ENERGY DISSIPATING WATER RELEASING MECHANISM FOR RESERVOIRS
 

Sri Lanka with a written history over 2500 years has been practicing soil  and hydraulic engineering from about the same period of time. Rice and grain being the islanders staple diet, its community has been rice farmers and needed to store rainwater to cultivate the dry zone. The storage of this excess rainwater needed earthen embankments built across the valleys.These expertise brought about a society that practiced soil engineering which created a unique hydraulic civilization.

Typical irrigation tank in the North Central dry zone in Sri Lanka

The growth of this hydraulic civilization expanded with enhanced knowledge and developed new techniques with state patronage. In a broader sense a practice of water management that became a culture.

Initially it was a technique to sustain the water table by storing water on the ground with earthen embankments built across valleys. The water so stored was made to percolate into the ground replenishing the ground water table. This water was re extracted and put back on the soil as irrigation water and the cycle was to continue. This simple water cycle was improved with enhanced knowledge on soil engineering by storing large volumes of water behind strong earthen embankments that created large lakes or tanks.

These large tanks managed to irrigate large tracks of land producing rice at commercial level that boosted the state coffers.

Kuttam Pokuna Anuradhapura; a Royal bathing pond that had complex hydraulic design  

Building such large and deep lakes brought about new challenges in controlling and handling water in a safe and non-destructive manner. The greatest problem faced was to release the stored water into earthen canals with controlled velocities while dissipating the enormous potential energy stored in the water. It was a requirement that the very earthworks that held these water needed to be protected. A breached embankment would wipe-out the entire community that lived besides it.

The first technique used was a devised called the “Keta Sorowwa” presently known as a VT sluice or a Vertical Tower Sluice. [Sorowwa – Sinhala term for Sluice] The modern-day  “Moring Glory” spillway is an advancement of the Keta Sorowwa. A type of structure adopted when natural ground conditions are not favourable to site the excess water  spillovers in reservoirs. The Bomburu-Ella reservoir in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka on the way to Horton Plains is facilitated with a Morning Glory spill. So named as the structure depicts the  shape of the Morning Glory flower.

The Keta Sorowwa is a devise formed with a number of funnel type chute units of burnt  clay placed one on top of the other to reach the water surface. This stack is connected to a burnt clay conduit placed at the bottom of the embankment leading to the canal which distributed the water to the paddies. The theory being that… the  water pressure at the top of the surface is less  and the stored energy is manageable. The surface water of the reservoir was transferred through the tower of chutes into the canal by the clay conduit.

Once the water level of the reservoir reached the level of the uppermost chute unit the discharge ceased, and the top most chute was removed manually, re-activating the discharge of  water to the depth of the second chute. This way one could control the water issue on a chute basis and the wastage could be monitored and managed. In an emergency the chute was to be plugged stopping the water flow.

  

This Keta Sorowwa was advantages over the water table management, but needed to be improved with the advancement of techniques and knowhow to building larger reservoirs that held water to depths over 15 meters. The Keta Sorowwa managed small tanks with depth up to 3-4 meters and the loose chutes needed to be supported with stakes once the reservoir dried up as it was the water pressure around the chutes that held them vertically when submerged in water. The larger reservoirs with water heads of over 10 meters required a different technique.

Typical Section through a Biso Kotuwa

The invention of the “Biso Kotuwa” [also known as the Cistern Sluice] solved the problem of high pressures and the excessive potential energies stored in the water at these depths.

Water in the reservoir was made to enter a large rectangular vertical tower chamber that was built with large chunks of granite dressed to sit  tight sealed against each other. The water was guided into this tower chamber through a dressed stone conduit. The immense pressure and energy at these depths were dissipated within the chamber creating a calmer and lowered water level than the stored water level in the reservoir. Thus the somewhat tamed water was now released from the chamber out to the canals through two or more dressed stone conduits that were laid in level with the inlet conduit. The  throat dimension of these outlet conduits were enlarged along its path to reduce the velocity of water and  thereby  dissipate the remaining energies. It was this invention by our Sri Lankan designers then,.. that revolutionized the development and design of water conveyance from large reservoirs through sophisticated concrete and steel sluices that are being design today.

However it should be noted that some of these ancient marvels have been incorporated in our present day irrigation works as the location for sighting sluices and spillways by the present day engineers have matched perfect with the thinking of our ancient designers. The mechanism of opening and closing the inflow to the Biso Kotuwa with such an enormous pressures is still a mystery. Though the granite walls of the Biso Kutuwas’ have survived the torrents of disaster any steel and timber works that may have been incorporated in the shutoff mechanism would have perished leaving no signs of any such gated structure.

A Biso Kotuwa in the wilderness – Kandiaya palle wewa in the Walave Basin  Sabaragamuwa Province

Most of these structures are still found covered in the wilderness since our colonial rulers destroyed this water management culture during the Uva rebellion  in 1817. Those in the dry zone seem to immerge from the depths of history when  new schemes are designed and the  most suitable locations for structures are excavated. Two such unique preservations of Biso-Kotuwas’ were unearthed at Urusita Wewa or Mahagama Wewa close to  Embilipitiya and the Maduru Oya Reservoir in the Uva Province of Sri Lanka recently.

The calculations for the sluice for Maduru Oya by the present day engineers were exact to those of the ancient designer. The Maduru Oya sluice was located with its granite  conduits intact in the 1970’s when the new scheme commenced. The brickwork above each conduit in the form of a corbelled arch  distributed the load on to the walls on either side of the conduit reducing the stresses. This thick brickwork also acted as a defence against any seepage that would erode the fill material in the dam bringing destruction. This may have been the best possible solution to cope with the type of fill material they had to work with.

The best locations for Irrigation Management today were coincidentally the same that our ancient designers selected then.

The sluice conduits of the ancient Bis-Kotuwa of the Kantale reservoir were enlarged from the upper end to the lower end by a factor of seven, which agrees exactly with modern day thinking. Impervious clay was used within the core of earthen embankments, while semi-pervious material provided the bulk of the embankment, as in the modern day designs.

The only place the writer encountered an ancient Biso-Kotuwa to be incorporated in a modern day sluice design was that of the Buduruwagala Tank in Wellawaya. A section of the rectangular stone chamber is extended with reinforced concrete to form the sluice chamber where a cast iron sluice gate is installed.  The canal following from the sluice gate is the same ancient canal hewed through a rock and that rock face has a carved image of a multi hooded cobra a symbol related to water then.    

Buduruwagala Tank in Wellawaya 

The water supply to Kalawewa had been insufficient then and needed supplementation from Amban ganga through Kala Oya. This was realized a necessity during the Bowatenna diversion in 1976. Today Kala Oya is augmented with waters from Amban Ganga through a tunnel.

The best  is generally thought to be unitary,,,,,, while alternates could be many and  duplicated. ………..and it could be this that said ‘Great Minds Think Alike’

One would only understand the super ingenuity of the ancient Sri Lankan designer with the complexity of today’s designs and design theories……..


His simple cost affective innovations are still in use and will be practiced by generations to come………….

udithawijesena@gmail.com