Painting

John Gleich

1879 – 1927
Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

• Oil on panel
  Signed lower right
  40 x 32 cms
  

Two priests on top of the steps by the Carved Moonstone.

Anuradhapura is Sri Lanka's most sacred town & was the greatest monastic city of the ancient world. From origins as a settlement in the 6th Century BC, it was made capital in 377 BC by King Pandukhabhaya (437 - 367 BC), who started the great irrigation works on which it depended, & named it after the constellation Anuradha. Mahasena, was a king of Sri Lanka who ruled the country from 275 to 301 AD. He started the construction of large tanks or reservoirs in Sri Lanka. Although only the five rectangular terraces of King Mahasena's Palace survive today, the ruins house one of the most beautifully carved moonstones in semi-circular doorsteps Anuradhapura, ornamented in classic Abhayagiriya tradition. This wonderful moonstone, originally used to purify the feet before entering a sacred or royal place, is elaborately & vibrantly adorned with symbolic carvings. Its outer band depicts the flames of desire, while the second band has a sequence of animals - elephant, horse, lion and bull - repeated three times and concluding with a further elephant, symbolising human life & its trials from birth to death. If you overcome these, as the Buddha did, you achieve the vitality represented by the climbing plants & leaves in the next band, and finally become like the geese in the next band, which have the ability to separate water and milk - to distinguish between good & evil. If you are able to overcome the next decorated band, which represents enlightenment, you come to the lotus at the centre, a symbol of nirvana.