.priyanthab

gallery

This is the final of my Cave temple series. Cave 4- Paschima Viharaya means" the Western Temple. It is about fifty feet long. and twenty feet wide. The roof is about twenty seven feet high. and dips steeply towards the back wall. This cave has ten figures of the Buddha all of equal size and proportion. The principal sedant figure is placed under a Thorana. an archway. in the classical posture of meditation. the Dhyana Mudra. The facial features. lips, eyes and nose are clearly and finely delineated, the ear lobs pierced. The forehead recedes to the hairline. The hair is treated as rows of dots. which rise to a bun-shaped top-knot at the top of the head. Using the groove technique the sculptor has cleverly shown; the robe in loose. Flowing folds covering the body from shoulder to feet. leaving the right shoulder bare and the neck is depicted by three grooves. This statue hewn out of the rock. is painted in the brilliant colours of the Kandyan period of painting and remains in a very fine state of preselVation. The other images placed in two rows to the right and left of the principal Image is cut out of the rock. They are painted in blight colours. Most of them are of human proportion. While a few are larger.