In later times a curious practice prevailed, which exists to the present day;—on occasions when it is intended to make offerings of yellow robes to the priesthood, the cotton was plucked from the tree at daybreak, and "cleaned, spun, woven, dyed, and made into garments" before the setting of the sun. This custom, called Catina Dhawna, is first referred to in the Rajaratnacari in the reign of Prakrarna I.[1], A.D. 1153.
1: See ante, [Vol. II p. 35.] Rajaratnacari, pp. 104, 109, 112, 135; Rajavali, p. 261; HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. xii. pp. 114, 121.
The expression "made into garments" alludes to the custom enjoined on the priests of having the value of the material destroyed, before consenting to accept it as a gift, thus carrying out their vow of poverty. The robe of Gotama Buddha was cut into thirty pieces, these were again united, so that they "resembled the patches of ground in a rice field;" and hence he enjoined on his followers the observance of the same practice.[1]
1: HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. xii. p. 117. See ante, [Vol. I. Pt. III. ch. iv. p. 351.]
The arts of bleaching and dyeing were understood as well as that of weaving, and the Mahawanso, in describing the building of the Ruanwellé dagoba, at Anarajapoora, B.C. 161, tells of a canopy formed of "eight thousand pieces of cloth of every hue."[1]
1: Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 179, See also ch. xxxviii. p. 258.
Earliest Artisans.—VALENTYN, writing on the traditional information acquired from the Singhalese themselves, records the belief of the latter, that in the suite of the Pandyan princess, who arrived to marry Wijayo, were artificers from Madura, who were the first to introduce the knowledge and practice of handicrafts amongst the native population. According to the story, these were goldsmiths, blacksmiths, brass-founders, carpenters, and stone-cutters.[1]
1: VALENTYN, Oud en Niew Oost-Indien, chap. iv. p. 267.
The legend is given with more particularity in an historical notice of the Chalia caste, written by Adrian Rajapaxa, one of their chiefs, who describes these immigrants as Peskare Brahmans, who were at first employed in weaving gold tissues for the queen, but who afterwards abandoned that art for agriculture. A fresh company were said to have been invited in the reign of Devenipiatissa, and were the progenitors of "Saleas, at present called Chalias," who inhabit the country between Galle and Colombo, and who, along with their ostensible occupation as peelers of cinnamon, still employ themselves in the labours of the loom.[1] All handicrafts are conventionally regarded by the Singhalese as the occupations of an inferior class; and a man of high caste would submit to any privation rather than stoop to an occupation dependent on manual skill.
1: A History of the Chalias, by ADRIAN RAJAPAXA. Asiatic Res. vol. vii. p. 440. Ib., vol. x. p. 82.