PLAN OF THE TOPMOST PORTION OF THE INNER CITY OF SIGIRIYA. (BASED ON A CEYLON GOVERNMENT SURVEY MAP)

The right-hand side of the map is the north side, the top is the west.

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LARGER IMAGE]

The ground that lies at the base of the rock is not less interesting than that upon its summit. Over the wooded sides of the little hill that culminates in the great shaft, and spreading out into the jungle about its foot, are the remains of the city that Kassapa built for his army and followers. A strange city it must have been. The main houses were of brick with tiled roofs, but these more formal dwellings were supplemented by semi-caves tucked under the sides of every available boulder. All the large stones show notches, cut evidently to hold the ends of rafters and roof-beams. Up many of the highest boulders steps have been hewn, possibly to make them accessible as watch-towers, and at almost every turn one comes upon the indispensable cistern that made living through the long dry season possible. Some of these reservoirs were hewn out of solid stone, but most were built of brick and cement, and the one little stream in the neighborhood was dammed to form a large pond, which even now lies like a lake at the foot of the little hill. So there was an outer city interspersed with gardens, an inner city set on innumerable terraces up the slope of the hill, and surmounting all, lifted four hundred feet above the crest of the hill on its gigantic pedestal, stood the king’s palace and citadel. And about all the city Kassapa built great protecting walls. So three times over Kassapa fortified himself.

We tried to trace the main passageway from the outer fortification to the foot of the gallery, but we had only our imagination for a guide. When we came to the huge balloon-like boulders that form a gateway to a flight of steps, we felt sure that we had found the main entrance to the inner city. The face of these boulders showed the usual cuts for the support of rafters, and we could trace about them in masses of decaying brick the outer walls of what might have been watchmen’s lodges. Up these steps and a few feet farther on lies the stone that is called the audience-hall rock. This is the half of a great elliptical rock laid round side down. Its upper surface has been cut to form a floor, with an elevated platform at the upper end, and about its edges a heavy coping, all cut from the rock itself. Here presumably the lord of the city sat to receive ambassadors and visitors from the outside world, as no one not a follower of Kassapa was admitted to the central citadel.

But strangest of all the Sigiriya ruins, as unique in thought and masterly in execution as the great spiral gallery itself, are the remains of a pictured procession that some believe once marched across the whole face of the cliff. The fragments of this great picture show female figures, larger than life, carrying in their hands bunches of fruit and flowers. They are painted on smooth, white plaster in colors that apparently have lost none of their brilliancy, and are so strongly drawn in face and figure that by some they are held to be portraits of the women of Kassapa’s court. Though this fresco may have encircled the rock, it remains now only in the protected crevices of its western face.

For eighteen years Kassapa lived and reigned at Sigiriya. He was as secure in his fortress as though he lived in the clouds. His army remained faithful. His colony was thriving, and yet in the end he fell into the hands of that dreaded Moggallana. One day word was brought to him that his brother had returned from India, and with an army was advancing against him. Instead of remaining within his fortifications and challenging his brother to penetrate to his citadel, he went down from his rock to meet his enemy.

Even then he might have been victorious had not blind chance interfered. In the course of the battle, Kassapa, riding in advance of his army, came to a marsh, and turned his elephant to avoid it. When his followers saw this, the cry went up that the king was retreating, and the whole army broke in confusion, and fled through the woods. Kassapa tried in vain to check the panic, and finally cut his own throat. And “Moggallana was pleased with this deed of boldness of his brother, and performed the rite of cremation over his dead body; and having gathered all his spoils, went up to the royal city.”

So Sigiriya fell from being a kingly citadel, and was given over to the priesthood. Why it was finally abandoned by the priests we do not know, but for centuries now it has stood in majestic loneliness watching over the jungle.