Sigiriya Lion Rock citadel, also called Simha-giri (Sinhala: Lion Mountain) built by King Kasyapa (Kassapa) (479-497 A.D), grand nephew of Buddhist scholar monk illustrious Thera Mahanama, the first of the authors of Mahawamsa the great historical chronicle of Sri Lanka, is a fortified-walled and moated-royal city with living manifestations of glorious Sinhalese civilization: its a unique combination of 5th century urban planning, architecture, engineering, hydraulic engineering, garden landscape designing, sculpture, art, painting and poetry. Sigiriya,a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is of immense archeological significance: it is one of the best preserved and most elaborate surviving urban sites in the South Asia from the first millennium A.D. The grand monuments of Sri Lanka such as great Buddhist monasteries, temples, stupas and statues were intended to serve as religious edifices. During the annals of history of Sri Lanka, these great monuments helped survive and revive the Sinhalese Buddhist Civilization threatened by the marauding Dravidian invaders from Southern India since ancient to medieval era and then again by the maritime powers of Portuguese, Dutch and the British who bent on ripping the island nation of its treasures during the colonial era. Sigiriya is of a sharply contrasting concept: it was a well planned royal city meant for a flamboyant king and his court with a palace complex centered around a solitary rock, an inselberg rising 200 m sheer out of the surrounding plains adorned with pleasant and vibrant green tropical vegetation. The great city of Sigiriya , though not of the glorious scale as the ancient capital of Anuardhapura or medieval capital of Polonnaruwa, still is a masterpiece of a citadel of a king with a heightened aesthetic disposition: it is treasure trove of art; a showcase of symbol of power; a shot at the symbolic reconstruction of Alakamanda, the mythical abode of God king Kuvera, the god of wealth.mysrilankaholidays/sigiriya.html
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:07:16 +0000
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