Polonnaruwa Gal Vihara

Polonnaruwa's rock-hewn Buddha Statues - in brief

 "Gal Vihara", also spelt "Gal Viharaya", means “Rock Monastery”. It's the name of Sri Lanka’s most celebrated rock-cut Buddha statues. They once belonged to the Uttara Rama, meaning “Northern temple”, founded by Polonnaruwa’s great King Parakramabahu I (1153-86). The Gal Vihara group consists of four fascinating statues, three colossal rock-cut images and a smaller one in a partly artificial cave. The Gal Vihara sculptures, each different in design, are undoubtedly  the most perfect specimen of Buddha statues hewn out of solid granite in Sri Lanka. All four images are hallowed out of the abrupt eastern slope of a single massive boulder, which is about 27 meters in length and 10 meters in height. They are still in a good state of preservation. In order to protect them from acid rain, the resplendent images are sheltered under a new roof, the aesthetic perfection of which might be debatable.

The colossal sitting Buddha image of Gal Vihara is 4.5 m (15 ft) high and sits in a huge rock niche, framed by a Torana, and on a low pedestal, the front of which has panels showing lion figures in front view.

The enigmatic standing Buddha of Polonnaruwa’s Gal Vihara group, 7 m (23 ft) tall, shows an unusual gesture with the arms crossed in front of the breast. Because of this gesture of devotion, scholars have speculated and most tour guides believe that this is not an image of the Buddha but of his favourite disciple Ananda grieving for his master who is passing away beside him. There is an ongoing controversy about the meaning of this imposing and also very charming rock statue. It’s most likely, it actually depicts the Buddha and not Ananda.

Next to the colossal seated Buddha is a cave with pillars carved into the cliff similar to Buddhist cave temples in India. In the middle of this semi-artificial cave is a second sedentary Buddha image, the arms of which are also in the meditation gesture called Dhyani. The legs  show the same “hero posture” called Virasana that can be seen at the larger statue, too . The excellently carved image is placed on a throne and under a canopy, flanked by a Torana with deities and servents and mythical crocodiles called Makaras.

The most admired image of Gal Vihara is South Asia's largest reclining Buddha from ancent times, 14m (46 ft) long, depicting his passsing away into the final and eternal Nibbana (Pari-Nirvana)

 

 

 

History of the Gal Vihara rock temple - and its rediscovery

The Gal Vihara appears to mentioned in Sri Lanka’s ancient chronicle, the Mahavamsa, or more precisely, it’s second part which is sometimes referred to as the Chulavamsa. The Culavamsa part was writen during the Polonnaruwa and Dambadeniya periods, most probably under the Kings Parakramabahu I and Parakramabahu II respectively. The Gal Viahra’s name given in the chronicle is Uttara Rama, meaning “northern monastery”. The name refers to its location in the northern part of the capital Polonnaruwa and just north of the main monastic complex which is called Alahena Parivena today. 

The Chronicle attributes a sedent and a reclining Buddha of the Uttara Rama to the great King Parakramabahu I. (1152-86). It does not not mention a standing Buddha statue, which contributes to some speculation concerning the time of origin and the identification of the standing rock statue of the Gal Vihara group.

Polonnaruwa’s Gal Vihara marks an important development in Buddhist history. The rock sculptures are remarkable in many respects. Though they still bear traces of Mayanist influences, the recling Buddha in particular is a new form of rock-cut Buddhas indicating a shift from worship of supernatural giant Buddhas to the more human form of the historical Buddha. Accordingly, the rock inscriptions of the Gal Vihara are significant sources of a principal development in the island’s Buddhist history: They record a monastic reform under the auspices of King Parakramabahu I, the result of which was the unification of the previous three monastic traditions (Nikayas), now in accordance with the Mahavihara tradition, which was purely Theravadic. From then on, Theravada has remained to be the predominant, or some say: sole form of Buddhism on the island. Parakramabahu’s Buddhist reform, documented at the Gal Vihara in Polonnaruwa, is of significance of Southeast Asian religious history, too. The pure form of Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia became predemoninant there, too, namely under the name “Sinhalese” or “Mahavihara” school.

After the fall of Polonnaruwa in the middle of the 13th century, caused by the maroding troops of the invader Kalinga Magha, Polonnaruwa fell into decay. Though the imposing rock statues have never been unknown to locals, who indeed created the modern name “Gal Vihara” or “Kalugala Viharaya” for them, the statues in the jungles were an exciting discovery for British explorers in the 19th century.       

The first colonial officer who visited the Gal Vihara statues and reported about them, was Lieutenant Fagan in 1820.

Major Jonathan Forbes mentioned the rock-cut statues of Polonnaruwa in his famous travel log “Eleven Years in Ceylon”, first published in 1840 in London.

Samuel Baker, who later on became famous as explorer of the River Nile, saw the Gal Vihara rock statues and made a record of them in one of his first books, “Eight Years' Wanderings In Ceylon”, published in 1855.

Photos of the sculptures were taken for the first time in 1858. In the begin of the 1860s, Sir James Emerson Tennant, a noteworthy colonial secretary of Ceylon 1845-1850, described the Gal Vihara, too. But the first scientific account was written by James Ferguson in his “History of Indian and Eastern Architecture”, punlished 1910 in London). The report of British Ceylon’s most famous Archaelogical Commissioner, H.C.P. Bell mentioning his predecessors is cited below, given at the end of this webpage.

 

Sedentary Buddha - Vijjadhara Guha

 

 The four sites of the Buddha statues of the Gal Vihara are called “caves”, though the three huge ones are not posted below rock sheltered but sculptured in partly artificial rock niches, except from the one small Buddha image seated in a cave indeed. The Gal Vihara rock measures 52 m (170 ft) in length, Along the 26 m long centrepiece, the rock is 10 m high, it then falls away gradually towards each end.

Sockets cut into the rock just behind the statues indicate that the walls had originally separated the statue from one another. Accordingly, remnants of brick foundations walls testify that each of the four figures was enshrined in a separate image house. The images were not intended to decorate a rock surface picturesquely but to be venerated inside shrine rooms, three of them with vaulted brick walls. Those “cave rooms” were only illuminated by small windows and candle light. This means, originally the immense statues were not exposed to sunshine as today. The figures were once plastered and painted in the same manner as other images in Sri Lanka’s cave temples.

The southernmost of the fours “caves” is Vijjadhara Guha, also transcribed Vijjadhdharaguha. The huge artificial alcove contains the island’s largest ancient image of a sedent Buddha, measuring 4.6 m (15 ft. 2.5 in) in height. The serene exquisitely carved Vijjadharaguha Buddha Image is regarded as one of Asia’s best specimen of seated rock statues at all. It’s cut back 5 m (17 ft.) for the shrine of the colossal sedentary Buddha statue.

The seated Vijjadharaguha sculpture is depicted in the common meditation gesture, which is called Samadhi Mudra or Dhyani Mudra, both hands are placed on the lap, right hand on left with fingers fully stretched. The-flame like symbol of enlightenment over the head of Buddha is called Siraspata.

The imposing rock-cut Vijjadharaguha figure sits on a throne, an Asana, the front of which is decorated with lions and thunderbolt symbols. The latter are noteworthy, because “Vajras”, as they are called, are indicating influence of the Tantic form of Mahayana Buddhism, which is otherwise even more alien to the Polonnaruwa art than to the previous Anuradhapura period.

Behind the head of the Vijjadharaguha Buddha is a bas-relief of a halo. The entire figure is framed by a relief in the shape of an arch, which is called Prabhamandala in Indian art. It resembles a Torana, a wooden gate, which is richly ornamented. Heads of the mythical crocodile-dragons called Makaras can be seen projecting on either side, holding small lions in their mouths. The upper part of the arch carries small celestial palaces or shrines with bas reliefs depicting Buddhas in their front niches or entrances.

Due to some Tantric symbolism of the Asana and the Prabhamandala, it has been speculated that the Vijjadharaguha Buddha does not represent the historical Buddha Shakyamuni but the cosmic Buddha Vairocana, one of the eternal Adibuddhas in Tantric Buddhism. The four small images of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, all of them in Samadhi Mudra, too, could then represent the four directions of the universe, like in a Tantric Mandala.

Cave Statue - Nisinnapatima Guha

 

 There is only one cave room at the Gal Vihara which is hallowed out of the solid rock as a complete shrine room, using the rock as its ceiling. Presumably, this was a natural cave artificially enlarged to a rectangular cave room. The Pali name is Nisinnapatimaguha. This so-called “Excavated Cave” of Polonnaruwa’s Gal Vihara is the only example of an ancient cave in Sri Lanka, which is man-made and therefore resembling Buddhist cave temples of mainland India. Traces of wall-paintings can be seen on the walls of the Nisinnapatimaguha cave, too.

The Excavated Cave, too, houses a rock-carved sedent Buddha sculpture in Samadhi Mudra. Measuring 1.4 m (4 ft. 7 in.) in height, the image inside the cave is of course much smaller in size than the neighbouring Vijjadharaguha Buddha, but it’s excellently carved and charming indeed. This rock-cut image is seated on an almost 1 m high pedestal, a Padmasana, which means “Lotos Seat”. The Nisinnapatimaguha Buddha is depicted under a parasol. Only the body of this sedentary Buddha is framed by a Prabhamandala arch, which is of rectangular form. Makara-Dragons are displayed in anupright position. Besides the foot of the arch, there are two noteworthy figures depicting attendants with flywhisks. Flywhisks are called “chamara” or “prakirnaka” in Indian art. In Tantric Buddhism, they represent the sweeping away of obstacles to enlightenment. In Hindu art, flywhisks are emblems of royal dignity and souvereignty.

The halo surrounding the head is clearly marked. On either side of the head are minuscule images of Brahma to the right and Vishnu to the left of the of the Nisinnapatimaguha Buddha, both guardian deities are depicted four-armed.

 

 

Gal Vihara rock inscription - and Parakramabahu's monastic reform

 

Next to the entrance of Excavated Cave (Nisinnapatima Guha) is the famous Gal Vihara inscription on the sloping rock between the cave and the standing image. It’s one of Sri Lanka’s longest ancient inscriptions at all. It contains the records of King Parakramabahu I. about his convening of a Buddhist council in 1165 in order to restore the order by establishment of rules for good conduct and monastic discipline. Many monks, who had children or were engaged in magical rituals, which is not in accordance with the Vinaya rules of the Sangha, were expelled from the Buddhist order.

In particular, this Gal Vihara rock insciption mentions the king's efforts to unite the Buddhist order under a single Nikaya tradition, that of the ancient Mahavihara.

Convening a council, purifying the order from monks’ bad conduct, unifying the Sangha as well as well as recording this in inscription, all of this belongs to a tradition of significant Buddhist kings established by none other than the famous Indian Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century B.C.E. After periods of corruption of monastic discipline, important Sri Lankan Kings were engaged in restructuring the Sangha. Parakramabahu the Great is the best example. Such edicts are called Katikavata in Sri Lankan history.

Accordingly, the text quotes the king: “Seeing again and again a blot on the immaculate Buddhist religion if a mighty monarch like myself were to remain indifferent the religion might perish and many living beings would be destined for hell. Let me serve the religion that it might last a thousand years”.

The new code of conduct for monks was drawn up with the help of the most renowned monk of the Polonnaruwa period, Mahakassapa from Dimbulagala, who followed the Theravadic traditions of the Sri Lanka’s most ancient monastery, the Mahavihara in Anuradhapura. Mahakassapa became the “Sangharaja”, the “King of the Buddhist Order”. Though the period of a unified Sangha under a hierarchical leadership disappeared again with the fall of Polonnaruwa, there is one legacy of Parakramabahu’s Sangha reform lasting in Sri Lanka till the present day. It was from Parakramabahu’s Buddhist Council onwards, that the Theravada school of Buddhism, the “Elders’ Teaching”, has been the sole accepted form of Buddhism on the island. In this respect, the significance of the events recorded in the Gal Vihara inscription cannot be underestimated for the culture of Sri Lanka and beyond.

That the Sri Lankan Buddhist tradition was held in high esteem during that period, can be learned from the account of a Tibetan envoy who visited Bodhgaya, the holiest place of worship in India for all Buddhists. His report from 1235 states, he counted 300 Sinhales monks at the Buddhist main shrine, who were in charge of keeping the sacred place intact.

 

Standing Gal Vihara Statue - Utthitapatima Guha

 

 

The rock-cut statue is 7 m (23 ft) tall statue. It’s a masterpiece of art and stonemasonry. The identity of the standing figure of Polonnaruwa’s Gal Vihara group is one of the most controversial issues in Buddhist art history. Popular belief as well as many educated tour guides consider it to be a depiction of Ananda, the Buddha’s favourite disciple, mourning besides the reclining Buddha statue, which definitely represents the passing away of the Master. Nevertheless, it is much more likely, that this mystic standing rock statue of Gal Vihara is a Buddha image.

The 78th chapter of the Mahawansa (belonging to the part called Chulavansa) states that Parakrama caused cunning workmen to make three caves in the rock, the cave of the spirits of knowledge, the cave of the sitting image, and the cave of the sleeping image. No mention is made of the standing image. But the brick foundation could provide evidence this separate cave with the standing image was a later addition, just to add a "standing posture" to the already existing sedent and recumbent ones in order to assemble all three common postures of Buddha stues in Sri Lanka. Others expain the missing reference in the chronicles in just the opposite way: The standing image is earlier, maybe from the same period as Sri Lanka’s other rock-hewn status such as Aukana Buddha. Both the latter explanation is not entirely convincing. The styles of the upright ant the nearby lying statue in Polonnaruwa are quite similar, particular the round face and the elaborate but very thin garment of the standing statue resemble those of the other Gal Vihara statues much more than those of rock-cut statues from the previous Anuradhapura period.

The main reason for the controversy and for identifying this marvellous statue as Ananda is the gesture of crossing the hands on the chest. Sri Lanka’s most renowned archaeologist, Senarat Paranavitana, was of the opinion that it represents the Buddha himself in grief, namely as Paradukkha-dukkhita, this is sorrowing for the sorrows of others. Similarly, other authors believe that this Buddha statue depicts the Buddha’s great compassiontowards all sentinent beings, which is called “Maha Karuna”.

Today’s most widely accepted theory was put forward by Prof. Leelananda Prematilleke, former Head of the renowned Department of Archaeology of the University of Peradeniya and Coordinating Director of the UNESCO - Sri Lanka Project of the Cultural Triangle. He assumed that the upright statue of Gal Vihara represents the Buddha in the second week after attaining enlightenment. He spent this week paying respect to the Bodhi tree and the lotus seat below the tree. Therefore a Bodhi tree was planted recently there by the custodians of the Cultural Triangle Project.

  

Contra identification as Ananda statue

 

* Buddha images with crossed arms are uncommon but not completely unknown. There are many examples in Southeast Asia, and at least one of them is earlier than the Gal Vihara standing statue. Standing Buddha statues with crossed armes are also known from the later Kandyan art in Sri Lanka.

* Disciples like Ananda are usually depicted baldheaded. Curles indicate a depiction of a Buddha.

* The elongated ears of the statue are typical for Buddha images, not a feature of diciples.

* In Buddhist iconography, the Padmasana, a pedestal in the form of a lotus throne, is usually reserved for Buddha statues.

* The grieving Ananda is usually depicted at the feet of a dying Buddha, not at his head.

* It is clear, from the marks in the rock and the brick foundation walls in front of it, that the standing statue of Gal Vihara had a separate shrine, where it was the principal idol of veneration, which would be unthinkable for a statue of Ananda.

Reclining Buddha of Polonnaruwa - Nipannapatima Guha

Sri Lanka’s iconic Gal Vihara Reclining Buddha is 14 m (46 ft) long. In spite of the colossal dimensions, the statue is graceful and resonating with peace. The liquid flow of the robes over the body has been much admired.

The soles of the Buddha's feet are decorated with a lotus blossom and other auspicious marks of royalty or Buddhahood.

Typically for the Polonnaruwa period, the Gal Vihara Reclining Buddha has a round face with a high forehead. The feet are not entirely parallel as it would be for sleeping Buddhas. The The left foot of the Buddha resting on the right is slightly drawn back. In Buddhist iconography, this is a feature marking the moment of the passing-away and attaining the final Nirvana. which is called Mahaparinirvana in Sanskrit and Mahaparinibbana in Pali.

There is a debate, if this is nevertheless a depiction of a sleeping Buddha instead of an expiring Buddha. The reason is: If the upright standing statue nearby is not Ananda, then there are no attendents. Earlier Indian representations of the Mahapariniravana usually show Ananda and some more disciples standing at the feet of the Buddha.

The sleeping Buddha is a much more common motive in Sri Lankan art than the expiring Buddha. This is why some interpret this image as a depiction of a sleeping Buddha in the so-called “Lion Posture” (Sihasana or Sinhasana). It’s also called the “pose of the sleeping lion”, as the lion sleeps resting its head on its paw.

The Buddha rests his head on an elaborately decorated cylindrical pillow, the carving of which is carefully executed. It has a slight depression under the weight of the head. The pillow is decorated with the Chakra, the eternal wheel. The very centre of the pillow shows a so-called “Lion-Face” (Kirthimukha).

The so called “Cave of Reclining Image” (“Nipannapatima Guha”) was indeed an image house with brick walls on three sides. The image house once sheltering this impressive recumbent sculpture had its own separate entrance and two windows additionally.