Polonnaruwa Bronzes And Siva Worship And Symbolism

The author reveals that this thin book is a record of sorts of the idols in bronze recovered in 1907 ? 1908 while excavating the buried site of the complex of Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka. As the name suggests, the book is about the iconography of the Hindu god Siva. There are 11 plates that show the images being described, and are of Siva, and also of his consort. An interesting idol of Siva as a female is included among the images. The Siva Dewale No. 1 is the choicest example of a Hindu temple found at Polonnaruwa, if not throughout the Island, and lies just south of the elevated quadrangle within which lie the ruins of Buddhist and Hindu shrines, combining the architectural features of Ceylon, South India and Cambodia in strange and not inharmonious grouping. The Dewale is all of carved stone, delicately fitted and wrought. The temple is similar in plan and structure to, but more elaborated than, the Siva Dewale No. 5, or the better preserved shrine indicated in Bell?s Report as ? Siva Dewale No. 2,? but hitherto called Vishnu Dewale in spite of its obtrusive indications of Siva worship, the bull and the lingam still found there. Before proceeding to a description of them, he will deal with their probable date. Rea (Superintendent of the Archseological Survey, Southern Circle, Madras Presidency) declares the temples to be similar in outline to Chola and Pandya temples of the 11th and 12th centuries in India.