Women in Sri Lankan Sculpture and Painting

Dublin Core

Title

Cobra-guardians

Subject

Cobras in art
Stone--bas-reliefs--Lankatilaka Vihare--Polonnaruwa--Sri Lanka

Description

Carved on the balustrades on either side of the Lankatilaka Vihare at Polonnaruva, Sri Lanka, are two naga and nagini (male and female cobras in human form) guardians from the 12th century A.D. The nagini is on the inner side of the left balustrade as you enter. Her head is framed by the same number of hoods as the naga on the opposite side indicating the naga and nagini were both considered equally important functionally in their role as guardian. With the nagini are attendant female dwarfs, one a nagini and the other bearing a flywhisk. They give her added status.

Creator

Sirima Kiribamune

Source

Lankatilaka Vihare, Polonnaruva, Sri Lanka

Date

12th century A.D.
Period of study: 1986-1987
Version: 01/12/2012

Contributor

Co-Author: Seneviratna, Harsha
Technical Officer: Wijesinghe, Lalith
Technical Assistant: Jayasundare, Subhashini
Photographer: Madanayake, I.S.
International Center for Ethnic Studies, Kandy, Sri Lanka
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, Colombo

Rights

All rights reserved by International Center for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka.

Relation

Forms part of Photographic documentation of Women as depicted in early Sri Lankan sculpture and painting / Slide in present collection

Format

JPEG 2000

Language

eng

Type

image

Identifier

PDWESLSP.S.38

Coverage

ce

Citation

Sirima Kiribamune, "Cobra-guardians," online in Digital Library for International Research Archive, Item #12535, http://www.dlir.org/archive/items/show/12535 (accessed March 29, 2024).

Geolocation

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