Unveiling The Intricacies of Artisanal Mastery: Investigating Central Kandyan Temple Mural Paintings (With Specific Emphasis on Medawala Rajamaha Viharaya)
Abstract
Ancient visual art can be described as a valuable archaeological tool that brings the objective and non-objective knowledge of past human culture to the present. It can reveal a multifaceted body of information about the knowledge, skills, technology, cultural relations, ethical activities, individual and social ideologies, social stratification and the nature of social institutions possessed by humans at that time. The temple mural art of the Kandyan tradition, which spread from the late seventeenth century AD to the nineteenth century AD and centered on Kandy, is a unique milestone in the history of visual art in this country. This article focuses on whether the painting art of the Central Kandyan style is truly just a visual art, or whether it was created with some conscious political, cultural, and social understanding. Furthermore, the article investigates a number of diverse areas such as the narrative of the paintings, the use of colors and lines, the creation of human figures, the creation of symbols and motifs, the means of continuous narration, the grammar used by the artist, and the technical skills of the artist, and through this, the uniqueness and mutuality of this art movement. This study will provide an analytical commentary based on the paintings of the Medawala Tampita Viharaya, which is one of the most prominent temples in the Kandyan tradition in terms of aesthetic value. The qualitative research method will be employed as the primary method, drawing information from painting studies, museum observations, interviews with art historians, and secondary sources such as books, magazines, and internet articles
