In old Ceylon . awayinto the forest towards Jetavanarama and all the myriadruins that lie about the base of Jetavanarama, stretchingthrough unexplored mile after mile of jungle in alldirections. At first you go dully down an ordinary avenueof trees, past rice-fields and plantations of palm ; butthen the dagaba leaps into view, miles distant yet, butdominant over the tree-tops, and all your way is cheeredand ruled by its presence. Perfectly proportioned to themountainous dome is the mouldering square of the tee ;perfectly proportioned to both, filled with an almostdivine exquisiteness of aspira
In old Ceylon . awayinto the forest towards Jetavanarama and all the myriadruins that lie about the base of Jetavanarama, stretchingthrough unexplored mile after mile of jungle in alldirections. At first you go dully down an ordinary avenueof trees, past rice-fields and plantations of palm ; butthen the dagaba leaps into view, miles distant yet, butdominant over the tree-tops, and all your way is cheeredand ruled by its presence. Perfectly proportioned to themountainous dome is the mouldering square of the tee ;perfectly proportioned to both, filled with an almostdivine exquisiteness of aspiration, is the high, slender spirethat goes soaring so magnificently heavenwards. Thewhole dome, of course, is a waving forest of tall trees,rising like some strange sudden hill from the vast pave-ment at the base. Spire and tee are stripped now of allornament or covering—mere red brick they are, powderedand crumbling. The tee is urgently in need of under-pinning too, or else in a year or so the whole thing will. Jetavanarama Dagaba. THE THREE GREAT DAGABAS 301 come down, and Jetavanarama be numbered with the lostbeauties of the world. The road continues straight up anavenue of ruined shrines and pilgrim-houses to thesouthern portico of the Dagaba. Here bare pillars leanand topple ; a flight of broken, weed-grown steps leadson to the platform and the four altars, makeshift andlost in greenery, that mark the four cardinal points at thedagabas base. Less hitherto has been done here than atthe other august shrines, and therefore the desolation isproportionately more impressive. The sweltering silenceof the jungle, broken only by a rare bird-call, seemsattentive on the majesty of this vast abandoned dome ;and the spire hangs poised above the world in the still-ness, pointing a way upwards through peace to the perfectpeace eternal. Thick growth of thorn and weed andcoppice encumbers all the platform ; thorns fill the moatand hide the fragments fallen from the dagaba. Here,perhaps, l
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsrilankadescriptiona
