Fig. 4.8 Sigiri nymphs painted on the walls of Sigiriya Rock: These paintings depict the nature of art prevailed in the royal
palace in the 5 th century. Scholars say that these paintings represent Meghalatha, thunder clouds and Vijjulatha, lightning.
leader of Islamic religion, was alive, a group
of people from Sarandib had arrived in Arab
to get a clear idea of his doctrine. The Muslim
commercial domination, started by the
Abbaseede centred on Bhagdad, spread in Asia
between 751 – 1258 A.D. The Arabic historian Al
- Bhalasuri who lived in the 9th century A.D., has
mentioned that the Sri Lankan rulers had taken
proper measures to manage the international
trade affairs well.
4.3.3 Education
There was an organized method to acquire
knowledge and publicize it in this country from
ancient time. At the early stages knowledge was
passed from generation to generation through
exercise and listening to someone. When we
study the similarities of the styles and finishing
of the clay pots containing burnt human remains
and the clay tub burials built in several places
since 4400 year ago, it is very obvious that the
knowledge on the technology that was needed
to make those things had been gathered in an
organized manner.As it was mentioned early in this lesson, the
group which is named as ‘Achariya’ in the oldest
inscriptions in our country is teachers. The
things taught by those teachers were mentioned
in the places where they had been introduced.
They have been introduced as “Dhanu Achariya”,
“Hathi Achariya”, and “Asa Achariya”. They
were the teachers who taught archery, the art
of controlling tuskers, and the art of controlling
horses respectively.After Buddhism was rooted in this country,
Buddhist temples and monasteries became the