A cultural and archeological study of kotiyagala (mailla) Cave paintings

Abstract

Sri Lanka has a relatively large number of forest cave temples. Most of them have not attracted the attention of researchers and only a few of them have been researched. The reason is that most of these cave temples are located in forested areas away from human habitation. Reaching those places is also very difficult. But very valuable paintings are found in caves located in such places. Due to the lack of proper preservation, the paintings are facing the threat of destruction at a rapid rate. Kotiyagala Mailla Lenvihara is also a place where such precious paintings are hidden. Paintings from four regions are mainly represented here. Only the paintings on the left side remain of them. The main question of this research is to find out what are the socio-economic cultural political factors that influenced Kotiyagala painting. Research methods such as field study, interviews, and library study have been used to collect data mainly using empirical research methodology. The main objective of this research is to study the socioeconomic and cultural factors that influenced the Kotiyagala paintings and to which tradition the style and structural features of the Kotiyagala paintings show the most similarities. The sample of this research was Kotiyagala Mailla Lenvihara which was selected through random sampling.