Image House, Interior

Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

In this 1920's panel, Solias Mendis illustrates the legend of how Sanghamitta, daughter of the Indian emperor Ashoka Maurya, carried a branch of the sacred Bo Tree by boat from India to Sri Lanka. Sanghamitta is shown with the sacred cutting; she stands on the deck of her ship, and is shaded by a parasol carried by her servant. In the lower right-hand corner of the painting, the arrival of the tree is worshipfully received by a person on shore.