Apsaras Paintings

Sigiriya Rock

This pair of ladies can be compared to the other two pairs, shown in the previous pages, in support of the idea that the paintings represent Kasyapa's court ladies and their attendants. This does not necessarily contradict the idea that they also represent apsarasas, or nymphs of the celestial court. As so often in Asian art, they might well be both1: Kasyapa identified himself with Kubera, so that a portrait of his court could, simultaneously, also represent the heavenly court of the God of Wealth.

The green flesh tone in these paintings is an underlayment, that has been uncovered by deterioration and loss of the overlying pigments over time.

1In the symbolism of additive cultures, a given image can have more than one interpretation, all of which were intended and recognized as valid by the creators and viewers of the image. An appropriate mind-set is the inclusive "both-and" of multivalent symbolism, not the exclusive "either-or" of Western logic.