Polonnaruwa is an important historical place in Sri Lanka and it hides hundreds of ancient monuments along with the quadrangle. Polonnaruwa Quadrangle is a raised stone banked site in the direction north of the entrance of Polonnaruwa ancient city. There is a number of historically important monuments built on the site in the past. Most of the monuments are constructed for the purpose of storing the tooth relic. Thuparama which is built of rock (Gedige style building) is located in the South-west corner of Polonnaruwa Quadrangle. Thuparama image house, Watadage, Hatadage, Nissanka lath mandapa, sat maha Prasada, and the temple of the tooth are the 5 most important structures in the quadrangle.
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The Polonnaruwa Quadrangle
Polonnaruwa is the second most old city in Sri Lanka and part of most Sri Lanka tours and excursions. This article is about the Polonnaruwa Quadrangle, which is one of the best places to visit in Polonnaruwa, in order to see the rich historical past of Polonnaruwa. Quadrangle hides many important places to visit in the ancient city of Polonnaruwa. The quadrangle has a well-preserved monument numbering seven.
Important monuments of the quadrangle
Polonnaruwa Quadrangle is a raised stone banked site in the direction of north the entrance of Polonnaruwa ancient city. There is a number of historically important monuments built on the site in the past. Most of the monuments are constructed for the purpose of storing the tooth relic. Thuparama which is built of rock (Gedige style building) is located in the South-west corner of Polonnaruwa Quadrangle. Thuparama image house, Watadage, Hatadage, Nissanka lath mandapa, sat maha Prasada, and the temple of the tooth are the 5 most important structures in the quadrangle.
How to visit Polonnaruwa quadrangle
Venturing on a tour of Polonnaruwa’s ancient city is the best way to visit the Polonnaruwa quadrangle. Usually, a tour to Polonnaruwa is included in most Sri Lanka multi-day Sri Lanka trips. However, a few short trips such as Sigiriya, Dambulla and Polonnaruwa tours are also viable options to visit the Polonnaruwa and quadrangle.
Thuparama image house
Thuparama is a Buddhist image house, which considered being the best-preserved historical monument in Polonnaruwa ancient city. The history of the building is unknown, however, there are pieces of evidence to prove that it had been used as an image house. The Image is housed built in such as way that it is aligned east-west with an entrance bay on the eastern side.
Considering the external ornamental of the building, it may be dated back to the 12th century. Two other image houses in Polonnaruwa (Lankathilaka and Thiwanka-image house) are shown a lot of similarities with the Thuparama image house. The other two image houses are located further to the north of the medieval capital.
Circumambulation of this monument enables the visitor to observe that the lower reliefs in brick and stucco around the monument are lions with forepaws raised in each figure. Above the stylobate, the walls of the shrine are ornamented with numerous buildings shown in relief. The image house is very similar to the pronaos (mandapa), which has another side entrance from the direction north, then a vestibule and finally the sanctum which houses the image of Buddha.
The main Buddha statue of the building that is in a seated posture is situated in the centre of the building. The huge Buddha statue which is located on a colossal brick pedestal is severely damaged and be seen close to the back wall of the shrine. At present, there are many Buddha statues within the shrine, 1 Buddha statue made of limestone is in the upright position, few other seated Buddha statues can also be witnessed here, which are dating back to an earlier period.
The vaulted roofs and the central part of the buildings are still in good condition, it indicated the manner in which the roofs of other buildings of that period were constructed. The wall of the building is 1 meter thick, and therefore the inner chamber is dark even during the day. However, the ancient engineers designed it ingeniously thereby the chamber is illuminated by sunlight during the day. The light sunlight the thick wall through a hole in the roof.
Vatadage
Vatadage (Circular image house) is located in the direction of North-East of the Thuparama image house. Vatadage is one of the most important buildings in the Polonnaruwa Quadrangle and dated back to the 12th century. There is a dagoba within the circular building.
The Dagoba is constructed on a circular platform built of stone masonry, which in turn is built on a bigger circular terrace circumscribed by a rounded kerb with an entrance porch on the northern side. There are four seated Buddha statues placed against the dagoba and around it, Buddha statues are facing the four entrances to the upper terrace in cardinal directions.
There had been three circles of stone pillars around the dagoba, which suggest an existence of a roof over the dagoba or the area around the dagoba. Outside the second circle of pillars is a brick wall, and a carved stone screen that connects the outermost line of pillars encompasses the shrine.
The reliefs on this screen consist of quatre-foil flowers arranged in a diaper pattern with small flowers in the interstices. The remaining wall of the upper terrace is decorated with figures of dwarfs and lions. The guard stones of the Vatadage are in good condition, especially the guard stone of the eastern side considered to be one of the best-preserved monuments in the city.
Thuparama the best-preserved monument in the Polonnaruwa Quadrangle
Thuparama is regarded as the best-preserved ancient monument in the city of Polonnaruwa Quadrangle. Thuparama is an image house on the premises called the Quadrangle, where there are 7 religious constructions. The quadrangle is situated at the highest point of Polonnaruwa.
The age of Thuparama is not known to anybody but most archaeologists opine it originated during the medieval period, nearly 1000 years old. The external ornamentation of the building had been very helpful to judge the antiquity of the temple. Thuparama is one of the three image houses in Polonnaruwa and other image houses are also located near Thuparama.
Thuparama has a large collection of murals on the outside wall of Thuparama. Some of the important artefacts discovered during the excavation at Thuparama are now placed in the Polonnaruwa museum.
Round the building is lions with a forepaw raised. Thuparama is a brick building and it is the best-preserved historical monument in Polonnaruwa. This impressive building had been an image house. There are several standing and seated Buddha statues even today. It is difficult to imagine this image house was in very bad condition as it was discovered during the British administration in the country.
Thuparama image house is dedicated to Buddhism, the most widely practised religion in Sri Lanka. The main statue of the image house had been placed on a raised platform of bricks. The pedestal is colossal and centrally situated. The pedestal can be seen even today but the statue is not to be seen anymore. At present, there are several standing limestone Buddha statues. Those are the size of a human. One seated Buddha statue in the meditation posture is also located on the left side of the pedestal.