Abstract:
The Department of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya was established in 1979. Serving
the department were three Professors, namely Abhaya Ariyasinghe, Senake
Bandaranayake and H.T Basnayake, serving at different times, whose contributions
have received national and international acclaim. There is no doubt that we can class
them as savants in the field of archaeology.
Architectural remains of Buddhist monasteries, in terms of size and number, constitute
the most significant branch of archaeology. The specialization area or the doctoral
research of these Professors was Buddhist monasticism in Sri Lanka. This paper is
intended to examine the approaches of these Professors in the field of Buddhist
monastic architecture. It can be seen that there are two approaches to the study, the first
is a historical approach and the second is a social approach.
Abhaya Ariyasinghe and H. T. Basnayake attempted to recognize a considerable
number of details pertaining to particulars of monastic units as mentioned in the ancient
chronicles. The publication of all existing remains of Buddhist monasteries under
architecture would be a valuable record in order to study the historical context of the
subject. Therefore, it can be said that Ariyasinghe and Basnayake developed the forms
and concepts in the context of the historical approach (Gunawardhana, 2003). However,
the decade of 1970 marks a turning point when there were two significant lines of
development in archaeology (Trigger, 1989). First, the critical analysis of literary sources
and inscriptional evidence that constituted the initial framework. Secondly, the research
components as initiated by other disciplines of theoretical studies and other analytical
methods in examining the Buddhist monasteries. The scholar who has engaged himself
in Buddhist monastic scholarship in systematically analyzing the various types of these
institutions, the individual building units and the theoretical framework of the monasteries
is Senake Bandaranayake, who developed the social approach.
