Pottuvil snapshot 2

The only moonstone where the elephants have mahouts. So the inscription says. But standing in the sun, peering down at the moonstone, doubt flickers. An iron fence stops people approaching as you try to get closer and see — is it true?

The elephants in the outer ring follow each other joyfully, trunks reaching out delicately, each tapping the one in front. Perhaps that tiny figure perched at one end could be a mahout but I prefer to think not. The animals look too happy, too unburdened. If the animals carved in moonstones were meant to depict the cycle of life from which we never escape — birth, old age, disease, death — why did their creator make them look so free?

Photos taken at Magul Maha Viharaya, Pottuvil