Nagaraja Guardstone

Guardstones are traditionally placed at the base of stairs leading to the platform of a dagaba (stupa) in Sinhalese Buddhist architecture. They are usually in the form of nagarajas, subdued snake-deities who now serve the Buddha. The nagaraja is represented holding a flowering stem and a vase of plenty (purnaghata), symbols of fertility. This example lacks the elaborate decorative frame, with makaras (mythological water creatures) and flamboyant foliage, seen on the finest examples, and dates from the end of the Anuradhapura period. It would have been one of a pair, placed at the foot of the stairs leading up to a stupa to guard the reliquary mound and its sacred contents.