The Gal Vihara is one of the finest groups of sculpture found anywhere in the world. It has been the site of worship for many millions of devotees. The recumbent figure, almost 50 feet in length, expresses a calmness of nirvana, symbolized in the plastic pliability of a human body very diligently cut out of hard granite. The standing figure, in a separate shrine, epitomizes calmness. This image depicts the rare mudra of animisalochanci, where the Buddha is standing in front of the Bo tree in the seventh week after enlightenment to pay his personal respects to the tree for having provided shelter while he was meditating. (It is for this reason that a senior film director of a British television organization cited Buddha as being the first naturalist.)
The delicately-sculpted figure protected in a cave has many decorative features of the makara thorana, or dragon entrance, and other Hindu deities flanking the image shrine. The seated figure even further in the distance expresses elegance, sublimity and awe that would command the attention and quiet of even noisy children.
