The Sinhalese Kastane: Its Development, Decoration and Symbolism

[David]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams David, Certainly no deception on my behalf. I simply illustrate that learned bodies such as The Victoria and Albert describe the hilt in different ways and it is not my intention to go into why they think a dragon has a mane.. After all you may view the hilt as a lion like shape but many other specialists use a different explanation including prestigious museums etc.

Perhaps you have missed my point Ibrahiim, which was more about the WAY you presented the information than the information itself.
I would be more inclined to view prestigious museums such as the Victoria and Albert as "generalists" rather than "specialists". They are a museum of art and design that houses almost 5 million objects ranging from fashion and David Bowie to gothic art and photojournalism. I don't think that it would be fair to say that they are "specialists" on the kastane simply because they are a well established museum.
I am not sure what "experts" you are referring to that you would rather leave this discussion to, however i would like to point out that the zoomorphic symbolism of the pommel is the very first discussion point Jim brings up in his recap on the past discussions and i have only posted here because YOU yourself have brought the subject up yet again.