[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xix. p. 116.]

[Footnote 2: Ibit., ch. x. p. 66. The Chandala in one of the Jatakas is represented as "one born in the open air, his parents not being possessed of a roof; and as he lies amongst the pots when his mother goes to cut fire-wood, he is suckled by the bitch along with her pups."—HARDY'S Buddhism, ch. iii. p. 80.]

Slavery.—The existence of slavery is repeatedly referred to, and in the absence of any specific allusion to its origin in Ceylon, it must be presumed to have been borrowed from India. As the Sudras, according to the institutes of Menu, were by the laws of caste consigned to helpless bondage, so slavery in Ceylon was an attribute of race[1]; and those condemned to it were doomed to toil from their birth, with no requital other than the obligation on the part of their masters to maintain them in health, to succour them in sickness, and apportion their burdens to their strength.[2] And although the liberality of theoretical Buddhism threw open, even to the lowest caste, all the privileges of the priesthood, the slave alone was repulsed, on the ground that his admission would deprive the owner of his services.[3]

[Footnote 1: In later times, slavery was not confined to the low castes; insolvents could be made slaves by their creditors—the chief frequently buying the debt, and attaching the debtor to his followers. The children of freemen, by female slaves, followed the status of their mothers.]

[Footnote 2: HARDY'S Buddhism, ch. x. p. 482.]

[Footnote 3: HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. iv. p. 18.]

Like other property, slaves could be possessed by the Buddhist monasteries, and inscriptions, still existing upon the rocks of Mihintala and Dambool, attest the capacity of the priests to receive them as gifts, and to require that as slaves they should be exempted from taxation.

Unrelaxed in its assertion of abstract right, but mitigated in the forms of its practical enforcement, slavery endured in Ceylon till extinguished by the fiat of the British Government in 1845.[1] In the northern and Tamil districts of the island, its characteristics differed considerably from its aspect in the south and amongst the Kandyan mountains. In the former, the slaves were employed in the labours of the field and rewarded with a small proportion of the produce; but amongst the pure Singhalese, slavery was domestic rather than praedial, and those born to its duties were employed less as the servants, than as the suite of the Kandyan chiefs. Slaves swelled the train of their retainers on all occasions of display, and had certain domestic duties assigned to them, amongst which was the carrying of fire-wood, and the laying out of the corpse after death. The strongest proof of the general mildness of their treatment in all parts of the island, is derived from the fact, that when in 1845, Lord Stanley, now the Earl of Derby, directed the final abolition of the system, slavery was extinguished in Ceylon without a claim for compensation on the part of the proprietors.

[Footnote 1: An account of slavery in Ceylon, and the proceedings for its suppression, will be found in PRIDHAM'S Ceylon, vol. i. p. 223.]

Compulsory Labour.—Another institution, to the influence and operation of which the country was indebted for the construction of the works which diffused plenty throughout every region, was the system of Raja-kariya, by which the king had a right to employ, for public purposes, the compulsory labour of the inhabitants. To what extent this was capable of exaction, or under what safeguards it was enforced in early times, does not appear from the historical books. But on all occasions when tanks were to be formed, or canals cut for irrigation, the Mahawanso alludes—almost in words of course—to the application of Raja-kariya for their construction[1], the people being summoned to the task by beat of drum.[2]

[Footnote 1: The inscription engraven on the rock at Mihintala, amongst other regulations for enforcing the observance by the temple tenants of the conditions on which their lands were held, declares that "if a fault be committed by any of the cultivators; the adequate fine shall be assessed according to usage; or in lieu thereof, the delinquent shall be directed to work at the lake in making an excavation not exceeding sixteen cubits in circumference and one cubit deep."— TURNOUR'S Epitome, &c., Appendix, p. 87.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 149.]

The only mention of the system which attracts particular attention, is the honour awarded to the most pious of the kings, who, whilst maintaining Raja-kariya as an institution, nevertheless stigmatised it as "oppression" when applied to non-productive objects; and on the occasion of erecting one of the most stupendous of the monuments dedicated to the national faith, felt that the merit of the act would be neutralised, were it to be accomplished by "unrequited" labour.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., ch. xxvii. pp. 163, 165. King Tissa, A. D. 201, in imitation of Dutugaimunu. caused the restorations of monuments at the capital "to be made with paid labour."—Ibid., ch. xxxvi. p. 226. See ante Vol. I. Pt. III. ch. v. p. 357.]



CHAP. II.

AGRICULTURE.—IRRIGATION.—CATTLE AND CROPS.

AGRICULTURE.—Prior to the arrival of the Bengalis, and even for some centuries after the conquest of Wijayo, before the knowledge of agriculture had extended throughout the island, the inhabitants appear to have subsisted to a great extent by the chase.[1] Hunting the elk and the boar was one of the amusements of the early princes; the "Royal Huntsmen" had a range of buildings erected for their residence at Anarajapoora, B.C. 504[2], and the laws of the chase generously forbade to shoot the deer except in flight.[3] Dogs were trained to assist in the sport[4] and the oppressed aborigines, driven by their conquerors to the forests of Rohuna and Maya, are the subjects of frequent commendation in the pages of the Mahawanso, from their singular ability in the use of the bow.[5]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 59; ch, xiv. p. 78; ch. xxiii. p. 142. The hunting of the hare is mentioned 161 B.C. Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 141.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., ch. x. p. 66.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid., ch. xiv. p. 78. King Devenipiatissa, when descrying the elk which led him to the mountain where Mahindo was seated, exclaimed, "It is not fair to shoot him standing!" he twanged his bowstring and followed him as he fled, See ante, p. 341, n.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid., ch. xxviii p. 166.]

[Footnote 5: Ibid., ch. xxxiii. pp. 202, 204, &c.]

Before the arrival of Wijayo, B.C. 543, agriculture was unknown in Ceylon, and grain, if grown at all, was not systematically cultivated. The Yakkhos, the aborigines, subsisted, as the Veddahs, their lineal descendants, live at the present day, on fruits, honey, and the products of the chase. Rice was distributed by Kuweni to the followers of Wijayo, but it was "rice procured from the wrecked ships of mariners."[l] And two centuries later, so scanty was the production of native grain, that Asoca, amongst the presents which he sent to his ally Devenipiatissa, included "one hundred and sixty loads of hill paddi from Bengal."[2]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 49.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., ch. xi. p. 70.]

A Singhalese narrative of the "Planting of the Bo-tree," an English version of which will be found amongst the translations prepared for Sir Alexander Johnston, mentions the fact, that rice was still imported into Ceylon from the Coromandel coast[1] in the second century before Christ.

[Footnote 1: UPHAM, Sacred Books of Ceylon, vol. iii. p. 231.]

Irrigation.—It was to the Hindu kings who succeeded Wijayo, that Ceylon was indebted for the earliest knowledge of agriculture, for the construction of reservoirs, and the practice of irrigation for the cultivation of rice.[1]

[Footnote 1: A very able report on irrigation in some of the districts of Ceylon has been recently drawn up by Mr. BAILEY, of the Ceylon Civil Service; but the author has been led into an error in supposing that, "it cannot be to India that we must look for the origin of tanks and canals in Ceylon," and that the knowledge of their construction was derived through "the Arabian and Persian merchants who traded between Egypt and Ceylon." Mr. Bailey rests this conclusion on the assertion that the first Indian canal of which we have any record dates no farther back than the middle of the fourteenth century. There was nothing in common between the shallow canals for distributing the periodical inundation of the Nile over the level lands of Egypt (a country in which rice was little known), and the gigantic embankments by which hills were so connected in Ceylon as to convert the valleys between them into inland lakes; and there was no similarity to render the excavation of the one a model and precedent for the construction of the other. Probably the lake Moeris is what dwells in the mind of those who ascribe proficiency in irrigation to the ancient Egyptians; but although Herodotus asserts it to have been an excavation, cheiropoietoz kai orukte (lib. ii. 149), geologic investigation has shown that Moeris is a natural lake created by the local depression of that portion of the Arsinoite nome. Neither Strabo nor Pliny, who believed it to be artificial, ascribed its origin to anything connected with irrigation, for which, in fact, its level would render it unsuitable. Nature had done so much for irrigation in Egypt, that art was forestalled; and even had it been otherwise, and had the natives of that country been adepts in the science, or capable of teaching it, the least qualified imparters of engineering knowledge would have been the Arab and Persian mariners, whose lives were spent in coasting the shores of the Indian Ocean. It is true that in Arabia itself, at a very early period, there is the tradition of the great artificial lake of Aram, in Yemen, about the time of Alexander the Great (SALE'S Koran, Introd. p.7); and evidence still more authentic shows that the practice of artificial irrigation was one of the earliest occupations of the human race. The Scriptures; in enumerating the descendants of Shem, state that "unto Eber were born two sons, and the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided." (Genesis, ch. x. ver. 25.) In this passage according to CYRIL C. GRAHAM, the term Peleg has a profounder meaning, and the sentence should have been translated—"for in his days the earth was cut into canals" (Cambridge Essay,1858.)

But historical testimony exists which removes all obscurity from the inquiry as to who were the instructors of the Singhalese. The most ancient books of the Hindus show that the practice of canal-making was understood in India at as early a period as in Egypt. Canals are mentioned in the Rayamana, the story of which belongs to the dimmest antiquity; and when Baratha, the half-brother of Rama, was about to search for him in the Dekkan, his train is described as including "labourers, with carts, bridge-builders, carpenters, and diggers of canals." (Ramayana, CARY'S Trans., vol. iii. p. 228.) The Mahawanso, removes all doubt as to the person by whom the Singhalese were instructed in forming works for irrigation, by naming the Brahman engineer contemporary with the construction of the earliest tanks in the fourth century before the Christian era. (Mahawanso, ch. x.) Somewhat later, B.C. 262, the inscription on the rock at Mihintala ascribes to the Malabars the system of managing the water for the rice lands, and directs that "according to the supply of water in the lake, the same shall be distributed to the lands of the wihara in the manner formerly regulated by the Tamils." (Notes to TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 90.) To be convinced of the Tamil origin of the tank system which subsists to the present day in Ceylon, it is only necessary to see the tanks of the Southern Dekkan. The innumerable excavated reservoirs or colams of Ceylon will be found to correspond with the culams of Mysore; and the vast erays formed by drawing a bund to intercept the water flowing between two elevated ridges, exhibit the model which has been followed at Pathavie, Kandelai, Menery, and all the huge constructions of Ceylon, But whoever may have been the original instructors of the Singhalese in the formation of tanks, there seems every reason to believe that from their own subsequent experience, and the prodigious extent to which they occupied themselves in the formation of works of this kind, they attained a facility unsurpassed by the people of any other country. It is a curious circumstance in connection with this inquiry, that in the eighth century after Christ, the King of Kashmir despatched messengers to Ceylon to bring back workmen, whom he employed in constructing an artificial lake. (Raja-Tarangini, Book iv. sl. 505.) If it were necessary to search beyond India for the origin of cultivation in Ceylon, the Singhalese, instead of borrowing a system from Egypt, might more naturally have imitated the ingenious devices of their own co-religionists in China, where the system of irrigation as pursued in the military colonies of that country has been a theme of admiration in every age of their history. (See Journal Asiatique, 1850, vol. lvi. pp. 341, 346.) And as these colonies were planted not only in the centre of the empire but on its north-west extremities towards Kaschgar and the north-east of India, where the new settlers occupied themselves in draining marshes and leading streams to water their arable lands, the probabilities are that their system may have been known and copied by the people of Hindustan.]

The first tank in Ceylon was formed by the successor of Wijayo, B.C. 504, and their subsequent extension to an almost incredible number is ascribable to the influence of the Buddhist religion, which, abhorring the destruction of animal life, taught its multitudinous votaries to subsist exclusively upon vegetable food. Hence the planting of gardens, the diffusion of fruit-trees and leguminous vegetables[1], the sowing of dry grain[2], the formation of reservoirs and canals, and the reclamation of land "in situations favourable for irrigation."

[Footnote 1: Beans, designated by the term of Masa in the Mahawanso, were grown in the second century before Christ, ch, xxiii. p, 140,]

[Footnote 2: The "cultivation of a crop of hill rice" is mentioned in the Mahawanso B.C. 77, ch. xxxiv. p. 208.]

It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of this system of water cultivation, in a country like the north of Ceylon, subject to periodical droughts. From physical and geological causes, the mode of cultivation in that section of the island differs essentially from that practised in the southern division; and whilst in the latter the frequency of the rains and abundance of rivers afford a copious supply of water, the rest of the country is mainly dependent upon artificial irrigation, and on the quantity of rain collected in tanks; or of water diverted from streams and directed into reservoirs.

As has been elsewhere[1] explained, the mountain ranges which tower along the south-western coast, and extend far towards the eastern, serve in both monsoons to intercept the trade winds and condense the vapours with which they are charged, thus ensuring to those regions a plentiful supply of rain. Hence the harvests in those portions of the island are regulated by the two monsoons, the yalla in May and the maha in November; and seed-time is adjusted so as to take advantage of the copious showers which fall at those periods.

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. Part I. ch. ii p. 67.]

But in the northern portions of Ceylon, owing to the absence of mountains, this natural resource cannot be relied on. The winds in both monsoons traverse the island without parting with a sufficiency of moisture; droughts are of frequent occurrence and of long continuance; and vegetation in the low and scarcely undulated plains is mainly dependent on dews and whatever damp is distributed by the steady sea-breeze. In some places the sandy soil rests upon beds of madrepore and coral rock, through which the scanty rain percolates too quickly to refresh the soil; and the husbandman is entirely dependent upon wells and village tanks for the means of irrigation.

In a region exposed to such vicissitudes the risk would have been imminent and incessant, had the population been obliged to rely on supplies of dry grain alone, the growth of which must necessarily have been precarious, owing to the possible failure or deficiency of the rains. Hence frequent famines would have been inevitable in those seasons of prolonged dryness and scorching heat, when "the sky becomes as brass and the earth as iron."

What an unspeakable blessing that against such, calamities a security should have been found by the introduction of a grain calculated to germinate under water; and that a perennial supply of the latter, not only adequate for all ordinary purposes, but sufficient to guard against extraordinary emergencies of the seasons, should have been provided by the ingenuity of the people, aided by the bounteous care of their sovereigns. It is no matter of surprise that the kings who devoted their treasures and their personal energies to the formation of tanks and canals have entitled their memory to traditional veneration, as benefactors of their race and country. In striking contrast, it is the pithy remark of the author of the Rajavali, mourning over the extinction of the Great Dynasty and the decline of the country, that "because the fertility of the land was decreased the kings who followed were no longer of such consequence as those who went before."[1]

[Footnote 1: Rajavali, p. 238]

Simultaneously with the construction of works for the advancement of agriculture, the patriarchal village system, copied from that which existed from the earliest ages in India[1], was established in the newly settled districts; and each hamlet, with its governing "headman" its artisans, its barber, its astrologer and washerman, was taught to conduct its own affairs by its village council; to repair its tanks and watercourses, and to collect two harvests in each year by the combined labour of the whole village community.

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. x. p.67.]

Between the agricultural system of the mountainous districts and that of the lowlands, there was at all times the same difference which still distinguishes the tank cultivation of Neuera-kalawa and the Wanny from the hanging rice lands of the Kandyan hills. In the latter, reservoirs are comparatively rare, as the natives rely on the certainty of the rains, which seldom fail at their due season in those lofty regions. Streams are conducted by means of channels ingeniously carried round the spurs of the hills and along the face of acclivities, so as to fertilise the fields below, which in the technical phrase of the Kandyans are "assoedamised" for the purpose; that is, formed into terraces, each protected by a shallow ledge over which the superfluous water trickles, from the highest level into that immediately below it; thus descending through all in succession till it escapes in the depths of the valley.

For the tillage of the lands with which the temples were so largely endowed in all quarters of the island, the sacred communities had assigned to them certain villages, a portion of whose labour was the property of the wihara[1]: slaves were also appropriated to them, and an instance is mentioned in the fifth century[2], of the inhabitants of a low-caste village having been bestowed on a monastery by the king Aggrabodhi, "in order that the priests might derive their service as slaves."[3] Sharing in a prerogative of royalty, some of the temples had, moreover, a right to the compulsory labour of the community; and in one of the inscriptions carved on the rock at Mihintala, the "Raja-kariya writer" is enumerated in the list of temple officers.[4] The temple lands were occasionally let to tenants whose rent was paid either in "land-fees," or in kind.[5]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., ch. xxxvii. p. 247.]

[Footnote 2: Rock inscriptions at Mihintala and at Dambool.]

[Footnote 3: Mahawanso ch, xlii. TURNOUR, MS. translation.]

[Footnote 4: TURNOUR'S Epitome, Appendix, p. 88.]

[Footnote 5: Ibid pp. 86, 87.]

Farm-stock.—The only farm-stock which appears to have been kept for tillage purposes, were buffaloes, which, then as now, were used in treading the soft mud of the irrigated rice-fields, preparatory to casting in the seed. Cows are alluded to in the Mahawanso, but never in connection with labour; and although butter is spoken of, it is only that of the buffalo.[1]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxvii p. 163.]

Gardens.—Probably the earliest enclosures attempted in a state of incipient civilisation, were gardens for the exclusion of wild animals from fruit trees and vegetables, when these were first cultivated for the use of man; and to the present day, the frequent occurrence of the termination "watte" in the names of places on the map of Ceylon, is in itself an indication of the importance attached to them by the villagers. The term "garden," however, conveys to an European but an imperfect idea of the character and style of these places; which in Ceylon are so similar to the native gardens in the south of India, as to suggest a community of origin. Their leading features are lines of the graceful areca palms, groves of oranges, limes, jak-trees, and bread fruit; and irregular clumps of palmyras and coconuts. Beneath these, there is a minor growth, sometimes of cinnamon or coffee bushes; and always a wilderness of plaintains, guavas and papaws; a few of the commoner flowers; plots of brinjals (egg plants) and other esculents; and the stems of the standard trees are festooned with climbers, pepper vines, tomatas, and betel.

The Coco-nut Palm.—It is curious and suggestive as regards the coco-nut, which now enters so largely into the domestic economy of the Singhalese, that although it is sometimes spoken of in the Mahawanso (but by no means so often as the palmyra), no allusion is ever made to it as an article of diet, or an element in the preparation of food, nor is it mentioned, before the reign of Prakrama I., A.D. 1153[1], in the list of those fruit-trees, the planting of which throughout the island is repeatedly recorded, as amongst the munificent acts of the Singhalese kings.

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. lxxii.]

As the other species of the same genus of palms are confined to the New World[1], a doubt has been raised whether the coco-nut be indigenous in India, or an importation. If the latter, the first plant must have been introduced anterior to the historic age; and whatever the period at which the tree may have been first cultivated, a time is indicated when it was practically unknown in Ceylon by the fact, that a statue, without date or inscription, is carved in high relief in a niche hollowed out of a rock to the east of Galle, which tradition says is the monument to the Kustia Raja, an Indian prince, whose claim to remembrance is, that he first taught the Singhalese the use of the coco-nut.[2]

[Footnote 1: BROWN'S Notes to TUCKEY'S Expedition to the Congo, p. 456.]

[Footnote 2: The earliest mention of the coco-nut in Ceylon occurs in the Mahawanso, which refers to it as known at Rohuna to the south, B. c, 161 ( ch. xxv. p. 140). "The milk of the small red coco-nut" is stated to have been used been used by Dutugaimunu in preparing cement for building the Ruanwelle dagoba (Mah. ch. xxx. p. 169). The south-west of the island, and especially the margin of the sea is still the locality in which the tree is found in greatest abundance in Ceylon. Hither, if originally self-sown, it must have been floated and flung ashore by the waves; and as the north-east coast, though washed by a powerful current, is almost altogether destitute of these palms, it is obvious that the coco-nut; if carried by sea from some other shore, must have been brought during the south-west monsoon from the coast near Cape Comorin, AELIAN notices as one of the leading peculiarities in the appearance of the sea coast of Ceylon, that the palm trees (by which, as the south of the island was the place of resort, he most probably means the coco-nut palms) grew in regular quincunxes, as if planted by skilful hands in a well ordered garden. [Greek: "HE nesos, hen kalousi Taprobanen, echei phoinikonas men thaumastes pephuteumenous eis stoichon, hosper oun en tois habrois ton paradeison oi touton meledonoi phuteuousi ta dendra ta skiadephora."]—Lib. xvi. cp. 18. The comparative silence of the Mahawanso in relation to the coco-nut may probably be referable to the fact that its author resided and wrote in the interior of the island; over which, unlike the light seeds of other plants, its ponderous nuts could not have been distributed accidentally, where down to the present time it has been but partially introduced, and nowhere in any considerable number. Its presence throughout Ceylon is always indicative of the vicinity of man, and at a distance from the shore it appears in those places only where it has been planted by his care. The Singhalese believe that the coco-nut will not flourish "unless you walk under it and talk under it:" but its proximity to human habitations is possibly explained by the consideration that if exposed in the forest, it would be liable, when young, to be forced down by the elephants, who delight in its delicate leaves. See DAVY'S Angler in the Lake Districts, p. 245.]

The mango, the jambo, and several other fruits are particularised, but the historical books make no mention either of the pine-apple or the plantain, which appear to have been of comparatively recent introduction. Pulse is alluded to at an early date under the generic designation of "Masa."[1]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 140.]

Rice and Curry.—Rice in various forms is always spoken of as the food, alike of the sovereign, the priests, and the people; rice prepared plainly, conjee (the water in which rice is boiled), "rice mixed with sugar and honey, and rice dressed with clarified butter."[1] Chillies are now and then mentioned as an additional condiment.[2] The Rajavali speaks of curry in the second century before Christ[3] and the Mahawanso in the fifth century after.[4]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., ch. xxxii. p. 196.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., ch. xxv, p. 158; ch. xxvi. p. 160.]

[Footnote 3: Rajavali, pp. 196, 200, 202.]

[Footnote 4: Mahawanso, TURNOUR'S MS. translation, ch. xxxix.

KNOX says that curry is a Portuguese word, carre (Relation, &c., part i. ch. iv. p. 12), but this is a misapprehension. Professor H.H. WILSON, in a private letter to me, says, "In Hindustan we are accustomed to consider 'curry' to be derived from, tarkari, a general term for esculent vegetables, but it is probably the English version of the Kanara and Malayalam kadi; pronounced with a hard r, 'kari' or 'kuri,' which means sour milk with rice boiled, which was originally used for such compounds as curry at the present day. The Karnata majkke-kari is a dish of rice, sour milk, spices, red pepper, &c, &c."]

Although the taking of life is sternly forbidden in the ethical code of Buddha, and the most prominent of the obligations undertaken by the priesthood is directed to its preservation even in the instances of insects and animalculae, casuistry succeeded so far as to fix the crime on the slayer, and to exonerate the individual who merely partook of the flesh.[1] Even the inmates of the wiharas and monasteries discovered devices for the saving of conscience, and curried rice was not rejected in consequence of the animal ingredients incorporated with it. The mass of the population were nevertheless vegetarians, and so little value did they place on animal food, that according to the accounts furnished to EDRISI by the Arabian seamen returning from Ceylon, "a sheep sufficient to regale an assembly was to be bought there for half a drachm."[2]

[Footnote 1: HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. iv. p. 24; ch. ix. p. 92; ch. xvi. p. 158. HARDY'S Buddhism, ch. vii. p. 327.]

[Footnote 2: EDRISI; Geographie, &c., tom. i. p. 73.]

Betel—In connection with a diet so largely composed of vegetable food, arose the custom, which to the present day is universal in Ceylon,—of chewing the leaves of the betel vine, accompanied with lime and the sliced nut of the areca palm.[1] The betel (piper betel), which is now universally cultivated for this purpose, is presumed to have been introduced from some tropical island, as it has nowhere been found indigenous in continental India.[2] In Ceylon, its use is mentioned as early as the fifth century before Christ, when "betel leaves" formed the present sent by a princess to her lover.[3] In a conflict of Dutugaimunu with the Malabars, B.C. 161, the enemy seeing on his lips the red stain of the betel, mistook it for blood, and spread the false cry that the king had been slain.[4]

[Footnote 1: For an account of the medicinal influence of betel-chewing, see Part I. c. iii. ii. p. 112.]

[Footnote 2: ROYLE'S Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine, p. 85.]

[Footnote 3: B. C. 504. Mahawanso, ch. ix. p. 57. Dutugaimunu, when building the Ruanwelle dagoba, provided for the labourers amongst other articles "the five condiments used in mastication." This probably refers to the chewing of betel and its accompaniments (Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 175). A story is told of the wife of a Singhalese minister, about A. D. 56, who to warn him of a conspiracy, sent him his "betel, &c., for mastication, omitting the chunam," hoping that coming in search of it, he might escape his "impending fate." Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 219.]

[Footnote 4: Rajavali, p. 221.]

Intoxicating liquors are of sufficient antiquity to be denounced in the moral system of Buddhism. The use of toddy and drinks obtained from the fermentation of "bread and flour" is condemned in the laity, and strictly prohibited to the priesthood[1]; but the Arabian geographers mention that in the twelfth century, wine, in defiance of the prohibition, was imported from Persia, and drank by the Singhalese after being flavoured with cardamoms.[2]

[Footnote 1: HARDY'S Buddhism, e., ch. x. p. 474.]

[Footnote 2: EDRISI, Geographle, &c., Trad. JAUBERT, tom. i. p. 73.]



CHAP. III

EARLY COMMERCE, SHIPPING, AND PRODUCTIONS.

TRADE.—At a very early period the mass of the people of Ceylon were essentially agricultural, and the proportion of the population addicted to other pursuits consisted of the small number of handicraftsmen required in a community amongst whom civilisation and refinement were so slightly developed, that the bulk of the inhabitants may be said to have had few wants beyond the daily provision of food.

Upon trade the natives appear to have looked at all times with indifference. Other nations, both of the east and west of Ceylon, made the island their halting-place and emporium; the Chinese brought thither the wares destined for the countries beyond the Euphrates, and the Arabians and Persians met them with their products in exchange; but the Singhalese appear to have been uninterested spectators of this busy traffic, in which they can hardly be said to have taken any share. The inhabitants of the opposite coast of India, aware of the natural wealth of Ceylon, participated largely in its development, and the Tamils, who eagerly engaged in the pearl fishery, gave to the gulf of Manaar the name of Salabham, "the sea of gain."[l]

[Footnote 1: The Tamils gave the same name to Chilaw, which was the nearest town to the pearl fishery (and which Ibn Batuta calls Salawat); and eventually they called the whole island Salabham.]

Native Shipping.—The only mention made of native ships in the sacred writings of the Singhalese, is in connection with missions, whether for the promotion of Buddhism, or for the negotiation of marriages and alliances with the princes of India.[1] The building of dhoneys is adverted to as early as the first century, but they were only intended by a devout king to be stationed along the shores of the island, covered by day with white cloths, and by night illuminated with lamps, in order that from them priests, as the royal almoners, might distribute gifts and donations of food.[2]

[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, App. p. 73.]

[Footnote 2: By King Maha Dailiya, A.D. 8. Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 211; Rajavali, p. 228; Rajaratnacari, p. 52.]

The genius of the people seems to have never inclined them to a sea-faring life, and the earliest notice which occurs of ships for the defence of the coast, is in connection with the Malabars who were taken into the royal service from their skill in naval affairs.[1] A national marine was afterwards established for this purpose, A.D. 495, by the King Mogallana.[2] In the Suy-shoo, a Chinese history of the Suy dynasty, it is stated that in A.D. 607, the king of Ceylon "sent the Brahman Kew-mo-lo with thirty vessels, to meet the approaching ships which conveyed an embassy from China."[3] And in the twelfth century, when Prakrama I. was about to enter on his foreign expeditions, "several hundreds of vessels were equipped for that service within five months."[4]

[Footnote 1: B.C. 247. Mahawanso, ch. xxi. p. 127.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xl. TURNOUR'S MS. Transl.]

[Footnote 3: Suy-shoo, b. lxxxi. p. 3.]

[Footnote 4: TURNOUR'S Epitome, &c., App. p. 73.]

It is remarkable that the same apathy to navigation, if not antipathy to it, still prevails amongst the inhabitants of an island, the long sea-borde of which affords facilities for cultivating a maritime taste, did any such exist. But whilst the natives of Hindustan fit out sea-going vessels, and take service as sailors for distant voyages, the Singhalese, though most expert as fishers and boatmen, never embark in foreign vessels, and no instance exists of a native ship, owned, built, or manned by Singhalese.

The boats which are in use at the present day, and which differ materially in build at different parts of the island, appear to have been all copied from models supplied by other countries. In the south the curious canoes, which attract the eye of the stranger arriving at Point de Galle by their balance-log and outrigger, were borrowed from the islanders of the Eastern Archipelago; the more substantial canoe called a ballam, which is found in the estuaries and shallow lakes around the northern shore, is imitated from one of similar form on the Malabar coast; and the catamaran is common to Ceylon and Coromandel. The awkward dhoneys, built at Jaffna, and manned by Tamils, are imitated from those at Madras; while the Singhalese dhoney, south of Colombo, is but an enlargement of the Galle canoe with its outrigger, so clumsily constructed that the gunwale is frequently topped by a line of wicker-work smeared with clay, to protect the deck front the wash of the sea.[1]

[Footnote 1: The gunwale of the boat of Ulysses was raised by hurdles of osiers to keep off the waves.

[Greek: Phraxe de min rhipessi diamperes oisuinesi Kumatos eilar emen pollen d' epecheuato hulen.] Od. v. 256.]

One peculiarity in the mode of constructing the native shipping of Ceylon existed in the remotest times, and is retained to the present day. The practice is closely connected with one of the most imaginative incidents in the medieval romances of the East Their boats and canoes, like those of the Arabs and other early navigators who crept along the shores of India, are put together without the use of iron nails[1], the planks being secured by wooden bolts, and stitched together with cords spun from the fibre of the coconut.[2]

PALLADIUS, a Greek of the lower empire, to whom is ascribed an account of the nations of India, written in the fifth century[3], adverts to this peculiarity of construction, and connects it with the phenomenon which forms so striking an incident in one of the tales in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. In the story of the "Three Royal Mendicants," the "Third Calender," as he is called in the old translation, relates to the ladies of Bagdad, in whose house he is entertained, how he and his companions lost their course, when sailing in the Indian Ocean, and found themselves in the vicinity of "the mountain of loadstone towards which the current carried them with violence, and when the ships approached it they fell asunder, and the nails and everything that was of iron flew from them towards the loadstone."

[Footnote 1: DELAURIER, Etudes sur la "Relation des voyages faits par les Arabes et les Persans dans l'Inde." Journ. Asiat. tom. xlix. p. 137. See also MALTE BRUN, Hist. de Geogr. tom. i. p. 409, with the references to the Periplus Mar. Erythr., Strabo, Procopius, &c. GIBBON, Decl. and Fall, vol. v. ch. xl.]

[Footnote 2: Boats thus sewn together existed at an early period on the coast of Arabia as well as of Ceylon. Odoric of Friuli saw them at Ormus in the fourteenth century (Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 35); and the construction of ships without iron was not peculiar to the Indian seas, as Homer mentions that the boat built by Ulysses was put together with woolen pegs, [Greek: gomphoisin], instead of bolts. Odys. v. 249.]

[Footnote 3: The tract alluded to is usually known as tne treatise de Moribus Brachmanorum, and ascribed to St. Ambrose. For an account of it see Vol. I. Pt. v. ch. i. p. 538.]

The learned commentator, LANE, says that several Arab writers describe this mountain of loadstone, and amongst others he instances El Caswini, who lived in the latter half of the thirteenth century.[1] EDRISI, the Arab geographer, likewise alludes to it; but the invention belongs to an earlier age, and Palladius, in describing Ceylon, says that the magnetic rock is in the adjacent islands called Maniolae (Maldives?), and that ships coming within the sphere of its influence are irresistibly drawn towards it, and lose all power of progress except in its direction. Hence it is essential, he adds, that vessels sailing for Ceylon should be fastened with wooden instead of iron bolts.[2]

[Footnote 1: LANE'S Arabian Nights, vol. i. ch. iii, p. 72, p. 242.]

[Footnote 2: [Greek: "Esti de idikos ta diaperonta ploia eis ekeinen ten megalen neson aneu siderou epiouriois xylinois kataskeuasmena"]—PALLADIUS, in Pseudo-Callisthenes, lib. iii. c. vii. But the fable of the loadstone mountain is older than either the Arabian sailors or the Greeks of the lower empire. Aristotle speaks of a magnetic mountain on the coast of India, and Pliny repeats the story, adding that "si sint clavi in calciamentis, vestigia avelli in altero non posse in altero sisti."—Lib. ii. c. 98, lib. xxxvi. c. 25. Ptolemy recounts a similar fable in his geography. Klaproth, in his Lettre sur la Boussole, says that this romantic belief was first communicated to the West from China. "Les anciens auteurs Chinois parlent aussi de montagnes magnetiques de la mer meridionale sur les cotes de Tonquin et de la Cochin Chine; et disent que si les vaisseaux etrangers qui sont garnis de plaques de fer s'en approchent ils y sont arretes et aucun d'eux ne peut passer par ces endroits."—KLAPROTH, Lett. v. p. 117, quoted by SANTAREM, Essai sur l'Histo. de Cosmogr., vol. i. p. 182.]

Another peculiarity of the native craft on the west coast of Ceylon is their construction with a prow at each extremity, a characteristic which belongs also to the Massoula boats of Madras, as well as to others on the south of India. It is a curious illustration of the abiding nature of local usages when originating in necessities and utility, that STRABO, in describing the boats in which the traffic was carried on between Taprobane and the continent, says they were "built with prows at each end, but without holds or keels."[1]

[Footnote 1: [Greek: "Kateskeuasmenas de amphoterothen enkoilion metron choris."]—Lib xv. c. i. s. 14. Pliny, who makes the same statement, says the Singhalese adopted this model to avoid the necessity of tacking in the narrow and shallow channels, between Ceylon and the mainland of India (lib. vi. c. 24).]

In connection with foreign trade the Mahawanso contains repeated allusions to ships wrecked upon the coast of Ceylon[1], and amongst the remarkable events which signalised the season, already rendered memorable by the birth of Dutugaimunu, B.C. 204, was the "arrival on the same day of seven ships laden with golden utensils and other goods;"[2] and as these were brought by order of the king to Mahagam, then the capital of Rohuna, the incident is probably referable to the foreign trade which was then carried on in the south of the island[3] by the Chinese and Arabians, and in which, as I have stated, the native Singhalese took no part.

[Footnote 1: B.C. 543. Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 49: B.C. 306. Ibid. ch. xi. p. 68, &c.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxii. p. 135.]

[Footnote 3: The first direct intimation of trading carried on by native Singhalese, along the coast of Ceylon, occurs in the Rajavali, but not till the year A.D. 1410,—the king, who had made Cotta his capital, being represented as "loading a vessel with goods and sending it to Jaffna, to carry on commerce with his son."—Rajavali, p. 289.]

Still, notwithstanding their repugnance to intercourse with strangers, the Singhalese were not destitute of traffic amongst themselves, and their historical annals contain allusions to the mode in which it was conducted. Their cities exhibited rows of shops and bazaars[1], and the country was traversed by caravans much in the same manner as the drivers of tavalams carry goods at the present day between the coast and the interior.[2]

[Footnote 1: B.C. 204, a visitor to Anarajapoora is described as "purchasing aromatic drugs from the bazaars, and departing by the Northern Gate" (Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 139); and A.D. 8, the King Maha Dathika "ranged shops on each side of the streets of the capital."—Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 213.]

[Footnote 2: B.C. 170. Mahawanso ch. xxii. p. 138.]

Whatever merchandise was obtained in barter from foreign ships, was by this means conveyed to the cities and the capital[1], and the reference to carts which were accustomed to go from Anarajapoora to the division of Malaya, lying round Adam's Peak, "to procure saffron and ginger," implies that at that period (B.C. 165) roads and other facilities for wheel carriages must have existed, enabling them to traverse forests and cross the rivers.[2]

[Footnote 1: In the reign of Elala, B.C. 204, the son of "an eminent caravan chief" was despatched to a Brahman, who resided near the Chetiyo mountain (Mihintala), in whose possession there were rich articles, frankincense, sandal-wood, &c., imported from beyond the ocean.—Mahawanso ch. xxiii. p. 138.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso ch. xxviii. p, 167.]

Early Exports of Ceylon.—The native historians give an account of the exports of Ceylon, which corresponds in all particulars with the records left by the early travellers and merchants, Greek, Roman, Arabian, Indian, and Chinese. They consisted entirely of natural productions, aromatic drugs, gems, pearls, and shells; and it is a strong evidence of the more advanced state of civilisation in India at the same period that, whilst the presents sent from the kings of Ceylon to the native princes of Hindustan and the Dekkan were always of this precious but primitive character, the articles received in return were less remarkable for the intrinsic value of the material, than for the workmanship bestowed upon them. Devenipiatissa sent by his ambassadors to Asoca, B.C. 306, the eight varieties of pearls, viz., haya (the horse), gaja (the elephant), ratha (the chariot wheel), maalaka (the nelli fruit), valaya (the bracelet), anguliwelahka (the ring), kakudaphala (the kabook fruit), and pakatika, the ordinary description. He sent sapphires, lapis lazuli[1], and rubies, a right hand chank[2], and three bamboos for chariot poles, remarkable because their natural marking resembled the carvings of flowers and animals.

[Footnote 1: Lapis lazuli is not found in Ceylon, and must have been brought by the caravans from Budakshan. It is more than once mentioned in the Mahawanso, ch. xi. p. 69; ch. xxx. p. 185.]

[Footnote 2: A variety of the Turbinella rapa with the whorls reversed, to which the natives attach a superstitions value; professing that a shell so formed is worth its weight in gold.]

The gifts sent by the king of Magadha in return, indicate the advanced state of the arts in Bengal, even at that early period: they were "a chowrie (the royal fly flapper), a diadem, a sword of state, a royal parasol, golden slippers, a crown, an anointing vase, asbestos towels, to be cleansed by being passed through the fire, a costly howdah, and sundry vessels of gold." Along with these was sacred water from the Anotatto lake and from the Ganges, aromatic and medicinal drugs, hill paddi and sandal-wood; and amongst the other items "a virgin of royal birth and of great personal beauty."[1]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso ch, xi. pp. 69, 70.]

Early Imports.—Down to a very late period, gems, pearls, and chank shells continued to be the only products taken away from Ceylon, and cinnamon is nowhere mentioned in the Sacred Books as amongst the exports of the island.[1] In return for these exports, slaves, chariots, and horses were frequently transmitted from India. The riding horses and chargers, so often spoken of[2], must necessarily have been introduced from thence, and were probably of Arab blood; but I have not succeeded in discovering to what particular race the "Sindhawa" horses belonged, of which four purely white were harnessed to the state carriage of Dutugaimunu.[3] Gold cloth[4], frankincense, and sandal-wood were brought from India[5], as was also a species of "clay" and of "cloud-coloured stone," which appear to have been used in the construction of dagobas.[6] Silk[7] and vermilion[8] indicate the activity of trade with China; and woollen cloth[9] and carpets[10] with Persia and Kashmir.

[Footnote 1: For an account of the earliest trade in cinnamon, see post Part v. ch. ii. on the Knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the Arabians.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxii. p. 134, &c. &c.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid., ch. xxiii. p. 142; ch. xxxi. p. 186.]

[Footnote 4: A.D.459. Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 258.]

[Footnote 5: Ibid, ch. xxiii. p. 138.]

[Footnote 6: Ibid, ch. xxix. p. 169; ch. xxx. p. 179.]

[Footnote 7: Ibid., ch. xxiii. p. 139; Rajaratnacari, p. 49.]

[Footnote 8: Ibid, ch. xxix. p. 169; Rajaratnacari p. 51.]

[Footnote 9: Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 177; Rajavali, p. 269. Woollen cloth is described as "most valuable"—an epithet which indicates its rarity, and probably foreign origin.]

[Footnote 10: Mahawanso, ch. xiv. p. 82; ch. xv. p. 87; ch. xxv. p. 151; carpets of wool, ib. ch. xxvii. p. 164.]

Intercourse with Kashmir.—Possibly the woollen cloths referred to may have been shawls, and there is evidence in the Rajatarangini[1], that at a very early period the possession of a common religion led to an intercourse between Ceylon and Kashmir, originating in the sympathies of Buddhism, but perpetuated by the Kashmirians for the pursuit of commerce. In the fabulous period of the narrative, a king of Kashmir is said to have sent to Ceylon for a delicately fine cloth, embroidered with golden footsteps.[2] In the eighth century of the Christian era, Singhalese engineers were sent for to construct works in Kashmir[3]; and Kashmir, according to Troyer, took part in the trade between Ceylon and the West.[4]

[Footnote 1: The Rajatarangini resembles the Mahawanso, in being a metrical chronicle of Kashmir written at various times by a series of authors, the earliest of whom lived in the 12th century. It has been translated into French by M. Troyer, Paris, 1840.]

[Footnote 2: Rajatarangini, b. i. sl. 294.]

[Footnote 3: Rajatarangini, b. iv. sl. 502, &c.]

[Footnote 4: "La communication entre Kachmir et Ceylan n'a pas eu lieu seulement par les entreprises guerrieres que je viens de rappeler, mais aussi par un commerce paisible; c'est du cette ile que venaient des artistes qu'on appelait Rakchasas a cause du merveilleux de leur art; et qui executaient des ouvrages pour l'utilite et pour l'ornement d'un pays montagneux et sujet aux inondations. Ceci confirme ce que nous apprennent les geographes Grecs, que Ceylan, avant et apres le commencement de notre ere, etait un grand point de reunion pour le commerce de l'Orient et de l'Occident."—Rajatarangini, vol. ii. p. 434.]

Of the trade between Ceylon and Kashmir and its progress, the account given by Edrisi, the most renowned of the writers on eastern geography, who wrote in the twelfth century[1], is interesting, inasmuch as it may be regarded as a picture of this remarkable commerce, after it had attained its highest development.

[Footnote 1: Abou-abd-allah Mahommed was a Moor of the family who reigned over Malaga after the fall of the Kalifat of Cordova, in the early part of the 11th century, and his patronymic of Edrisi or Al Edrissy implies that he was descended from the princes of that race who had previously held supreme power in what is at the present day the Empire of Morocco. He took up his residence in Sicily under the patronage of the Norman king, Roger II., A.D. 1154, and the work on geography which he there composed was not only based on the previous labours of Massoudi, Ibn Haukul, Albyrouni, and others, but it embodied the reports of persons commissioned specially by the king to undertake voyages for the purpose of bringing back correct accounts of foreign countries. See REINAUD'S Introduction to the Geography of Abulfeda, p. cxiii.]

Edrisi did not write from personal knowledge, as he had never visited either Ceylon or India; but compiling as he did, by command of Roger H., of Sicily, a compendium, of geographical knowledge as it existed in his time, the information which he has systematised may be regarded as a condensation of such facts as the eastern seamen engaged in the Indian trade had brought back with them from Ceylon.

"In the mountains around Adam's Peak," says Edrisi, "they collect precious stones of every description, and in the valleys they find those diamonds by means of which they engrave the setting of stones on rings."

"The same mountains produce aromatic drugs perfumes, and aloes-wood, and there too they find the animal, the civet, which yields musk. The islanders cultivate rice, coco-nuts, and sugar-cane; in the rivers is found rock crystal, remarkable both for brilliancy and size, and the sea on every side has a fishery of magnificent and priceless pearls. Throughout India there is no prince whose wealth can compare with the King of Serendib, his immense riches, his pearls and his jewels, being the produce of his own dominions and seas; and thither ships of China, and of every neighbouring country resort, bringing the wines of Irak and Fars, which the king buys for sale to his subjects; for he drinks wine and prohibits debauchery; whilst other princes of India encourage debauchery and prohibit the use of wine. The exports from Serendib consist of silk, precious stones, crystals, diamonds, and perfumes."[1]

[Footnote 1: Edrisi, Geographie, Trad. JAUBERT, tom. i. p. 73.]



CHAP. IV.

MANUFACTURES.

The silk alluded to in the last chapter must have been brought from China for re-exportation to the West. Silk is frequently mentioned in the Mahawanso[1] but never with any suggestion of its being a native product of Ceylon.

[Footnote 1: Silk is mentioned 20 B.C. Rajaratnacari, p. 49. Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 139.]

Coir and Cordage.—EDRISI speaks of cordage made from the fibre of the coco-nut, to prepare which, the natives of Oman and Yemen resorted to Ceylon[1]; so that the Singhalese would appear to have been instructed by the Arabs in the treatment of coir, and its formation into ropes; an occupation which, at the present day, affords extensive employment to the inhabitants of the south and south-western coasts. Ibn Batuta describes the use of coir, for sewing together the planking of boats, as it was practised at Zafar in the fourteenth century[2]; and the word itself bespeaks its Arabian origin, as ALBYROUNI, who divides the Maldives and Laccadives into two classes, calls the one group the Dyvah-kouzah, or islands that produce cowries; and the other the Dyvah-kanbar, or islands that produce coir.[3]

[Footnote 1: EDRISI, t. i. p. 74.]

[Footnote 2: Voyages, &c., vol. ii. p. 207. Paris, 1854.]

[Footnote 3: ALBYROUNI, in REYNAUD, Fragm. Arabes, &c., pp, 93, 124 The Portuguese adopted the word from the Hindus, and CASTANEDA, in Hist. of the Discovery of India, describes the Moors of Sofalah sewing their boats with "cayro" ch. v, 14, xxx. 75.]

Dress.—The dress of the people was of the simplest kind, and similar to that which is worn at the present day. The bulk of the population wore scanty cloths, without shape or seam, folded closely round the body and the portion of the limbs which it is customary to cover; and the Chinese, who visited the island in the seventh century, described the people as clothed in the loose robe, still known as a "comboy," a word probably derived from the Chinese koo-pei, which signifies cotton.[1]

[Footnote 1: See Part v. ch. iii. on the Knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the Chinese.]

The wealthier classes indulged in flowing robes, and Bujas Dasa the king, who in the fourth century devoted himself to the study of medicine and the cure of the sick, was accustomed, when seeking objects for his compassion, to appear as a common person, simply "disguising himself by gathering his cloth up between his legs."[1] Robes with flowers[2], and a turban of silk, constituted the dress of state bestowed on men whom the king delighted to honour.[3] Cloth of gold is spoken of in the fifth century, but the allusion is probably made to the kinbaub of India.[4]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p.245.]

[Footnote 2: By the ordinances of Buddhism it was forbidden to the priesthood "to adorn the body with flowers," thus showing it to have been a practice of the laity. HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. iv. p.24; ch. xiii p.128.]

[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p.139.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid., ch. xxxviii. p.258.]

MANUAL AND MECHANICAL ARTS. Weaving.—The aborigines practised the art of weaving before the arrival of Wijayo. Kuweni, when the adventurer approached her, was "seated at the foot of a tree, spinning thread;"[1] cotton was the ordinary material, but "linen cloth" is mentioned in the second century before Christ.[2] White cloths are spoken of as having been employed, in the earliest times, in every ceremony for covering chairs on which persons of rank were expected to be seated; whole "webs of cloth" were used to wrap the carandua in which the sacred relics were enclosed[3], and one of the kings, on the occasion of consecrating a dagoba at Mihintala, covered with "white cloth" the road taken by the procession between the mountain and capital, a distance of more than seven miles.[4]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. vii. p.48; Rajavali, p.173.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch, xxv. p.152.]

[Footnote 3: Rajaratnacari, p.72.]

[Footnote 4: A.D. 8. Rajavali, p. 227; Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 213.]

In later times a curious practice prevailed, which exists to the present day;—on occasions when it is intended to make offerings of yellow robes to the priesthood, the cotton was plucked from the tree at daybreak, and "cleaned, spun, woven, dyed, and made into garments" before the setting of the sun. This custom, called Catina Dhawna, is first referred to in the Rajaratnacari in the reign of Prakrarna I.[1], A.D. 1153.

[Footnote 1: See ante, Vol. II p. 35. Rajaratnacari, pp. 104, 109, 112, 135; Rajavali, p. 261; HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. xii. pp. 114, 121.]

The expression "made into garments" alludes to the custom enjoined on the priests of having the value of the material destroyed, before consenting to accept it as a gift, thus carrying out their vow of poverty. The robe of Gotama Buddha was cut into thirty pieces, these were again united, so that they "resembled the patches of ground in a rice field;" and hence he enjoined on his followers the observance of the same practice.[1]

[Footnote 1: HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. xii. p. 117. See ante, Vol. I. Pt. III. ch. iv. p. 351.]

The arts of bleaching and dyeing were understood as well as that of weaving, and the Mahawanso, in describing the building of the Ruanwelle dagoba, at Anarajapoora, B.C. 161, tells of a canopy formed of "eight thousand pieces of cloth of every hue."[1]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 179, See also ch. xxxviii. p. 258.]

Earliest Artisans.—VALENTYN, writing on the traditional information acquired from the Singhalese themselves, records the belief of the latter, that in the suite of the Pandyan princess, who arrived to marry Wijayo, were artificers from Madura, who were the first to introduce the knowledge and practice of handicrafts amongst the native population. According to the story, these were goldsmiths, blacksmiths, brass-founders, carpenters, and stone-cutters.[1]

[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, Oud en Niew Oost-Indien, chap. iv. p. 267.]

The legend is given with more particularity in an historical notice of the Chalia caste, written by Adrian Rajapaxa, one of their chiefs, who describes these immigrants as Peskare Brahmans, who were at first employed in weaving gold tissues for the queen, but who afterwards abandoned that art for agriculture. A fresh company were said to have been invited in the reign of Devenipiatissa, and were the progenitors of "Saleas, at present called Chalias," who inhabit the country between Galle and Colombo, and who, along with their ostensible occupation as peelers of cinnamon, still employ themselves in the labours of the loom.[1] All handicrafts are conventionally regarded by the Singhalese as the occupations of an inferior class; and a man of high caste would submit to any privation rather than stoop to an occupation dependent on manual skill.

[Footnote 1: A History of the Chalias, by ADRIAN RAJAPAXA. Asiatic Res. vol. vii. p. 440. Ib., vol. x. p. 82.]

Pottery.—One of the most ancient arts, the making of earthenware vessels, exists at the present day in all its pristine simplicity, and the "potter's wheel," which is kept in motion by an attendant, whilst the hands of the master are engaged in shaping the clay as it revolves, is the primitive device which served a similar purpose amongst the Egyptians and Hebrews.[1]

[Footnote 1: Pottery is mentioned in the Mahawanso, B.C. 161, ch. xxix. p. 173: the allusion is to "new earthen vases," and shows that the people at that time, like the Hindus of today, avoided where possible the repeated use of the same vessel.]

A "potter" is enumerated in the list of servants and tradesmen attached to the temple on the Rock of Mihintala, A.D. 262, along with a sandal-maker, blacksmiths, carpenters, stone-cutters, goldsmiths, and "makers of strainers" through which the water for the priests was filtered, to avoid taking away the life of animalculae. The other artisans on the establishment were chiefly those in charge of the buildings, lime-burners, plasterers, white-washers, painters, and a chief builder.

Glass.—Glass, the knowledge of which existed in Egypt and in India[1], was introduced into Ceylon at an early period; and in the Dipawanso, a work older than the Mahawanso by a century and a half, it is stated that Saidaitissa, the brother of Dutugaimunu, when completing the Ruanwelle dagoba, which his predecessor had commenced, surmounted it with a "glass pinnacle." This was towards the end of the second century before Christ. Glass is frequently mentioned at later periods; and a "glass mirror" is spoken of[2] in the third century before Christ, but how made, whether by an amalgam of quicksilver or by colouring the under surface, is not recorded.

[Footnote 1: Dr. ROYLE'S Lectures on the Arts and Manufactures of India, 1852, p. 221. PLINY says the glass of India being made of pounded crystal, none other can compare with it. (Lib. xxxvi, c. 66.)]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xv. p. 99, ch. xxx. p. 182.]

Leather.—The tanning of leather from the hide of the buffalo was understood so far back as the second century before Christ, and "coverings both for the back and the feet of elephants" were then formed of it.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., ch. xxv. p. 152, ch. xxix. p. 169.]

Wood-carving.—Carving in sandal-wood and inlaying with ivory, of which latter material "state fans and thrones" were constructed for the Brazen Palace[1], are amongst the mechanical arts often alluded to; and during the period of prosperity which signalised the era of the "Great Dynasty," there can be little doubt that skilled artificers were brought from India to adorn the cities and palaces of Ceylon.

[Footnote 1: Ibid., ch. xxvii. p. 163, 164.]

Chemical Arts.—A rude knowledge of chemical manipulation was required for the extraction of camphor[1] and the preparation of numerous articles specified amongst the productions of the island, aromatic oils[2], perfumes[3], and vegetable dyes.

[Footnote 1: Rajaratnacari, p. 133. Dr. ROYLE doubts whether camphor was known to the Hindus at this early period, but "camphor oil" is repeatedly mentioned in the Singhalese chronicles amongst the articles provided for the temples.—ROYLE'S Essay on Hindoo Medicine, p. 140; Rajaculi, p. 190.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 157.]

[Footnote 3: B.C. 161. Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 180.]

Sugar.—Sugar was obtained not only from the Palmyra and Kittool palms[1], but also from the cane; which, besides being a native of India, was also indigenous in Ceylon.[2] A "sugar mill" for expressing its juice existed in the first century before Christ in the district of the "Seven Corles,"[3] where fifteen hundred years afterwards a Dutch governor of the island made an attempt to restore the cultivation of sugar.

[Footnote 1: "Palm sugar," as distinguished from "cane sugar," is spoken of in the Mahawanso in the second century B.C. ch. xxvii. p. 163.]

[Footnote 2: "Cane sugar" is referred to in the Mahawanso B.C. 161, ch. xxvii. p. 162, ch. xxxi. p. 192.]

[Footnote 3: A.D. 77. Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 208.]

Mineral Paints.—Mineral preparations were made with success. Red lead, orpiment, and vermilions are mentioned as pigments; but as it is doubtful whether Ceylon produces quicksilver, the latter was probably imported from. China[1] or India, where the method of preparing it has long been known.

[Footnote 1: See ante, Vol. I. Part I. ch. i. p. 29. n. Both quicksilver and vermilion are mentioned in the Rajaratnacari, p. 51, as being in use in the year 20 B.C. Vermilion is also spoken of B.C. 307 in the Mahawanso, ch. xxvii. p. 162, c. The two passages in which vermilion is spoken of in the Old Testament, Jerem. xxii. 14, and Ezek. xxiii. 14, both refer to the painting of walls and woodwork, a purpose to which it would be scarcely suitable, were not the article alluded to the opaque bisulphuret of mercury; and the same remark applies to the vermilion used by the Singhalese. The bright red obtained from the insect coccus (the vermiculus, whence the original term "vermilion" is said to be derived) would be too transparent to be so applied.]

There is likewise sufficient evidence in these and a number of other preparations, as well in the notices of perfumes, camphor, and essential oils, to show that the Singhalese, like the Hindus, had a very early acquaintance with chemical processes and with the practice of distillation, which they retain to the present day.[1] The knowledge of the latter they probably acquired from the Arabs or Chinese.

[Footnote 1: "I was frequently visited by one old man, a priest, who had travelled through Bengal, Burmah, Siam, and many other countries, and who prided himself on being able to make calomel much better than the European doctors, as his preparation did not cause the falling out of the teeth, soreness of the mouth, or salivation. He learnt the secret from an ancient sage whom he met with in a forest on the continent of India; and often when listening to him I was reminded of the mysteries and crudities of the alchemists."—HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, Lond. 1850, ch. xxiii. p. 312.]



CHAP. V.

WORKING IN METALS.

METALS. Iron.—Working in metals was early understood in Ceylon. Abundance of iron ore can be extracted from the mountains round Adam's Peak; the black oxide is found on the eastern shore in the state of iron-sand; and both are smelted with comparative ease by the natives. Iron tools were in use for the dressing of stones; and in the third century before Christ, the enclosed city of Wijittapoora was secured by an "iron gate." [1]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 152.]

Steel.—The manufacture of arms involved the use of steel, the method of tempering which was derived from the Hindus, by whom the wootz was prepared, of which, the genuine blades of Damascus are shown to have been made, the beauty of their figuring being dependent on its peculiar crystallisation. Ezekiel enumerates amongst the Indian imports of Tyre "bright iron, calamus and cassia."[1]

[Footnote 1: ROYLE on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine, p. 98. EZEKIEL, ch. xxvii. 19.]

Copper.—Copper was equally in demand, but, like silver and gold, it is nowhere alluded to as a production of the island. In ancient, as in modern, times, therefore, the numerous articles formed from this metal were probably imported from India. The renowned Brazen. Palace of Anarajapoora was so named from the quantity of copper used in its construction. Bujas Raja, A.D. 359, covered a building at Attanagalla with "tiles made of copper, and gilt with gold,"[1] and "two boats built of brass," were placed near the Bo-Tree at the capital "to hold food for the priests."[2] Before the Christian era, armour for elephants[3], and vessels of large dimensions, cauldrons[4], and baths[5], were formed of copper. The same material was used for the lamps, goblets[6], kettles, and cooking utensils of the monasteries and wiharas.

[Footnote 1: Rajaratnacari, p. 73.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., p. 60.]

[Footnote 3: Rajavali, p. 214.]

[Footnote 4: B.C. 204. Rajavali, p. 190.]

[Footnote 5: A.D. 1267, Rajartnacari, p. 104.]

[Footnote 6: Rajaratnacari, pp. 104, 134.]

Bells.—Bells were hung in the palaces[1], and bell-metal is amongst the gifts to the temples recorded on the rock at Pollanarrua, A.D. 1187.[2]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxi. pp. 128, 129.]

[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S Epitome, &c., Appx. p. 91.]

Bronze.—Bronze was cast into figures of Buddha[1], and the Mahawanso, describing the reign of Dhatu-Sena, A.D. 459, makes mention of "sixteen bronze statues of virgins having the power of locomotion."[2]

[Footnote 1: A.D. 275. Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 236; Rajavali, p. l35.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 257.]

Lead.—Lead was used during the wars of Dutugaimunu and Elala, and poured molten over the attacking elephants during the siege of Wijittapoora.[1] As lead is not a native product of Ceylon, it must have been brought thither from Ava or Malwa.

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 152.]

Gold and Silver.—Ceylon, like the continent of India, produces no silver and gold, save in the scantiest quantities.[1] The historical books, in recording the splendour of the temples and their riches, and the wealth lavished by the kings upon the priesthood, describe in perpetually recurring terms, the multitude of ornaments and vessels made of silver and gold. In early times the most precious of these were received as gifts from the princes of India, and in the second century before Christ the Mahawanso records the arrival of ships in the south of the island, "laden with golden utensils." The import of these might possibly have been a relic of the early trade with the Phoenicians, whom Homer, in a passage quoted by Strabo (l. xvi. c. 2. s. 24.), describes as making these cups, and carrying across the sea for sale in the great emporiums visited by these ships.[2] A variety of articles of silver are spoken of at very early periods. Dutugaimunu, when building the great dagoba, caused the circle of its base to be described by "a pair of compasses made of silver, and pointed with gold;"[3] parasols, vases, caranduas and numerous other regal or religious paraphernalia, were made from this precious material. Gold was applied in every possible form and combination to the decoration and furnishing of the edifices of Buddhism;—"trees of gold with roots of coral,"[4] flowers formed of gems with stems of silver[5], fringes of bullion mixed with pearls; umbrellas, shields, chains, and jewelled statuettes[6], are described with enthusiasm by the annalists of the national worship.

[Footnote 1: Amongst the miracles which signalised the construction of the Ruanwelle dagoba at Anarajapoora was the sudden appearance in a locality to the north-east of the capital of "sprouts" of gold above and below the ground, and of silver in the vicinity of Adam's Peak.—Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. pp. 166, 167.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxii. p. 153. [Greek]—Iliad, xxiii. 745.]

[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 172.]

[Footnote 4: Red coral, equal in its delicacy of tint to the highly-prized specimens from the Mediterranean, is found in small fragments on the sea-shore north of Point-de-Galle.]

[Footnote 5: Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 179.]

[Footnote 6: Mahawanso, ib. p. 180.]

The abundance of precious stones naturally led to their being extensively mounted in jewelry, and in addition to those found in Ceylon, diamonds[1] and lapis lazuli [2] (which must have been brought thither from India and Persia) are classed with the sapphire and the topaz, which are natives of the island.

[Footnote 1: Rajaratnacari, p. 61.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 182.]

The same passion existed then, as now, for covering the person with ornaments; gold, silver, and gems were fashioned into rings for the ears, the nose, the fingers, and toes, into plates for the forehead, and chains for the neck, into armlets, and bracelets, and anklets, and into decorations of every possible form, not only for the women, but for men, and, above all, for the children of both sexes. The poor, unable to indulge in the luxury of precious metals, found substitutes in shells and glass; and the extravagance of the taste was defended on the ground that their brilliancy served to avert the malignity of "the evil eye" from the wearer to the jewel.

Gilding.—Gilding was likewise understood by the Singhalese in all its departments, both as applied to the baser metals and to other substances—wood-work was gilded for preaching places[1] as was also copper for roofing, cement for decorating walls, and stone for statuary and carving.[2]

[Footnote 1: Rajaratnacari, p. 60.]

[Footnote 2: Rock inscription at Pollanarrua, A.D. 187—196.]

Coin.—Although the Singhalese through their sacred writings had a knowledge of coined money, and of its existence in India from a period little subsequent to the death of Gotama Buddha[1]; and although their annalists give the names of particular coins in circulation[2], at various times, no Singhalese money has yet been discovered of a date antecedent to the eleventh century. The Chinese in the fifteenth century spoke with admiration of the gold pieces struck by the kings of Ceylon, which they found in circulation on their frequent visits to the emporium at Galle[3]; but of these only a few very rare examples have been preserved, one of which bears the effigy and name of Lokaiswaira[4], who usurped the throne during a period of anarchy about A.D. 1070. Numbers of small copper coins of the eleventh and twelfth centuries have from time to time been dug up both in the interior and on the coast of the island[5]. A quantity of these which were found in 1848 by Lieutenant Evatt, when in command of a pioneer corps near the village of Ambogamoa, were submitted to Mr. Vaux of the British Museum, and prove to belong to the reign of Wijayo Bahu, A.D. 1071, Prakrama I., A.D. 1153, the Queen Lilawatte, A.D. 1197, King Sahasamallawa, A.D. 1200, Darmasoka, A.D. 1208, and Bhuwaneka Bahu, A.D. 1303. These coins have one and all the same device on the obverse,—a rude standing figure of the Raja holding the trisula in his left hand, and a flower in the right. His dress is a flowing robe, the folds of which are indicated rather than imitated by the artist; and on the reverse the same figure is seated, the name in Nagari characters being placed beside the face[6].

[Footnote 1: The Mahawanso mentions the existence of coined metals in India in the tenth year of the reign of Kalasoka, a century from the death of Buddha, ch. iv. p. 15. According to Hardy, in the most ancient laws of the Buddhists the distinction is recognised between coined money and bullion,—Eastern Monachism, vol. vii. p. 66.]

[Footnote 2: The coins mentioned in the Mahawanso, Rajaratnacari, and Rajavali are as follows: B.C. 161, the kahapanan (Mahawanso, ch. xxx. pp. 157, 175), which TURNOUR says was a gold coin worth ten massakan or massa. The latter are "the pieces of gold formerly current in Ceylon," a heap of which, according to the Rajaratnacari (p. 48), was seen by King Bhatia Tissa when he was permitted to penetrate into the chamber of the Ruanwelle dagoba, A.D. 137. The silver massa, according to TURNOUR, was valued at eightpence. These are repeatedly mentioned in the Rajaratnacari (A.D. 201, p. 60, A.D. 234, p. 62, A.D. 1262, p. 102, A.D. 1301, p. 107, A.D. 1462, p. 113). The Rajavali speaks of "gold massa" as in circulation in the time of Dutugaimunu, B.C. 161 (p. 201). The word masa in Singhalese means "pulse," or any description of "beans;" and it seems not improbable that the origin of the term as applied to money may be traced to the practice in the early Indian coinage of stamping small lumps of metal to give them authentic currency. It can only be a coincidence that the Roman term for an ingot of gold was "massa" (Pliny, L. xxxiii. c. 19). These Singhalese massa were probably similar to the "punched coins," having rude stamps without effigies, and rarely even with letters, which have been turned up at Kanooj, Oujein, and other places in Western India. A copper coin is likewise mentioned in the fourteenth century, in the Rajavali, where it is termed carooshawpa; the value of which UPHAM, without naming his authority, says was "about a pice and a half."—p. 136.]

[Footnote 3: Woo heoe peen "Records of the Ming Dynasty," A.D. 1522, B. lxviii. p. 5. Suh Wan heen tung kaou, "Antiquarian Researches," B. ccxxxvi. p. 11.]

[Footnote 4: Two gold coins of Lokaiswaira are in the collection of the British Museum, and will be found described by Mr. VAUX in the 16th vol. of the Numismatic Chronicle, p. 121.]

[Footnote 5: There is a Singhalese coin figured in DAVY'S Ceylon, p. 245, the legend on which is turned upside down, but when reversed it reads "Sri Pa-re-kra-ma Bahu."]

[Footnote 6: Numismatic Chronicle, vol. xvi. p. 124]



The Kandyans, by whom these coins are frequently found, give the copper pieces the name of Dambedenia challies, and tradition, with perfect correctness, assigns them to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the kings of that period are believed to have had a mint at Dambedenia.

A quantity of coins similar in every respect to those dug up in Ceylon have been found at Dipaldinia or Amarawati, on the continent of India, near the mouth of the Kistna; a circumstance which might be accounted for by the frequent intercourse between Ceylon and the coast, but which is possibly referable to the fact recorded in the Mahawanso that Prakrama I., after his successful expedition against the King of Pandya, caused money to be coined in his own name before retiring to Ceylon.[1]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. lxxvi. pp. 298, 299, UPHAM's Trans. The circumstance is exceedingly curious of coins of Prakrama, "identical" with those found at Dambedenia, in Ceylon, having also been discovered at Dipaldinia, on the opposite continent; and it goes far to confirm the accuracy of the Mahawanso as to the same king having coined money in both places. Those found in the latter locality form part of the Mackenzie Collection, and have been figured in the Asiat. Researches, xvii. 597, and afterwards by Mr. PRINSEP in the Journ. of the Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, vi. 301. See also a notice of Ceylon coins, in the Journ. As. Soc. Beng. iv. 673, vi. 218; CASIE CHITTY, in the Journ. of the Ceylon Asiat. Soc., 1847, p. 9, has given an account of a hoard of copper coins found at Calpentyn in 1839; and Mr. Justice STARKE, in the same journal, p. 149, has given a resume of the information generally possessed as to the ancient coins of the island. PRINSEP's paper on Ceylon Coins will be found in vol. i. of the recent reprint of his Essays on Indian Antiquities, p. 419. Lond. 1858.]

Hook-money.—No ancient silver coin has yet been found, but specimens are frequently brought to light of the ridis, pieces of twisted silver wire, which from their being sometimes bent with a considerable curve have been called "Fish-hook money." These are occasionally impressed with a legend, and for a time the belief obtained that they were a variety of ring-money peculiar to Ceylon.[1] Of late this error has been corrected; the letters where they occur have been shown to be not Singhalese or Sanskrit, but Persian, and the tokens themselves have been proved to belong to Laristan on the Persian Gulf, from the chief emporium of which, Gambroon, they were brought to Ceylon in the course of Indian commerce; chiefly by the Portuguese, who are stated by VAN CARDAEN to have introduced them in great quantities into Cochin and the ports of Malabar.[2] There they were circulated so freely that an edict of Prakrama enumerates the ridi amongst the coins in which the taxes were assessed on land.[3]

[Footnote 1: This error may be traced to the French commentator on RIBEYRO's History of Ceylon, who describes the fish-hook money in use in the kingdom of Kandy, whilst the Portuguese held the low country, as so simple in its form that every man might make it for himself: "Le Roy de Candy avoit aussi permis a ses peuples de se servir d'une monnoye que chacun peut fabriquer."—Ch. x. p. 81.]

[Footnote 2: "Les larins sont tout-a-fait commodes et necessaires dans les Indes, surtout pour acheter du poivre a Cochin, ou l'on en fait grand etat."—Voyage aux Indes Orientales. Amsterdam, A.D. 1716, vol. vi. p. 626.]

[Footnote 3: Rock-inscription at Dambool, A.D. 1200. The Rajavali mentions the ridis as in circulation in Ceylon at the period of the arrival of the Portuguese, A.D. 1505.—P. 278.]



In India they are called larins, and money in imitation of them, struck by the princes of Bijapur and by Sivaji, the founder of the Mahrattas, was in circulation in the Dekkan as late as the seventeenth century.[1]

[Footnote 1: Prof. WILSON'S Remarks on Fish-hook Money, Numism. Chronic. 1854, p. 181.]



CHAP. VI.

ENGINEERING.

It has already been shown[1] that the natives of Ceylon received their earliest instruction in engineering from the Brahmans, who attached themselves to the followers of Wijayo and his immediate successors.[2] But whilst astonished at the vastness of conception observable in the works executed at this early period, we are equally struck by the extreme simplicity of the means employed by their designers for carrying their plans into execution; and the absence of all ingenious expedients for husbanding or effectively applying manual labour. The earth which forms their prodigious embankments was carried in baskets[3] by the labourers, in the same primitive fashion which prevails to the present day. Stones were detached in the quarry by the slow and laborious process of wedging, of which they still exhibit the traces; and those intended for prominent positions were carefully dressed with iron tools. For moving them no mechanical contrivances were resorted to[4], and it can only have been by animal power, aided by ropes and rollers, that vast blocks like the great tablet at Pollanarrua were dragged to their required positions.[5]

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. Part IV. chap. ii. p. 430.]

[Footnote 2: King Pandukabhaya, B.C. 437, "built a residence for the Brahman Jotiyo, the chief engineer."—Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 66.]

[Footnote 3: Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 144.]

[Footnote 4: The only instance of mechanism applied in aid of human labour is referred to in a passage of the Mahawanso, which alludes to a decree for "raising the water of the Abhaya tank by means of machinery," in order to pour it over a dagoba during the solemnisation of a festival, B.C. 20.—Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 211; Rajaratnacari, p. 51.]

[Footnote 5: No document is better calculated to Impress the reader with a due appreciation of the indomitable perseverance of the Singhalese in works of engineering than the able report of Messrs. ADAMS, CHURCHILL, and BAILEY, on the great Canal from Ellahara to Gantalawa, appended to the Ceylon Calendar for 1857.]

Fortifications.—Of military engineering the Singhalese had a very slight knowledge. Walled towns and fortifications are frequently spoken of, but the ascertained difficulty of raising, squaring, or carrying stones, points to the inference which is justified by the expressions of the ancient chronicles, that the walls they allude to, must have been earthworks[1], and that the strength of their fortified places consisted in their inaccessibility. The first recorded attempt at fortification was made by the Malabars in the second century before Christ for the defence of Wijitta-poora, which is described as having been secured by walls, a fosse, and a gate.[2] Elala about the same period built "thirty-two bulwarks" at Anarajapoora[3]; and Dutugaimunu, in commencing to besiege him in the city, followed his example, by throwing up a "fortification in an open plain," at a spot well provided with wood and water.[4]

[Footnote 1: Makalantissa, who reigned B.C. 41, "built a rampart seven cubits high, and dug a ditch round the capital."—Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 210.]

[Footnote 2: Rajavali, p. 212; Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 151.]

[Footnote 3: Rajavali, p. 187.]

[Footnote 4: Rajavali, p. 216; Mahawanso ch. xxv. p. 152.]

At a later time, the Malabars, when in possession of the northern portion of the island, formed a chain of strong "forts" from the eastern to the western coast, and the Singhalese, in imitation of them, occupied similar positions. The most striking example of mediaeval fortification which still survives, is the imperishable rock of Sigiri, north-east of Dambool, to which the infamous Kassyapa retired with his treasures, after the assassination of his father, King Dhatu Sena, A.D. 459; when having cleared its vicinity, and surrounded it by a rampart, the figures of lions with which he decorated it, obtained for it the name of Sihagiri, the "Lion-rock." But the real defences of Sigiri were its precipitous cliffs, and its naturally scarped walls, which it was not necessary to strengthen by any artificial structures.

Their rocky hills, and the almost impenetrable forests which enveloped them, were in every age the chief security of the Singhalese; and so late as the 12th century, the inscription engraved on the rock at Dambool, in describing the strength of the national defences under the King Kirti Nissanga, enumerates them as "strongholds in the midst of forests, and those upon steep hills, and the fastnesses surrounded by water."[1]

[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome and Appendix, p. 95.]

Thorn-gates.—The device, retained down to the period of the capture of Kandy by the British, when the passes into the hill country were defended by thick plantations of formidable thorny trees, appears to have prevailed in the earliest times. The protection of Mahelo, a town assailed by Dutugaimunu, B.C. 162, consisting in its being "surrounded on all sides with the thorny dadambo creeper, within which was a triple line of fortifications."[1]

[Footnote 1: Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 153. When Albuquerque attacked Malacca in A.D. 1511, the chief who defended the place "covered the streets with poisoned thorns, to gore the Portuguese coming in" FARIA Y SOUZA, vol. i. p. 180. VALENTYN, in speaking of the dominions of the King of Kandy during the Dutch occupation of the Low Country, describes the density of the forests, "which not only serve to divide the earldoms one from another, but, above all, tend to the fortification of the country, on which account no one dare, on pain of death, to thin or root out a tree, more than to permit a passage for one man at a time, it being impossible to pass through the rest thereof."—VALENTYN, Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, &c., ch. i. p. 22. KNOX gives a curious account of these "thorn-gates." (Part ii. ch. vi. p. 45.)]

Bridges.—As to bridges, Ceylon had none till the end of the 13th century[1], and Turnour conjectures that even then they were only formed of timber, like the Pons Sublidus at Rome. At a later period stone pillars were used in pairs, on which beams or slabs were horizontally rested, in order to form a roadway [2], in the same manner that Herodotus describes the most ancient bridge on record, which was constructed by Queen Nitocris, at Babylon; the planks being laid during the day and lifted again at night, for the security of the city.[3] The principle of the arch appears never to have been employed in bridge building. Ferries, and the taxes on crossing by them, are alluded to down to a very late period amongst other sources of revenue.[4]

[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S Epitome and Notes, p. 72. Major Forbes says, however, there is reason to believe that the remains of stone piers across the Kalawa-oya, on the line between Kornegalle and Anarajapoora, are the ruins of the bridge erected by King Maha Sen, A.D. 301.]

[Footnote 2: Mahawanso, ch. lxxxv. UPHAM'S translation, pp. 340,349; Rajaratnacari, pp. 104, 131. The bridge on the Wanny hereafter described (see vol. ii p. 474) was thus constructed.]