588 THE KUINED CITIES. [Part X. 



above tlic forest, was erected by his queen, and the 

 beautiful hike, on whose shores these surprising edifices 

 were raised, aUhough formed long before his reign ^, 

 was indebted for its enlarged dimensions to the lavish 

 munificence of Prakrama. 



The remains of Topare appear to have been unknown 

 to the Portuguese writers on Ceylon, although the 

 Singhalese have a tradition that the injury done to 

 some of the monuments was occasioned by some Portu- 

 guese soldiers, who dug there in search of treasure. 

 Valentyn and the other Dutch authors are equally silent 

 regarding them, and although Knox dming his captivity 

 traversed the country in which the ruins are situated, 

 he was not aware of their existence. A British officer 

 on his march from Bintenne to Minery, in 1817, heard 

 of them for the first time from his Singhalese guides, 

 and in 1820, Mi\ Pagan, of the 2nd Ceylon regiment, 

 was the first Enghshman who visited and described the 

 forgotten city.^ 



Prom the village of Oodoovelli, where our tents had 

 been pitched below a patriarchal tamarind tree, old 

 enough to have witnessed the pomp and triumphs of 

 king Prakrama, a walk of less than a mile along the 

 bend of the lake brought us to the ruins of the palace. 

 This building forms a square with a large entrance 

 hall in front, the whole raised upon a terrace of cut 

 stone. The material is brick coated with chunam, and 

 richly decorated, not only around the doorways and 

 windows, but in the numerous compartments into which 

 the exterior is divided by pilasters. The outer walls 

 have suffered little fi^om time, but are spht in all di- 



^ It was made by Upatissa II., 

 A.D. 400, Bajaratnacari, p. 74. It 

 appears to have been repaired by 

 Kinp- Sena, A.D. 8.38. — TraNotrK's 

 Jipitome, p. 35. 



' Mr. Fagan's account appeared 

 in the Ceylon Gazette, for OcIoIkt, 

 Ist, 1820, whence it was copied into 

 the Asiatic Journal, vol. ix. p. 1;!7, 



and vol. xvi. p. 164. Major Forbes 

 saw and described the place in 18;n, 

 Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. i. p. .391. 

 For the g-round plan whicli accom- 

 panies this chapter, I am indebted to 

 Mr. Hall, of the Siirveyor-General's 

 Department, by whom it was pre- 

 pared in 1849. 



