602 



THE RUINED CITIES. 



[Part X. 



eastern road at Haboorenna, skirted the mysterious 

 mountain of Eittagalla, which, from its having been in 

 ancient times a retreat of tlie aboriginal Yakkos, is still 

 believed by the peasantry to be the abode of " demons," ^ 

 and reached the ruins of the ancient city of Vigitapoora, 

 near the vast Kalaweva tank, tlie most stupendous work 

 of the kind in Ceylon. 



The tank of KalaAveva, or Kalawapi, was formed by 

 King Dhatu Sena about the year 460, by drawing an 

 embankment across the Kala-oya, which, flowing from the 

 vicinity of the great temple of Dambool, reaches the sea 

 at Calpentyn. 



Dhatu Sena was the monarch before alluded to, whose 

 son, Mogallana, caused him to be bound " in chains and 

 built up in a wall" — a retributive fate which, accord- 

 ing to the Mahawmiso, the king drew down upon himself 

 because, when forming the Kalawapi tank, he buried 

 a priest under the embankment, who was too pro- 

 foundly absorbed in meditation to provide for his own 

 safety.^ 



The work was conceived on the grandest imaginable 

 scale. The area submerged was more than forty miles in 

 circumference, the waters of the river being thrown back 

 by the embankment, till they overflowed the low lands 

 round the rock, which overhangs the temple of Dambool, 

 at a distance of twenty miles from Kalaweva. In the 

 opposite direction a canal more than sixty miles in length 

 communicated with Anarajapoora. 



The returning bund of the tank is twelve miles long, 

 and the spill-water, formed of hammered granite, is 

 aptly described by Turnour as " one of the most stu- 

 pendous monmnents of misapplied human labour in the 

 island." ^ This misapplication was exliibited by the in- 

 efficiency of the work, for the superfluous waters, instead 



^ For an explanation of these 

 convertible terms, see Vol. I. Pt. in. 

 ch. ii. p. 330. 



2 Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 262. 

 See ante, Vol. I. Pt. III. ch. ix. p. 391, 

 2 Note to the diahawanso, p. 11. 



