Chap. VI.] INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON CIVILISATION. 3Go 



each of wliom made from fifteen to thirty \ together b.c. 

 with canals and all the appurtenances for irrigation, i^^- 

 Originally these vast imdertaldngs were completed " for 

 the benefit of the country," and " out of compassion for 

 living creatures ; " ^ but so early as the first century of the 

 Christian era, the custom became prevalent of forming 

 tanks with the pious intention of conferring the lands 

 which they enriched on the church. Wide districts, 

 rendered fertile by the interception of a river and the 

 formation of suitable canals, were appropriated to the 

 maintenance of the local priesthood ^ ; a tank and the 

 thousands of acres which it fertilised were sometimes 

 assigned for the perpetual repau-s of a dagoba '^, and the 

 revenues of whole villages and their surrounding rice 

 fields were devoted to the support of a single wihara.^ 



So lavish were these endowments, that one king, who 

 signahsed Ins reign by such extravagances as laying a 

 carpet seven miles in length, " in order tliat pilgrims 

 might proceed with unsoiled feet all the way from the 

 Kadambo river (the Malwatte oya) to the mountain 

 Chetiyo (Miliintala), awarded a priest who had presented 

 him with a draught of water during the construction of a 

 wiliara, " land within the circumference of half a yoyana 

 (eight miles) for the maintenance of the temple."^ 



It was in this manner that the beautiful tank at 

 Mineri, one of the most lovely of these artificial lakes, 

 was enclosed by Maha Sen, a.d. 275 ; and, together with 

 the 80,000 amonams of ground which it waters, was 



' liajarattutcari, -p. 4:1, 45, 54:, 55 ; I ^ Mahmvcmso, ch. xxxiv. p. 210; 



King Saidaitissa B.C. 137, made | xxxv. p. 221 ; xxxviii. p. 237. Rqja- 



" eighteen lakes " (liajavali, p. 233). ratnacari, ch. ii. p. 57, 59, 64, 69, 



King Wasabha, who ascended the j 74. 



throne a.d. 02, " caused sixteen * Muliawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 215, 



large lakes to be enclosed " {Raja- I 218, 223 ; ch. xxxvii. p. 234 ; Raja- 



ratnacari, p. 57). Detu Tissa, A.D. ratnacari, ch. ii. p. 51. TmtNOUR's 



253, excavated six (Rajavali, p. 237), 

 and King Maha Sen, a.d. 275, seven- 

 teen {Mahuwanw, ch. xxxviii. p 

 230). 



"^ Mahaiuanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 242. 



l^pifome, p. 21. 



^ 3Iahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 218, 

 221 ; Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 51 ; 

 Rajaviai, p. 241. 



** 3Iahaivanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 3. 



