366 



THE SINGHALESE CHRONICLES. 



[Part III. 



B.C. 

 lOt. 



conferred on the Jeytawana Wiliara which the king had 

 just erected at Anarajapoora.' 



To identify the crown still more closely with the 

 interests of agriculture, some of the kings superintended 

 pubhc works for irrigating the lands of the temples ^ ; 

 and one more enthusiastic than the rest toiled in the rice 

 fields to enhance tlie merit of conferring their produce on 

 the priesthood.^ 



These broad possessions, the church, under all vicissi- 

 tudes and revolutions, has succeeded in retaining to the 

 present day. Their territories, it is true, have been 

 diminished in extent by national decay ; the destruction 

 of works for irrigation has converted into wilderness 

 and jungle plains once teeming with fertility ; and the 

 mild policy of the British government, by abohshing 

 raja-kariya^, has emancipated the peasantry, who are 

 no longer the serfs either of the temples or the chiefs. 

 But in every district of the island the priests are in 

 the enjoyment of the most fertile lands, over which the 

 crown exercises no right of taxation ; and such is the 

 extent of then* possessions that, although their precise 

 hmits have not been ascertained by the local govern- 

 ment, they have been conjectured with probabihty to 

 be equal to one-third of the cultivated land of the 

 island. 



One pecuharity in the Buddhist ceremonial served at 

 all times to give a singular impulse to the progress of 

 horticulture. Flowers and garlands are introduced in 

 its rehgious rites to the utmost excess. The atmosphere 

 of the wiharas and temples is rendered oppressive with 

 the perfume of champac and jessamine, and the shrine 

 of the deity, the pedestals of his image, and the steps 

 leading to the temple are strewn thickly with blos- 



' Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 69. 



2 Tuknour's Epitome, p. 33. 



3 31nh(nvans<>, ch. xxxiv. "The 

 Buddlii^t kings of Burinali are still 

 accustoiiied to boast, almost in the 

 terms of the Mahawanso, of the dis- 



tinction which tliey have earned, by 

 the midtitudes of tanks they have 

 constructed or restored. See Yule's 

 Narrative of the Mission to Ava in 

 1855, p. 106. 



* Compulsory labour. 



