CiiAi-. VIII.] EXTnX'TIOX OF THE " GREAT DYNASTY." 



383 



A.D. 



structions wliicli gave tlie city its lasting renown 

 stupendous dagobas raised by successive monarclis, each ^^^ 

 eaoer to surpass the conceptions of his predecessors ; 

 temples in which were deposited statues of gold adorned 

 with gems and native pearls ; the decorated terraces of 

 the Bo-tree, and the Brazen Palace, with its thousand 

 chambers and its richly embellished halls. The city 

 was enclosed by a rampart upwards of twenty feet in 

 lieight^, which was afterwards replaced by a Avail"; 

 and, so late as the fourth century, the Chinese tra- 

 veller Fa Hian describes the condition of the place in 

 terms which fully corroborate the accounts of the 



^ By Wasabha, a. d. 66. Maha- 

 tvdnso, cli. XXXV. p. 222. 



^ TtJRNOUR, iu his Epitome of the 

 History of Ceylon, says that Auara- 

 japoora was enclosed by a rampart 

 seven cubits high, B. C 41, and that 

 A. D. 66 King- Wasabha built a wall 

 round the city sixteen gows in cir- 

 cumference. As he estimates the gow 

 at four English miles, this would 

 give an area equal to about 300 

 square miles. A space so prodigious 

 for the capital seems to 1)e dispro- 

 portionate to the extent of the king- 

 dom, and far too extended for the 

 wants of the population. Tukxoijr 

 does not furnish the authority on 

 which he gives the dimensions, nor 

 have I been able to discover it in the 

 Hqjavali nor in the Rdjayatnacari. 

 The 3Iahawanso alludes to the fact 

 of Anarajapoora having been fortified 

 by Wasabha, but, instead of a wall, 

 the work which it describes this king 

 to have undertaken, was the raising of 

 the height of the rampart from seven 

 cubits to eighteen {Mahmcanso, ch. 

 xxxv. p. 222). Major Forbes, in his 

 account of the ruins of the ancient city, 

 repeats the story of their former ex- 

 tent, in which he no doubt considered 

 that the high authority of Tumour iu 

 matters of antiquity was sustained 

 by a statement made by Lieutenant 

 Skinner, who had surveyed the ruins 

 in 1822, to the effect that he had dis- 

 covered near Alia-parte the remains 

 of masonry, which he concluded to 



be a portion of the ancient city wall 

 rimning north and south and forming 

 the west face ; and, as Alia-parte is 

 seven miles from Anarajapoora, he 

 regarded this discovery as confirming 

 the accoimt given of its original di- 

 mensions. Lieutenant, now Major, 

 Skinner has recently informed me 

 that, on mature reflection, he has 

 reason to fear that his first inference 

 was precipitate. In a letter of the 

 8th of May, 1856, he says : — " It 

 was in 1833 I first visited Anara- 

 japoora, when I made my survey of its 

 ruins. The supposed foundation of 

 the western face of the city wall was 

 pointed out near the village of Alia- 

 parte by the people, and I hastily 

 adopted it. I had not at the time 

 leisure to follow up this search and 

 determine how far it extended, but 

 from subsequent "vasits to the place 

 I have been led to doubt the accu- 

 racy of this tradition, though on most 

 other points I foimd the natives 

 tolerably accurate in their knowledge 

 of the histoiy of the ancient capital. 

 I haA'e since sought for traces of the 

 other faces of the supposed wall, at 

 the distances from the centre of the 

 city at which it was said to have 

 existed, but without success." The 

 ruins which Major Skinner saw at 

 Alia-parte are most probably those of 

 one of the numerous forts which the 

 Singhalese kings erected at a much 

 later period, to keep the Malabars iu 

 check. 



