408 THE SINGHALESE CHRONICLES. [Part III. 



A.T). maidens to wait upon the sick, superintending tliem in 

 1155. person, and bringing his medical knowledge to assist in 

 their direction and management. 



Even now the ruins of Pollanarrua, the most pictu- 

 resque in Ceylon, attest the care which he lavished on 

 his capital. He surrounded it with ramparts, raised a 

 fortress within them, and built a palace for his own 

 residence, containing four thousand apartments. He 

 founded schools and libraries ; l:)uilt halls for music 

 and dancing ; formed tanks for pubhc baths ; opened 

 streets, and surrounded the whole city Avith a wall 

 which, if we are to credit the native chronicles, en- 

 closed an area twelve miles broad by nearly tlmty in 

 length. 



By his liberality, Eohuna and Piliiti were equally em- 

 beUished ; the buildings of Vigittapura and Sigiii were 

 renewed ; and the ancient edifices at Anarajapoora were 

 restored, and its temples and palaces repaired, imder the 

 personal superintendence of his minister. It is worthy of 

 remark that so greatly had the constructive arts declined, 

 even at that period, in Ceylon, that the king had to 

 "bring Damilo artificers" from the opposite coast of India 

 to repair the structures at his capital.^ 



The details preserved in the Singhalese chronicles as 

 to the works for irrigation which he formed or restored, 

 afford an idea of the prodigious encouragement bestowed 

 upon agriculture in this reign, as well as of the extent 

 to which the rule of the Malabars had retarded the pro- 

 gress and destroyed the earher traces of civilisation. 

 Fourteen hundred and seventy tanks were constructed 

 by the king in various parts of the island, three of them 

 of such vast dimensions that they were known as the 

 " Seas of Prakrama ; " '^ and in addition to these, three 

 hundred others were formed by him for the special 

 benefit of the priests. The " Great Lakes " which he 

 repaired, as specified in tlie Mahawanso, amount to 



' Mdhaivanso, ch. Ixxv. Ixxvii. | ^ Rajaratnacari, p. 88. 



