CuAr. I.] rorULATION. 423 



common to all oriental narratives, no one wlio has 

 visited the regions now silent and deserted, once 

 the homes of millions, can hesitate to beheve that 

 when the island was in the zenith of its prosperity, 

 the population of Ceylon must of necessity have 

 been at least ten times as great as it is at the present 

 day. 



The same train of thought leads to a clearer concep- 

 tion of the means by which this dense population was 

 preserved, through so many centuries, in spite of frequent 

 revolutions and often recurring invasions ; as well as 

 of the causes which led to its ultimate disappearance, 

 when intestine decay had wasted the organisation on 

 which the fabric of society rested. 



Cultivation, as it existed in the north of Ceylon, was 

 almost entirely dependent on the store of water pre- 

 served in each village tank ; and it could only be carried 

 on by the combined labour of the whole local com- 

 munity, applied in the first instance to collect and 

 secure the requisite supply for irrigation, and after- 

 wards to distribute it to the rice lands, which were 

 tilled by the united exertions of the inhabitants, amongst 

 whom the crop was divided in due proportions. So in- 

 dispensable were concord and union in such operations, 

 that injunctions for their maintenance were sometimes 

 engraven on the rocks, as an inperishable exhortation to 

 forbearance and harmony.^ 



Hence, in the recurring convulsions which overthrew 

 successive djmasties, and transferred the crown to usurpers, 

 with a facile rapidity, otherwise almost unintelhgible, 

 it is easy to comprehend that the mass of the people 

 had the strongest possible motives for passive sub- 

 mission, and were constrained to acquiescence by an 

 instinctive dread of the fatal effects of prolonged com- 



^ See tlie inscription on the rock of 

 Miliintala, a.d. 2G2, Ttjenour's Epi- 

 fome. Appendix^ p. 90 ; and a similar 



E E 4 



one on a rock at Pollanarrua; ibid, 

 p. 92. 



