CHAPTER IV 



THE TANKS AND TANK SHOOTING: THE WILAS 



I CAN hardly enlarge on the shooting to be enjoyed in and 

 about the tanks without some account of these wonderful 

 remains of ancient engineering practice. The inhabitants 

 of the low country of Ceylon, where perennial rivers are 

 few and far between, must have found out at a very 

 early date the absolute necessity of water, and plenty of 

 it, if they wanted to live. The only obvious way was to 

 catch and hold the water when it did come, and this 

 was done by throwing a primitive earth bank across some 

 hollow or course of some jungle "drain." We know, 

 as far as the Singhalese are concerned, that they were 

 forming tanks over 2000 years ago, the first recorded 

 tank in the Mahawansa (Ancient Singhalese History) 

 dating back as far as 430 B.C. As time went on each 

 successive king or queen, knowing well the importance 

 of the water supply for the good of the country, seemed 

 to vie with each other in making more, and larger, tanks. 

 From the primitive little village tank of 4 or 5 acres in 

 extent, with a 6 -foot bund, they gradually developed into 

 enormous schemes, damming up whole rivers, forming bunds 

 miles in length and up to 50 and 60 feet in height, and, 

 instead of the primitive method employed in the small 

 tanks of cutting a trench through the bank to let water 

 out, they were fitted with fine stone culverts, having cut- 

 stone sluice chambers on the inside of the bund, in which 

 were, no doubt, fitted sliding wooden doors to regulate 



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