CHAP. L] POPULATION. 423 



once the homes of millions, can hesitate to believe 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 -4ad 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 de- 

 pendent on the store of water preserved in each village 

 tank ; and it could only be carried on by the combined 

 labour of the whole local community, applied in the 

 first instance to collect and secure the requisite supply 

 for irrigation, and afterwards 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 indispensable were concord and 

 union in such operations, that injunctions for their 

 maintenance were sometimes engraven on the rocks, as 

 an imperishable exhortation to forbearance and harmony. 1 

 Hence, in the recurring convulsions that overthrew suc- 

 cessive dynasties, and transferred the crown to usurpers, 

 with a facile rapidity, otherwise almost unintelligible, 

 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- 

 motion. If interrupted in their industry, by the 

 dread of such events, they retired till the storm had 

 blown over, and returned, after each temporary disper- 



1 See the inscription on the rock of I one on a rock at Pollanarrua, ibid., 

 Mihintala, A. D. 262, TtTRNOTJR's Epi- p. 92. 

 tome, Appendix, p. 90 ; and a similar | 



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