498 SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. [PART IV. 



levied both on the land and its produce. These were 

 avowedly so oppressive in amount, that the merit of 

 having reduced or suspended their assessment was 

 thought worthy of being engraved on rocks by the 

 sovereigns who could claim it. In the inscription at 

 the temple of Dambool, A.D. 1187, the king boasts of 

 having " enriched the inhabitants who had become im- 

 poverished by inordinate taxes, and made them opulent 

 by gifts of land, cattle, and slaves, by relinquishing the 

 revenues for five years, and restoring inheritances, 

 and by annual donations of five times the weight of 

 the king's person in gold, precious stones, pearls, and 

 silver; and from an earnest wish that succeeding kings 

 should not again impoverish the inhabitants of Ceylon 

 by levying excessive imposts, he fixed the revenue at 

 a moderate amount, according to the fertility of the 

 land." 1 



There was likewise an imperial tax upon produce, ori- 

 ginally a tenth, but subject to frequent variation. 2 For 

 instance, in consideration of the ill-requited toil of fell- 

 ing the forest land, in order to take a crop of dry grain, 

 the soil being unequal to sustain continued cultivation, 

 the same king seeing that " those who laboured with 

 the bill-hook in clearing thorny jungles, earned their 

 livelihood distressfully," ordained that this chena culti- 

 vation, as it is called, should be for ever exempted from 

 taxation. 



Army and Navy. The military and naval forces of 

 Ceylon were chiefly composed of foreigners. The 

 genius of the native population was at all times averse 

 to arms ; from the earliest ages, the soldiers employed 

 by the crown were mercenaries, and to this pecu- 

 liarity may be traced the first encouragement given to 

 the irruptions of the Malabars. These were employed 

 both on land and by sea in the third century before 



1 TTJKNOTJR'S Epitome, App. p. 95 ; I 2 Rock inscription at Pollanamia, 

 M(thawanso } ch. xxxiv. p. 211. | A.D. 1187. 



