144 Account of the Irrigation Works of 



Secondly, the stupendous size and magnitude of the work. 



Sir Emerson Tennent, who gives an interesting account of 

 this tank in his work entitled " Christianity in Ceylon," calls 

 it {e the largest as well as the most perfect of these gigantic works 

 in Ceylon" and speaks of it in such terms as would not be 

 inappropriate in describing such a tank as " the Sea of Prak- 

 rama" must have been. 



But the most interesting account, as well as that which 

 gives us the loftiest ideas of this gigantic work, is that con- 

 tained in the Governor's Minute on the Eastern Province. 



His Excellency says, that " it is the most wonderful work 

 that I have yet visited, whether we look to size, difficulties 

 of execution, or to the time at which these difficulties were 

 surmounted." " North of these again, about 40 miles, is 

 Padiwel Colum, the most gigantic work of all, for the bund which 

 is in perfect repair, except at the one spot where, in the 

 course of ages, the waters have forced a passage between it 

 and the natural hills which it united, is 1 1 miles long, 30 

 feet broad at the summit, 180 feet at the base, and 70 feet 

 high." t( Padiwel Colum, the greater part of which I rode or 

 walked over, was formed by the waters of the rivers Morray 

 Oya and Moonguna Oya, confined to the plain, by the en- 

 ormous bund which I have just described. Its construction 

 must have occupied a million of people for 10 or 15 gears." 



The most satisfactory way of settling the question as to the 

 identity of this tank would probably be by obtaining a fac- 

 simile and translation of the inscription to which Sir Emerson 

 Tennent thus alludes, in his note on the tanks, already refer- 

 red to. 



" On the top of the great embankment itself, and close by 

 the breach, there stands a tall sculptured stone, with two en- 

 graved compartments, that no doubt record its history, but 

 the Odear informed us that the characters were Nagari, and 



