146 



Account of the Irrigation Works of 



not discouraged, when a necessary, but a difficult work is on Land. 

 Regard it not indeed as a work of difficulty, but following my advice, 

 accomplish it, without opposing my instructions." 



The highly renowned Monarch, then, ordered the construction of the 

 great embankment celebrated under the name of Kotta Baddha, which 

 had long been swept away by the action of the river, leaving behind 

 nothing but the name, and which indeed had baffled the attempts of for- 

 mer kings (to keep in repair.) 



Whereupon the ministers, one and all, represented, in various ways, 

 the extreme difficulty of the work, and the instability of it, even if it 

 could be accomplished. 



The King rejecting their councils, (remarked) "What is there that 

 cannot be done in this world by men of perseverance? Is not the tradition 

 still current that Rama built a bridge over the great ocean itself, by 

 means of monkeys ?* 



" If I am destined by fortune, to reduce this island under one regal 

 canopy, and to promote the welfare of the state and religion, then indeed, 

 will the commencement of the work see the accomplishment of it also." 



Thus did he of great courage, inspire his ministers with courage. 



Before the construction of the embankment, however, the profoundly 

 wise ruler of the land made, from the mouth of the embankment, as far 

 as the country of Rattakara, a great canal of great breadth and strength, 

 and of many porisas f in depth. 



The Protector of the land, having assembled a great many stone 

 cutters, workers in metal, iron-smiths and gold-smiths in the country, and 

 having employed them in the work cutting stones, got made by them an 

 embankment of great stablity and solidity, having the interstices of the 

 stones invisible, like one continued sheet of rock, and having the work of 

 plastering complete. 



On the summit of the great embankment, the pious Rajah placed a 

 Bo tree, an image house, and likewise a Dagoba. 



The King, by means of this canal, so directed the course of the stream 

 as to make it discharge itself into the sea. 



Having cleared the great jungle on both sides of the canal, he formed 



* In reference to the fable in the Ram ay-ana, that Rama, the conqueror of Rawana, 

 in crossing over from India to Ceylon, caused a bridge to be built over the sea, by his 

 army of Wanaras or monkeys. The reef of sunken rocks which extends across the 

 Gulf of Manar from Ramisseram on the Coast of Coromandel to Talamanar on the 

 Coast of Ceylon, is supposed to be the remains of this bridge. 



t " The measure of a man's reach." " Equal to the height, to which he reaches, 

 when elevating both arms with fingers extended. 7 ' (See Colebrook's Amarakosha, p. 

 160.) 



