No. 9. — 1856-8.] IRRIGATION WORKS OF PARAKRAMA B-AHU. 129 



or Pandi-kidam* which may have been corrupted into Padavi 

 or Padavil-kulam ; 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 " 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 4 4 Sea of 

 Parakrama" must have been. 



But the most interesting account, as well as that which gives 

 us the loftiest ideas of this gigantic work, is that contained in 

 the Governor's Minute on the Eastern Province. 



His Excellency says : "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 



Padavil-kulam, 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 11 miles long, 30 feet broad 

 at the summit, 180 feet at the base, and 70 feet high Pada- 

 vil-kulam, the greater part of which I rode or walked over, 

 was formed by the waters of the rivers Mora-oya and Mini- 

 gunu-oya, confined to the plain, by the enormous bund which I 

 have just described- Its construction must have occupied a million 

 of people for 10 or 15 years." 



The most satisfactory way of settling the question as to the 

 identity of this tank, would probably be by obtaining a facsimile 

 \ and translation of the inscription, to which Sir Emerson 

 Tennent thus alludes in his note on the tanks already 



referred to. 



Wp:--. 



| I am aware of the existence of another " Great Tank" bearing the 

 ' name of Paridi-hu lam in the U'va district, but being situated in the 

 \ Ruhunu-rata, it could, I think, be scarcely regarded as the Panda-wdpi 

 of the Mahawanso, if, as I infer from the context, it was constructed 

 , during the period, when Parakrama Bahu, was Mahddi-pddo, or king of 

 ; Pihiti-rata. 



