•iO i. iiixAL B. A. S. (CEYLON.) 



[Vol III, 



employed them in the work of cutting stones, got made by them an embank- 

 ment of great stability 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 Raja placed a 

 Bo tree, an imag® house, and likewise a dagaba. 



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 

 paddy fields of many thousands of Wahas* of extent and converted the 

 place in truth into a Kolthabaddha. according to the literal meaning of the 

 term, from the fact of its having Kotthabaddhas* ' perpetual granaries,' 

 from the two Pali words kottha, 'granary,' and abaddha, i perpetual.' 



Thereafter the King having dammed up the mouths of the rivers 

 Sanhliawadclhamdnd, and KumbMlawam, as far as the Sukara Nijjharttf 

 (literally 'hog-cascade,' or 'stream,'); and there too, having made a canal ? 

 and conducting the water into the tank of Mahddaragalla, thoroughly 

 repairing, at the same time, the breaches thereof, including the cleariag 

 of the water-courses, (thus) brought it into a larger body of water than it 

 had before, and having formed paddy fields from this place as far as the 

 Sukara Nijjhara, collected paddy. 



According to the Pali Nighandu of Moggallana. 



4 Nelis make 1 Lahasa (or Kuruni 

 4 Lahas „ 1 Drona 

 4 Dronas ,, 1 Marika 

 4 Marikas „ 1 Khari or Amunam 

 20 Kharis „ 1 Waha 



f This is no doubt the Kotta-vella of Brook. The Sinhalese word, 

 ©>©Og, vella, and the Pali word &)<£), baddha, both mean ' embankment/ 



" From Kotta-vella to Dastota, a distance of 9 miles, the country is 

 one of the most delightful I ever recollect seeing on this Island, nearly 

 the whole distance a carriage might drive ; there are strong marks of 

 the plains and parts of the open country having been cultivated, it 

 abounds in tanks and ravines to facilitate irrigation, all of which are 

 neglected and broken. The reason the inhabitants assign for this, is 

 want of people, and money to keep them in order. (Route from Matale 

 to Trincomalie, by way of the Amban-ganga, by R, Brook, Esq.) 



% Instead of "csoE) £Zz6 &&-$Zdo " ''as far as the Sukara Nijjhara" 

 some MSS. read "<&>«a3o ^2%6 &&<&6> " "the place Sukara Nijjhara." 

 If this be the correct readiDg, the whole passage might be thus 

 translated : " Thereafter the King having dammed up, at the junctions 

 of the rivers Sankhawaddhamana, and Kumbhilawana, the place called 

 Sukara Nijjhara, &c." 



