4 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. VIII. 



of which the plain, rough, monolithic pillars, mostly upright, 

 standing at present from 12 to 15 feet above the ground- 

 level, are all that is now visible. These pillars, measuring 

 in cross section from 1 to 1J feet by 2 feet, and about 10 

 feet apart, may possibly have supported an upper room, 

 and all have sockets cut in their top for the reception of 

 beams. 



Near this building is a very substantial, upright, octa- 

 gonal monolith, the "iEtabaanduwa," mentioned by Dr. 

 Miiller as bearing an inscription of the 6th or 7th century 

 A.D. {Ancient Inscriptions, No. 109), which is deeply 

 worn by both the neck and feet chains by which the tusk- 

 elephant was attached to it ; and also has recesses cut in it 

 near the top for the reception of the beams on which the 

 roof of the elephant-shed rested. The more important 

 private dwellings in this quarter were surrounded by a 

 boundary wall of rectangular plan, which in some cases 

 enclosed an extensive area, in the middle of which stood 

 the house. The largest of these buildings was probably 

 the palace. 



On the opposite, or eastern, side of the tank were few 

 buildings of magnitude ; but two large, prostrate, octagonal 

 pillars have been met with, bearing short inscriptions of a 

 much older date than that on the iEtabgenduwa, and appa- 

 rently of the first or second century A.D. ( See Appendix, 

 Note 2). I have also seen pieces of tile and pottery extending 

 for fully half a mile into the jungle, from the tank ; and 

 there appears to have been a large population on this side 

 also. 



The accounts of early Sirhhalese rule neglect everything 

 which was not intimately connected with the rulers residing 

 in the northern capitals, and contain only occasional curt 

 notices of the capitals of the subsidiary kingdoms or 

 provinces which at one time existed in Ceylon. Even in 

 this fragmentary state of the history of the southern metro- 

 polis, Magama, it is surprising to find no special reference 

 to the construction of the important dagabas at Tissawsewa, 

 more especially when it is considered that the chief one, 

 the Mahdrama, was by far the largest dagaba of its time in 

 Ceylon, and that it continued to be so for 80 years at least. 



It can hardly be assumed that the northern historians 



