No. 27. — 1884.] TISSAMAHAKAMA ARCHAEOLOGY. 73 



na, pha, and the trifid sa ; while jha, of which many copies 

 have been found, has been rarely met with in rock inscrip- 

 tions in the Island. 



In nearly all cases only one letter is written on a brick, 

 (often with an attached long or short vowel*) ; but in a few 

 instances two have been discovered, apparently forming the 

 names of men, such as Kaja, Taka, Jhata (or Jhara). 

 Of most of the letters many copies have been procured, and 

 the letters A, ki, ga (with vowels), ca (with vowels), and 

 na (with vowels), are particularly numerous. I suppose 

 that they are the initials of the brickmakers, written or 

 stamped while the clay was soft and plastic. Mr. Goone- 

 ratne, Atapattu Mudaliyar of Galle, has suggested to me 

 that they may indicate the part of the structure in which the 

 bricks were to be placed ; but this seems to me to be very 

 improbable. The brickmakers could know nothing about 

 the building work ; and as all the bricks are of only two 

 dimensions, which are mixed up indiscriminately in the 

 structure, there could not be any necessity for such a proce- 

 dure; it would be quite impossible for any one to determine 

 before the bricks were burnt in what part of the dagaba they 

 were to be placed. The only other hypotheses are that the 

 brickmakers wrote the letters to record the number of bricks 

 made, or that they wrote them for amusement, or that they 

 wrote them as their initials or marks. The first hypothesis 

 is negatived by the fact of the great preponderance of cer- 

 tain letters, the rarity of others, and the absence of some 

 few ; the second is disproved by the fact that several of the 

 letters are impressed by well-cut dies ; and I see no reason 

 to doubt that the last theory is the true explanation of the 

 presence of the letters on the bricks, especially after the 

 evidence afforded by the inscribed pottery of the state of 

 education of other members of this caste at a very early 

 date. 



Evidently, almost all the letters have been written with 

 the finger end, but a few have been traced with pointed 

 sticks or twigs, and several others have been deeply and 

 beautifully stamped in intaglio with well-cut dies, apparently 



* This is) the first Hime that the long vowels, except d, as they are 

 found in Asoka's inscriptions, have been met with in Ceylon. 



