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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON) [VOL. XIV. 



water. The tank is a striking object from an historical as 

 well as an engineering point of view. It lies to the north of 

 the ancient city with the Wariyapola-Chilaw road traversing 

 its bed, and extends into two Korales, Bandara Koswatta 

 (now Tissawa) and Giratalane Medagandahe Korales. It is 

 supposed to have been built by King Panduwas during his 

 reign, and called after him, though it is open to conjecture 

 whether the tank did not receive its name from the city 

 itself at a later period. It is considered to be one of the 

 oldest tanks in the Island, its construction exhibiting, in the 

 opinion of experts, knowledge superior to that displayed in 

 the design of Bassawak-kulam built at Anuradhapura in the 

 reign of Pandukabhayo. 



The tank is formed by an embankment 24 ft. high, and 

 more than a mile and a half long, carried across the valley of 

 the Kolamunu-oya, a stream 60 ft. wide, which rises not far 

 from Kurunegala, and, collecting in a course of some 20 miles 

 the surplus waters of the lower hills between these and the 

 tank, in times of flood has a discharge of about 10,000 cubic 

 feet a second. Allowing for some silting up of the bed, the 

 depth of water stored in the tank, thus made, must have 

 been 15 to 18 ft., and the area covered would then have 

 been from 1,000 to 1,200 acres, extending for a length of 

 2J to 3 miles above the bund. 



The tank is referred to in the Mahdwansa by its 

 ancient name "Pandavapi," and King Maha Dathika, who 

 reigned from the ninth to twenty-first year after Christ, is 

 said to have bestowed the "Pandavapi " vihare on a samaneru 

 of that vihare, and in like manner the means of maintaining 

 the priesthood.* Whether this refers to the land under the 

 tank is uncertain. The ancient name " Pandavapi " is evi- 

 dently a contraction of " Panduwasa-wapi," the city itself 

 being sometimes called Panda Nuwara in the early part of 

 this century. An inscription on a rock on the border of the 

 tank, and belonging probably to the second or third century, 



* Mahdwansa, XXXIV., p. 137. 



