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



images of Buddha, but both heads are forthcoming. 

 Outside are the bases and feet of these images, and five 

 stones, each having a representation of the sripdda, or sacred 

 feet of Buddha. One of the sripdda stones is much larger 

 than the others, and has a bevelled edge. Cut on all the stones 

 between the two feet is a curious ornament, which looks 

 like a vase with a closed lotus flower depending from each 

 side of it. 



On the top of the hill are the ruins of a dagaba with an 

 octagonal pillar at the top, and also of another poya-ge\ similar 

 to the first one, but with fewer pillars standing.* 



The only other Buddhist monastery in Kilakkumulai 

 South which has left any visible signs of its existence is at 

 Iratperiyakulam, on the side of the road about a quarter mile 

 from the bund of the tank, where are the ruins of a poya-ge 

 with a large sedent stone image of Buddha and the usual 

 two rows of pillars with a flight of steps. Mr. Parker would 

 " hesitate to identify (these ruins) as those belonging to the 

 Tihadiya Vihare, which was probably on the high rock Irat- 

 periyakulamkanda, where some remains were found when 

 the trigonometrical tower was built,"f 



Fragmentary and isolated indications of the former faith 

 of the Wamii are however here and there met with. In the 

 village clearing at Tirupanmaduwa is to be seen a curious 

 stone, which apparently stood on two pillars and a flat stone 

 now lying near it. It is divided into twenty-five sunken com- 

 partments of different sizes, some square and some oblong. 

 It is said to be a vidharsena stone, i.e., a stone used by 

 Buddhist priests to assist them in their meditations.^ 



Yavuniya, curiously enough, though it has one of the largest 

 tanks of Sinhalese construction, has nothing to show in the 

 way of ruins. In the village is to be seen a Buddhist altar 

 slab for flowers, now doing duty as a Pillaiyar shrine under 

 a large tree. It is said that there was an inscription close to 



* Diary of August 22 and November, 1 889. 

 t Sessional Papers, p. 1886, 109. 

 % See Diary of November 10, 1889. 



