No. 48.— 1897.] 



DAMBADENIYA. 



23 



ANCIENT CITIES AND TEMPLES IN THE KURUNEGALA 



DISTRICT. 



By F. H. Modder. 



IV.— DAMBADENIYA. 



Dambadeniya, in Dambadeniya Udukaha Korale West, 

 of the Dambabeniya Hatpattu, is, according to the latest 

 Itinerary, only 1795 miles from Kurunegala on the road 

 thence to Negombo, although Casie Chitty gives the distance 

 as "about 27 miles south of Kurunegala and 56 east of 

 Colombo."* 



* Ceylon Gazetteer, p. 84. The Mdhawansa (Wijesinha's translation) 

 says : — " And in the vast space which extended from the city of Jambuddon 

 to the city of Sirivaddhana, the length and breadth whereof was about eight 

 yojanas and one usabha, (the highway was) made even like the face of a 

 drum, and was covered throughout with sand, exceeding fine and soft." 

 Dr. Coplestone has conclusively pointed out that " eight yojanas" is a mis- 

 reading, the word in the original being half. This discovery has resulted 

 in establishing beyond all question that the graphic description in chapter 

 LXXXV. does not apply, as it had all this time been considered to, to 

 Kandy, but to a city the exact site of which has not yet with any degree 

 of certainty been traced out and identified, not far from Dambadeniya. 

 Dr. Coplestone (on the authority of Mr. D. M. de Z. Wickremasinha) 

 identifies " the anspicious and prosperous city " with Nambambaraya, 6 

 miles from Dambadeniya (Jo urn. C.B.R.A.S., No. 43, pp. 206-15). But 

 Mr. H, Parker is of opinion that it existed in what is now a tract of dense 

 jungle on the right bank of the Deduru-oya in the Wanni Hatpattu. 

 He has in his possession an ola manuscript, which gives the boundaries 

 of the lands attached to the city ; and he has received vague accounts of 

 bricks and pillars having been seen in the forest by hunters, there being 

 no inhabitants in the neighbourhood. At Nambambaraya. on the contrary, 

 there is not the slightest vestige of any remains to justify the identification 

 (Cey. Lit. Reg., vol. VI., p. 396). The correct identification of Siriwardha- 

 napura will ever be looked forward to with considerable interest, it having 

 been demonstrated beyond all doubt that the " mountain capital " is out 

 of the running. 



