NO. 48. — 1897.] DAMBADENlYA. 



31 



place, by his wife or child. The steps were cut overnight 



and during the small hours, when — 



The varlets they were all asleep 

 And none was there to see, 



the escape was effected. The carpenter fled to the village 

 Waduwdwa, which is said to derive its name from the fact 

 of his taking refuge there ; but alas ! he was overtaken, 

 seized, and decapitated. There is a large tank on the sum- 

 mit, into which it is said criminals were hurled. 



Kat-gala lies between the above two hills on the left of the 

 road. It is a bare, elongated boulder, and runs north to 

 south. It is so called owing to its having been the halting- 

 place of the pingo-bearers, who deposited their loads on it 

 on their way to^the king's reception at this city, when it was 

 a royal residence. 



Coins, 



Davy says :— 



An antique gold coin, called a Dambadinia rhatra, was found in the 

 neighbourhood of Dambadinia in the Seven Korles, which was probably 

 struck there when it was a place of royal residence.* This coin exactly 



resembles in size and appearance the Dambadinia chally The chally 



is a copper coin, of which two kinds are to be met with — Dutch challies, 

 which are common ; and the Dambadinia challies, which are scarce. The 

 characters on this ancient coin resemble more hieroglyphics than letters ; 

 the natives are ignorant of their meaning, which has not yet been 

 ascertained, f 



Prinsep, in a note on this and other coins sent to him for 

 report by Sir Wilmot Horton, identified it with that found 

 by Colonel Mackenzie at Dipaldinna, which he held to be 

 identical with Dambadeniya, adding that Davy did not 

 seem to have comprehended either the devices or the 

 characters on this coin, for he had reversed, in the engraving 

 in his book, the side bearing the inscription. Casie Chitty 

 "rejects the claims of the Singhalese to a Singhalese origin 

 of these coins," and conjectures that they may possibly be of 



* Hardy observes : "There are coins found in various places in the 

 Island that are said to have been minted here in the twelfth century ."" 

 {Jubilee Memorials of the Wesley an Mission, 1814-64, p. 134.) 



t An Account of the Interior of Ceylon, pp. 24S-6. 



