NO. 48.— 1897.] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY, SIGIRIYA. 95 



countless boulders, whose sides, where overhanging, formed 

 rough cave shelters, whilst their tops were crowned with 

 buildings, &c. 



As a fortress " Slgiri-nuwara " must have been impreg- 

 nable at the period : its defenders could have been forced 

 into surrender only by starvation or treachery. 



It was here, in the fifth century A.D., that for eighteen years 

 Kasyapa I., the parricide, lived (as the Mahdwansa quaintly 

 puts it) " in fear of the world to come and of Moggallana," 

 and ultimately met the just retribution of his crime.* 



Sigiriya was subsequently handed over to the Buddhist 

 priesthood as a monastic establishment. But for centuries 

 the Rock has been entirely abandoned, though a small 

 Buddhist temple is kept up at Pidurdgala, a hill situated 

 one mile to the north. 



Preamble. 



The third season's work of the Archaeological Survey at 

 Sigiriya commenced on February 6 last. 



It had been found necessary, after two years' wear, to 

 construct new leaf and thatch " lines " for the coolies. For 

 this purpose an overseer with a limited gang preceded the 

 main body by six weeks. 



Besides clearing a fresh site on higher ground at a more 

 convenient distance from the tank, and putting up four 

 blocks of rooms, this advance force was engaged in rendering 

 passable the road from Inamalawa (greatly damaged in 

 places by the exceptionally heavy north-east monsoon of 

 1896), — in re-cutting approaches to the Rock, washed away 

 nearly everywhere, — and in freeing the summit of the thick 

 growth of mdna grass, f tall weeds, and scrub that annually 

 cover the surface with aggravating persistency. 



Labour Force. 

 News of the ample and more salubrious housing provided 

 this year soon augmented the respectable strength, 110 



* Mahdwansa, XXXIX. 



f Andropogon Zeylanicus. 



