54 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XIX. 



" And when lie had caused the great forest Mahalabu- 

 jagaccha* to be cut down altogether and rooted up, he made 

 a fine village thereon and planted a large grove of jak trees 

 near it." 



This shows that a coconut plantation was formed in the 

 13th century between Kalutara and Bentota " one yojana " 

 or 12 English miles " in width " (really in length) along the 

 coast as it extended from the Bentota Vihare to the ford on 

 the Kalu-ganga. (The distance of the road between Bentota 

 and Kalutara in the present day is a little more than 1L| 

 miles.) 



The next mention is in the 90th chapter, which is as 

 follows : " He also gave for the benefit of that Pirivena a 

 village named Salaggama near the bank of the river Gimha 

 (G-in-ganga), and in that delightful village of Titthagama 

 (Totagamuwa) he formed a grove with 5,000 coconut trees." 

 This was in the reign of Prakrama Bahu IV., who was sur- 

 named Pandita Prakrama Bahu, whose seat of government 

 was Kurunegala, and reigned in 1295 A.D. 



There are two further references to the coconut in the 

 Mdhawansa ; but as these are so recent as the 18th 

 century, they will come in more properly into the second 

 division of my Paper, which is to embrace Dutch and 

 British times. 



The slow progress made in the cultivation of a palm so 

 pre-eminently beneficial, in purely Sinhalese times, is no 

 doubt accounted for by the seat of monarchy and authority 

 being (for the most part) so far in the interior, and popula- 

 tion congregated chiefly in the north-central and central 

 districts, while the south-west coast was at that time com- 

 paratively sparsely occupied/)" During several centuries, 

 even after the important plantations formed by order of 

 their kings, the Sinhalese people, we may suppose, did not 



* Madelgasvanaya. 



f King- Prakrama Bahu sent in the 12th century to reduce the South of 

 Ceylon. 



