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



The bund is beautifully pitched with stone, and at the 

 breach (?) measures 107 ft. from the summit to " floor level " 

 along the inclination of its surface. The top of the bund is 

 in places over 50 ft. wide. The area along the water line I 

 am unable to state without a contour survey, but probably 

 it ran into some thousands of acres. I find no trace of a sluice. 



The question now arises as to the date of the inscription over 

 the cave at Nuwara-gala. 



It is uncertain who the particular Devanampiya Tissa 

 mentioned in this inscription was. If the 7th monarch, 

 the inscription goes back to about 300 years before 

 the Christian era. I am under a debt of obligation to 

 Mudaliyar Simon de Silva, to whom I submitted a copy, for 

 his translation. Upon the assumption that ' ' Devanampiya 

 Maha Raj aha Gamini Tisa" is identical with the sovereign 

 in whose reign the revered bo-tree of Anuradhapura was 

 introduced, and that '•' Maha Tisa" was his son,* it is fair to 

 assume that the date of Nuwara-gala must be somewhere 

 between 275 and 307 B.C. , allowing, that is to say, that Maha 

 Tissa had reached manhood at the time of the establishment 

 of this stronghold. 



The inference that the cave was a devotional annexe to the 

 fort is based on the inscription which indicates that the lena 

 (cave) was " common to the priesthood," but I think that 

 the inference is permissible, taking situation and surroundings 

 into consideration, and that the larger artificial building 

 already referred to was the primary structure, to which the 

 cave became subordinate in point of importance. This point, 

 however, must be left to a later period, when expert archaeo- 

 logical explorers will be in full possession of detailed material 

 to establish or demolish what I now respectfully beg to advance 

 as a theory. 



I may add that I think that it is exceedingly probable that 

 Nuwara-gala may be found to be only one of a number of 



* [The assumption is not borne out by the Mahawansa. — B. , Honorary 

 Secretary.] 



