No. 62,— 1909.] 



ANNUAL REPORT. 



279 



last year to Rs. 6,000. The several areas in and around Anuradha- 

 pura which are conserved by the Crown on account of the ancient 

 ruins which they contain, cover eight hundred acres and upwards. 

 The duty of keeping free of jungle all ruins (other than those 

 included within the Town limits) falls to the Archaeological Survey 

 Department. The smaller vote previously allowed had not 

 permitted of all these areas being cleared every year. Some had to 

 wait their turn once in five or six years. The maximum extent 

 hitherto cleared in any one year has been some five hundred and 

 fifty acres. The additional sum of Rs. 2,000 made available 

 enabled the Archaeological Commissioner to cope in 1908 with 

 every ruin-studded area at Anura dhapura. From the current 

 year the ruins at Mihintale will, if possible, be included regularly 

 in the annual clearing. 



The opening out of the ancient ruins to full view all the year 

 round by under-wooding and weeding is markedly adding to the 

 picturesqueness of Anuradhapura, besides providing a much appre- 

 ciated boon to visitors, in the greater accessibility thus afforded 

 to many out-of-the-way sites. 



Excavation. — During the remaining eight months of the year 

 the very small force left in Anuradhapura was fully engaged 

 in the monotonous, but necessary, work of piling elsewhere the vast 

 amount of talus thrown to spoil over the northernmost Rock (A) 

 at Vessagiriya in 1906. The removal of these formidable banks 

 of debris was essential in order to show up the outlines of the Rock 

 and the ruins below it. 



No fresh excavations were started in 1908, 



II , — -Polonnaruwa . 



Operations were resumed at Pojonnaruwa in May, and con- 

 tinued until October. 



Clearing. — The Promontory, Citadel, and other ruins (Quad- 

 rangle, Devales, Potgul Vehera Monastery) to north and south 

 were first re-cleaned. 



Subsequently the Sinhalese gang cut down the thick jungle 

 growth hiding the immense forest- covered hillock, commonly 

 known at the present day as " Unagala Vehera " — in reality the 

 "Damila Thupa " constructed, according to the Mahawansa, by 

 Parakkrama Bahu the Great, with the aid of " the Damijas 

 (Tamils) who were brought here from the Pandu country after it 

 had been conquered."* This gigantic artificial mound is more 

 than 700 yards in circuit at foot, or nearly three times the circum- 

 ference of Rankot Vehera, usually reckoned the greatest of the 

 Polonnaruwa Dagabas, It is flat at top, tending to prove, as its 

 stupendous base alone would suggest, that this thupa was never 

 finished. A small Dagaba has been placed on its spacious summit 

 at a later date. 



Felling of undesirable forest trees between Rankot and Kiri 

 Veheras commenced in 1907 was continued last season. The 



* Mahawansa, LXXVIII, 88. 



