NO. 42.-1891. ] ANCIENT INDUSTRIES. 



15 



The gigantic works which began to appear shortly after- 

 wards could not in fact have been constructed, except by 

 means of the combined national resources wielded by 

 monarchs whose rule was fully established over the entire 

 Island. Nor indeed could works of the gigantic proportions 

 of those whose ruins have excited the astonishment and 

 admiration of all beholders, have been undertaken until 

 means adequate to such vast undertakings had been accu- 

 mulated. It follows that these great works were the 

 offspring of those simple ones by which alone the means of 

 constructing them could have been provided, and on which, 

 even to this day, the practical working of the paddy lands 

 in the drier provinces depends. 



The undeniable fact that the wealth necessary to enable 

 the kings of old to construct the first of such colossal works 

 as those whose ruins have been lately partially restored 

 must have been acquired by means of the smaller tanks, 

 suggests an inquiry as to the need for the larger and more 

 costly works ; and this again leads to a consideration of the 

 different nature and functions of the two classes of works — 

 the former, collecting, storing, and husbanding the local 

 rainfall ; while the latter conveyed from afar the rainfall of 

 the mountain regions. The necessity for the former is 

 primary, and in every case indispensable, while the function 

 of the latter is supplementary and secondary. By these the 

 national industry was consolidated and relieved to a great 

 extent from the uncertainty of local rainfall and effects of 

 season. 



It may be fairly assumed that the general character of the 

 climate of those parts of the country where these great works 

 were constructed is much the same now as it was in Wijayo's 

 time, and that therefore particular parts would in certain 

 seasons fall short of their accustomed rainfall. In that case 

 the dense populations of those spots would suffer severely in 

 proportion to the number of people that were dependent 

 upon the normal supply of grain. Such deficiency of the 

 usual harvests would tell heavily on the national granaries. 



