NO. 42.— 1891.] BUDDHIST RUINS. 



Ill 



3. The accessions to the Society's Library since the last 

 Meeting were laid on the table. The Honorary Secretary 

 stated that the books received were valuable ones. Some 

 were obtained by purchase, others by exchange and presenta- 

 tion. Amongst those received special mention was made of 

 the publications of the Geological Survey of the United 

 States Government, and the publications issued by the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, "The Bibiliotheca Indica." 



4. Mr. Gerard A. Joseph then, on being called upon by 

 His Excellency, read a Paper entitled— 



BUDDHIST RUINS NEAR VAVUNIYA. 

 By J. P. Lewis, Esq., CCS. 



THERE are the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery or 

 some establishment of the kind in the jungle near the spill 

 of the Madukanda tank. Madukanda, or Mandukoddai, as the 

 Tamils call it, is a Sinhalese village about three miles south- 

 east of Vavuniya, off the Horawapotana and Trincomalee road. 

 The following description of the ruins is based on the 

 Ratemahatmaya's official report dated October 16, 1890. 



An embankment of considerable size encloses a square of 

 about 200 yards' length of sides. The inner slope of the 

 embankment is faced with rough slabs of stone. The square 

 is divided into two by a cross embankment, part of which is 

 not now discernible. 



In the western half is another square enclosure with the 

 remains of a wall of brick and rough stone. Close up to the 

 western wall of this smaller enclosure there appears to have 

 been a pond, the bed of which is now filled with broken 

 bricks and other debris. On the other side of the pond 

 are to be seen the remains of what was probably at one time 

 the Viharage, all that is left of it now being a single upright 

 pillar with a carved top, and another broken one just opposite 

 it, with five or six others lying near by. Many broken bricks 

 and fragments of stonework lie scattered about the place. 



If the other half of the large square was originally a vila 

 (tank) for growing lotuses in, it does not appear how, with 

 an embankment on all four sides, it could have obtained a 



