6 
JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XVIIl. 
yielded one of the most interesting discoveries hitherto made at 
Anuradhapnra. As excavation spread the plan of an exceedingly 
spacious quadrangle, with central courtyard, was gradually disclosed. 
This four-square ruin measures 135 ft. more or less, each side. All 
round ran a range of rooms, or a corridor, once roofed in, and 30 ft. 
in width. The hypethral courtyard, some 75 feet square enclosed 
within the building, is stone-flagged and at a lower level than the 
quadrangular fringe of rooms. In the west corridor was unearthed a 
large " stone canoe," perfectly preserved, 44 ft. 6 in. long by 3 ft. 6 in. 
in breadth, making the fourth so far found at Anuradhapnra. 
The ruins to the east of Abhayagiriya Dagaba, excavated in 1893, 
contain a building much the same in plan, situated in a central group of 
monasteries with a similar henda oruioa^ or " kanji boat " (as these 
strange "stone canoes" are popularly termed), but greatly damaged. 
These special buildings were doubtless those " Alms Halls {Dansdla) 
mentioned not unfrequently in the Mahdwansa. 
The spaciousness and general finish of the present ruin laid bare in 
the modern Resthouse premises seem to justify its probable identifi- 
cation with the " Maha Pali," that chief est of Alms Halls greatly 
favoured of royalty from the sixth to the tenth century. 
The excavation of this extensive ruin, deeply buried and tree-covered, 
occupied the Anuradhapnra gang for the better part of 1902. 
Mirisavetiya J. During the last three months of the year work 
was resumed in the Mirisavetiya area, and will be pushed towards 
completion in 1903. The ruins around the Mirisavetiya Dagaba are 
probably, all told, not more than half a hundred in number, and would 
appear to offer no special difficulty in unearthing. The style is severely 
simple and the grouping easily distinguished. 
Clearing. — The annual allotment of the vote for clearing ruins and 
jungle at Anuradhapnra was very profitably expended owing to the 
drought during the first nine months of last year. Nearly six hundred 
acres were cleared and weeded and some rooting-out done. 
Sigiriya, 
A gang is engaged at Sigiriya during the early part of every year 
in the tedious, but essential work of weeding the citadel on the 
summit and the several terraces and excavated sites below the Rock. 
Some re-clearing of undergrowth had to be done within the area of 
the ancient city. 
Steady progress was made in connection with the continued restora- 
tion of the " gallery." The work done in 1902 comprised the completion 
of the iron bridge spanning the gap between the stretch of the gallery 
along the west face of the Rock, and that hugging its north scarp ; 
as well as the building of a substantial abutment in stone to prevent 
imminent slip of the long and steep staircase which culminates at the 
maluiva below the iron ladders which lead to the Rock's summit. 
By the end of next season it is hoped that the gallery will be nearly 
restored from its broken entrance (near the head of the north and 
south staircase approaches from the city below) as far onwards as 
the maluioa. The serious and unavoidable hindrances in getting bricks, 
lime, sand, and water to Sigiriya and up into the " gallery," cannot but 
much delay this most desirable restoration. 
With great difficulty, and no little risk, preliminary borings were 
made into the floor of the largest " pocket," containing the frescoes, 
and jungle-stick scaffolding erected ready for next season. 
