No. 55.— 1904.] ALAKESWARA : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 305 
out clear round the old Siigihalese forfc ; but at the place where the wall 
had been best preserved in height and massive proportion it was 
ruthlessly torn down by a new purchaser of the land, and two rows of 
cocoanut plants take up the ground once occupied by the ancient 
rampart. And daily the huge slabs are removed one by one until 
even the trace of it has disappeared, entirely in some parts, and 
unless immediate steps are taken to arrest further ravages, there will 
in a couple of years not be the faintest trace of it left for purposes 
of an archgeological survey of the ground plan of the ancient city. 
The Rdjdvaliya relates how the great Minister Aiakeswara, to break 
the power of Arya Ohakkrawarti, raised the walls of Kotte, threw up 
massive dams (amunii) to keep back the water, and laj^ing in a good 
supply of provisions to stand a long siege hanged the tax collectors, 
who had been quartered in parts of the country to levy dues in kind for 
the King of Jaffna, and ended by flooding the country round the city 
by opening the sluices, These ancient embankments, which remain to 
the present day on the Talangama road, about a mile and a half from 
Kotte, are called Parana Amuna (the old dam) and Kuda Amuna (the 
small dam) respectively. 
The old countryside tradition supplementing the Rdjdvaliya tells us 
how, after building his city, the ambition of Aiakeswara to become 
king bade Widagama Maha Sami place the crown of Lanka on his head, 
and as he sat on the coronation slab facing the tank the old priest 
gave the State sword which was to have girded the new king into the 
hands of his protege Prince Parakrama ; how the head of Aiakeswara 
rolled into the tank below ; and the lad of sixteen was hailed king 
under the title of Sri Parakrama Bahu YI. The coronation seat, a 
dais composed of slabs of dressed granite, had long escaped the ravages 
of the villagers, being covered with turf. But recently digging near the 
spot a rustic accidentally struck at the granite basement, and now the 
stones forming one side of the throne have been removed to a 
neighbouring temple garden, where they are being utilized in the 
building of a new vihare. If the proper authorities would wake up, 
there is still time to get the stones replaced in situ and preserve an 
interesting monument. The old tank, traditionally ascribed to Aiakes- 
wara, has so far escaped, being covered over with thick lantana, but 
this state of things cannot last very long ; the stones, &c., will be 
removed and the place of the tank will know it no more. Both these 
monuments stand in the old Palace garden still known as the Pas Mai 
Peya Watta, " the garden of the five-storied palace.'*'"' Only one or 
two broken stumps of stone pillars mark the site of the stately pile 
where the mighty Parakrama held court. What Portuguese and Dutch 
invaders spared, the exigencies of the Public Works Department could 
not do without, and the few perfect stone columns that remained were 
carted away some years ago to build the bridge at Hendala. 
* Vide Selalihini Smidesa^ v. 11, and "Grlossary." 
