No. 63. — 1910.] tantri-maLai. 
cut along its face ; but it bears no inscription. However, from 
other inscriptions which will be given later, it is clear that a 
monastery existed in the Tantri-malai caves about 100 years 
before Christ, and it is permissible to believe that this cave 
was occupied at much the same date. 
The floor of the cave in monastic times was rudely paved 
with uncut pieces of flat stone, and some ten inches of earth 
intervened between this and the bed-rock floor. It was on 
the rock floor that these chips were found. They may be 
later than I think, but the earth above them and below the 
pavement held nothing, not even fragments of brick or 
pottery ; so I think they must be very early. If they had 
been found all about the cave and at a more modern level 
they might be taken to be fire-strikers of early Sinhalese 
date ; but there were no other fragments of similar stone, and 
these were alone nearly a foot below the old paved floor. 
The only other objects found at this lowest level were two 
pieces of what is apparently a fresh- water shell. These 
results are slender ; but there are several other caves which 
might yield more if carefully excavated, especially those at 
Andiya-gala, about three miles south of Tantri-malai. 
2. — First Buddhist Monastery. 
When the fine eagerness of early Buddhist zeal led monks 
and nuns to seek out restful solitudes throughout Ceylon, 
they very often chose for themselves homes among the rocks. 
Apart from the history literature affords, all that we know 
of the early monasteries has been gathered from caves, 
buildings, and inscriptions on rocks. Throughout the Island, 
and especially in the northern plain, there are scores of such 
monasteries. It is hardly exaggeration to say that in the 
North-Central Province and the Wanni nearly every con- 
siderable rock outcrop shows some trace of early occupation. 
Probably it was the water holes they contain which led people 
to occupy them, for a great many of these rocks contain 
deep narrow pools which hold a supply of drinking wateir 
throughout the dry weather — in many cases the onty available 
drinking water for several miles. This water and the shelter 
of their caves formed their attraction. 
