No. 63. — 1910.] K ANDY AN PROVINCES. 
115 
the Government Agencies in the three Provinces of Saffragam , 
Seven Korales, and Tamankaduwe, which are held by Civil 
Servants, these offices have been filled by officers of tlie 
regiments stationed in the Island. 
" The separate administration of the Kandyan Provinces 
is maintained under the Convention which was concluded in 
the name of His Majesty with the Kandyan chiefs in 1815,* 
and modified in some of its provisions by a Proclamation of the 
Governor,! issued after the rebellion in 1818, by which the 
authority of the chiefs was curtailed. By the 4th clause of 
the Convention of 1815, the dominion of the Kandyan Pro- 
vinces was vested in His Majesty, subject to the condition of 
maintaining the laws, institutions, and customs of the country ; 
and by the 5th clause the religion of Bhood was declared 
inviolable, and its rights, members, and places of worship 
were to be maintained and protected." (" Ramanathan's 
Reports," 1820-33, p. 204.) 
Lieutenant-Colonel Colebrooke added {ibid, p. 216) : " The 
maintenance of separate and independent establishments in 
the Maritime and the Kandyan Provinces has been impolitic, 
in the check it has opposed to the assimilation which it is 
on every account desirable to promote between the various 
classes of whom the population is composed. By maintaining 
a separate Government at Kandy the influence of the chiefs has 
been upheld, to the prejudice, in some instances, of the people. 
The Kandyan districts which are situated below the mountain 
have a nearer and more natural connection with those of the 
coast, with which they maintain a trading intercourse." 
As the result of this report, a Proclamation was issued on 
October 1, 1833, by which the distinction between the 
Kandyan and Maritime Provinces was abolished, and the 
whole Island was divided into five Provinces — the Northern, 
the Southern, the Eastern, the Western, and the Central, 
which were declared to consist of the following districts. I 
have italicized the names of the Kandyan Provinces and 
districts under the previous constitution. 
* See Convention dated March 2, 1815. 
t See Proclamation dated November 21, 1818. 
