Part 68 (1/2)

[Footnote 1: HIOUEN THSANG, ch iv.]

[Footnote 2: Whence Singhala (and Singhalese) Silan, Seylan, and Ceylon.]

[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii p. 49. _Rajaratnacari_, ch. i.]

[Footnote 4: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 51.]

[Footnote 5: Ibid., p. 52.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 504.]

Leaving no issue to inherit the throne, he was succeeded by his nephew[1], who selected a relation of Gotama Buddha for his queen; and her brothers having dispersed themselves over the island, increased the number of petty kingdoms, which they were permitted to form in various districts[2], a policy which was freely encouraged by all the early kings, and which, though it served to accelerate colonisation and to extend the knowledge of agriculture, led in after years to dissensions, civil war, and disaster. It was at this period that Ceylon was resolved into the three geographical divisions, which, down to a very late period, are habitually referred to by the native historians. All to the north of the Mahawelli-ganga was comprised in the denomination _Pihiti_, or the Raja-ratta, from its containing the ancient capital and the residence of royalty; south of this was _Rohano_ or _Rahuna_, bounded on the east and south by the sea, and by the Mahawelli-ganga and Kalu-ganga, on the north and west; a portion of this division near Tangalle still retains the name of Roona.[3] The third was the _Maya-ratta_, which lay between the mountains, the two great rivers and the sea, having the Dedera-oya to the north, and the Kalu-ganga as its southern limit.

[Footnote 1: B.C. 504.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 51, ix. p. 57; _Rajavali_, part i.

p. 177, 186; and TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 12, 14.]

[Footnote 3: The district of Rohuna included the mountain zone of Ceylon, and hence probably its name, _rohuno_ meaning the ”act or instrument of ascending, as steps or a ladder.” Adam's Peak was in the Maya division; but Edrisi, who wrote in the twelfth century, says, that it was then called ”El Rahoun.”--_Geographie, &c_. viii, JAUBERT'S _Transl_. vol. ii. p. 71. _Rahu_ is an ordinary name for it amongst Mahometan writers, and in the _Raja Tarangini_, it is called ”Rohanam,”

b. iii. 56, 72.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 504.]

The patriarchal village system, which from time immemorial has been one of the characteristics of the Dekkan, and which still prevails throughout Ceylon in a modified form, was one of the first inst.i.tutions organised by the successors of Wijayo. ”They fixed the boundaries of every village throughout Lanka;”[1] they ”caused the whole island to be divided into fields and gardens;”[2] and so uniformly were the rites of these rural munic.i.p.alities respected in after times, that one of the Singhalese monarchs, on learning that merit attached to alms given from the fruit of the donor's own exertions, undertook to sow a field of rice, and ”from the portion derived by him as the cultivator's share,”

to bestow an offering on a ”thero.”[3]

[Footnote 1: It was established by Pandukabhaya, A.D. 437.--_Mahawanso_, ch. x. p. 67, _Rajaratnacari_, ch. i.]

[Footnote 2: _Rajaratnacari_, ch. ii., _Rajavali_, b. i. p. 185.]

[Footnote 3: The king was Mahachula, 77 B.C.--_Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xiv.]

From the necessity of providing food for their followers, the earliest attention of the Bengal conquerors was directed to the introduction and extension of agriculture. A pa.s.sage in the _Mahawanso_ would seem to imply, that previous to the landing of Wijayo, rice was imported for consumption[1], and upwards of two centuries later the same authority specifies ”one hundred and sixty loads of hill-paddi,”[2] among the presents which were sent to the island from Bengal.

[Footnote 1: Kuweni distributed to the companions of Wijayo; ”rice and other articles, _procured from the wrecked s.h.i.+ps of mariners_.”

(_Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 49.) A tank is mentioned as then existing near the residence of Kuweni; but it was only to be used as a bath. (Ib. c.

vii. p. 48.) The _Rajaratnacari_ also mentions that, in the fabulous age of the second Buddha, of the present Kalpa, there was a famine in Ceylon, which dried up the cisterns and fountains of the inland. But there is no evidence of the existence of systematic tillage anterior to the reign of Wijayo.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xi. p. 70. _Paddi_ is rice before it has been freed from the husk.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 504.]

In a low and level country like the north of Ceylon, where the chief subsistence of the people is rice, a grain which can only be successfully cultivated under water, the first requisites of society are reservoirs and ca.n.a.ls. The Buddhist historians extol the father of Wijayo for his judgment and skill ”in forming villages in situations favourable for irrigation;”[1] his own attention was fully engrossed with the cares attendant on the consolidation of his newly acquired power; but the earliest public work undertaken by his successor Panduwasa, B.C. 504, was a tank, which he caused to be formed in the vicinity of his new capital Anaraj.a.poora, the _Anurogrammum_ of Ptolemy, originally a village founded by one of the followers of Wijayo.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. vi. p. 46.]

[Footnote 2: The first tank recorded in Ceylon is the Abayaweva, made by Panduwasa, B.C. 505 (_Mahawanso_, ch. ix. p. 57). The second was the Jayaweva, formed by Pandukabhaya, B.C. 437. (Ib. ch. x. p. 65.) The _third_, the Gamini tank, made by the same king at the same place, Anaraj.a.poora.--Ib. ch. x. p. 66.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 307.]