CHAPTER I

POPULATION.—In no single instance do the chronicles of Ceylon mention the precise amount of the population of the island, at any particular period; but there is a sufficiency of evidence, both historical and physical, to show that it must have been prodigious and dense, especially in the reigns of the more prosperous kings. Whatever limits to the increase of man artificial wants may interpose in a civilised state and in ordinary climates are unknown in a tropical region, where clothing is an encumbrance, the smallest shelter a home, and sustenance supplied by the bounty of the soil in almost spontaneous abundance. Under such propitious circumstances, in the midst of a profusion of fruit-bearing-trees, and in a country replenished by a teeming harvest twice, at least, in each year, with the least possible application of labour; it may readily be conceived that the number of the people will be adjusted mainly, if not entirely, by the extent of arable land.

The emotion of the traveller of the present time, as day after day he traverses the northern portions of the island, and penetrates the deep forests of the interior, is one of unceasing astonishment at the inconceivable multitude of deserted tanks, the hollows of which are still to be traced; and the innumerable embankments, overgrown with timber, which indicate the sites of vast reservoirs that formerly fertilised districts now solitary and barren. Every such tank is the landmark of one village at least, and such are the dimensions of some of them that in proportionto their area, it is probable that hundreds of villages may have been supported by a single one of these great inland lakes.

The labour necessary to construct one of these gigantic works for irrigation is in itself an evidence of local density of population; but their multiplication by successive kings, and the constantly recurring record of district after district brought under cultivation in each successive reign[1], demonstrate the steady increase of inhabitants, and the multitude of husbandmen whose combined and sustained toil was indispensable to keep these prodigious structures in productive activity.

1: The practice of recording the formation of tanks for irrigation by the sovereign is not confined to the chronicles of Ceylon. The construction of similar works on the continent of India has been commemorated in the same manner by the native historians. The memoirs of the Rajas of Orissa show the number of tanks made and wells dug in every reign.

TheRajavalirelates that in the year 1301 A.D. King Prakrama III, on the eve of his death, reminded his sons, that having conquered the Malabars, he had united under one rule the three kingdoms of the island, Pihiti with 450,000 villages, Rohuna with 770,000, and Maya with 250,000.[1] A village in Ceylon, it must be observed, resembles a "town" in the phraseology of Scotland, where the smallest collection of houses, or even a single farmstead with its buildings is enough to justify the appellation. In the same manner, according to the sacred ordinances which regulate the conduct of the Buddhist priesthood, a "solitary house, if there be people, must be regarded as a village,"[2] and all beyond it is the forest.

1:Rajavalip. 262. A century later in the reign or Prakrama-Kotta, A.D. 1410, theRajaratnacarisays, there then were 256,000 villages in the province of Matura, 495,000 in that of Jaffna, and 790,000 in Oovah.—P. 112.2: Hardy'sEastern Monachism, ch. xiii. p. 133.

2: Hardy'sEastern Monachism, ch. xiii. p. 133.

Even assuming that the figures employed by the author of theRajavalipartake of the exaggerationcommon to all oriental narratives, no one who has visited the regions now silent and deserted, once the homes of millions, can hesitate to believe that when the island was in the zenith of its prosperity, the population of Ceylon must of necessity have been at least ten times as great as it is at the present day.

The same train of thought leads to a clearer conception of the means by which this dense population was preserved, through so many centuries, in spite of frequent revolutions and often recurring invasions; as well as of the causes which led to its ultimate disappearance, when intestine decay had wasted the organisation on which the fabric of society rested.

Cultivation, as it existed in the north of Ceylon, was almost entirely dependent on the store of water preserved in each village tank; and it could only be carried on by the combined labour of the whole local community, applied in the first instance to collect and secure the requisite supply for irrigation, and afterwards to distribute it to the rice lands, which were tilled by the united exertions of the inhabitants, amongst whom the crop was divided in due proportions. So indispensable were concord and union in such operations, that injunctions for their maintenance were sometimes engraven on the rocks, as an inperishable exhortation, to forbearance and harmony.[1]

1: See the inscription on the rock of Mihintala, A. D. 262, TURNOUR'SEpitome, Appendix, p. 90; and a similar one on a rock at Pollanarrua, ibid., p, 92.

Hence, in the recurring convulsions which overthrew successive dynasties, and transferred the crown to usurpers, with a facile rapidity, otherwise almost unintelligible, it is easy to comprehend that the mass of the people had the strongest possible motives for passive submission, and were constrained to acquiescence by an instinctive dread of the fatal effects of prolonged commotion.

If interrupted in their industry, by the dread of such events, they retired till the storm had blown over, and returned, after each temporary dispersion, to resume possession of the lands and their village tank.

The desolation which now reigns over the plains which the Singhalese formerly tilled, was precipitated by the reckless domination of the Malabars, in the fourteenth and following centuries. The destruction of reservoirs and tanks has been ascribed to defective construction, and to the absence of spill-waters, and other facilities for discharging the surplus-water, during the prevalence of excessive rains; but independently of the fact that vast numbers of these tanks, though utterly deserted, remain, in this respect, almost uninjured to the present day, we have the evidence of their own native historians, that for upwards of fifteen centuries, the reservoirs, when duly attended to, successfully defied all the dangers to be apprehended from inundation. Their destruction and abandonment are ascribable, not so much to any engineering defect, as to the disruption of the village communities, by whom they were so long maintained. The ruin of a reservoir, when neglected and permitted to fall into decay, was speedy and inevitable; and as the destruction of the village tank involved the flight of all dependent upon it, the water, once permitted to escape, carried pestilence and miasma over the plains they had previously covered with plenty. After such a calamity any partial return of the villagers, even where it was not prevented by the dread of malaria, would have been impracticable; for the obvious reason, that where the whole combined labour of the community was not more than sufficient to carry on the work of conservancy and cultivation, the diminished force of a few would have been utterly unavailing, either to effect the reparation of the watercourses, or to restore the system on which the culture of rice depends. Thus the process of decay, instead of a gradual decline as inother countries, became sudden and utter desolation in Ceylon.

From such traces as are perceptible in the story of the earliest immigrants, it is obvious that in their domestic habits and civil life they brought with them and perpetuated in Ceylon the same pursuits and traits which characterised the Aryan races that had colonised the valley of the Ganges. The Singhalese Chronicles abound, like the ancient Vedas, with allusions to agriculture and herds, to the breeding of cattle and the culture of grain. They speak of village communities and of their social organisation, as purely patriarchal. Women were treated with respect and deference; and as priestesses and queens they acquired a prominent place in the national esteem. Rich furniture was used in dwellings and costly textures for dress; but these were obtained from other nations, whose ships resorted to the island, whilst its inhabitants, averse to intercourse with foreigners, and ignorant of navigation, held the pursuits of the merchant in no esteem.

Caste.—Amongst the aboriginal inhabitantscasteappears to have been unknown, although after the arrival of Wijayo and his followers the system in all its minute subdivisions, and slavery, both domestic and prædial, prevailed throughout the island. The Buddhists, as dissenters, who revolted against the arrogant pretensions of the Brahmans, embodied in their doctrines a protest against caste under any modification. But even after the conversion of the Singhalese to Buddhism, and their acceptance of the faith at the hands of Mahindo, caste as a national institution was found too obstinately established to be overthrown by the Buddhist priesthood; and reinforced, as its supporters were, by subsequent intercourse with the Malabars, it has been perpetuated to the present time, as a conventional and social, though no longer as a sacred institution. Practically, the Singhalese ignore three of the great classes,theoretically maintained by the Hindus; among them there are neither Brahmans, Vaisyas, nor Kshastryas; and at the head of the class which they retain, they place theGoi-wanseorVellalas, nominally "tillers of the soil." In earlier times the institution seems to have been recognised in its entirety, and in the glowing description given in theMahawansoof the planting of the great Bo-tree, "the sovereign the lord of chariots directed that it should be lifted by the four high caste tribes and by eight persons of each of the other castes."[1] In later times the higher ranks are seldom spoken of in the historical books but by specific titles, but frequent allusion is made to the Chandalas, the lowest of all, who were degraded to the office of scavengers and carriers of corpses.[2]

1:Mahawanso, ch. xix. p. 116.2: Ibit., ch. x. p. 66. The Chandala in one of the Jatakas is represented as "one born in the open air, his parents not being possessed of a roof; and as he lies amongst the pots when his mother goes to cut fire-wood, he is suckled by the bitch along with her pups."—HARDY'SBuddhism, ch. iii. p. 80.

1:Mahawanso, ch. xix. p. 116.

2: Ibit., ch. x. p. 66. The Chandala in one of the Jatakas is represented as "one born in the open air, his parents not being possessed of a roof; and as he lies amongst the pots when his mother goes to cut fire-wood, he is suckled by the bitch along with her pups."—HARDY'SBuddhism, ch. iii. p. 80.

Slavery.—The existence of slavery is repeatedly referred to, and in the absence of any specific allusion to its origin in Ceylon, it must be presumed to have been borrowed from India. As the Sudras, according to the institutes of Menu, were by the laws of caste consigned to helpless bondage, so slavery in Ceylon was an attribute of race[1]; and those condemned to it were doomed to toil from their birth, with no requital other than the obligation on the part of their masters to maintain them in health, to succour them in sickness, and apportion their burdens to their strength.[2] And although the liberality of theoretical Buddhism threw open, even to the lowest caste, all the privileges of the priesthood, theslave alone was repulsed, on the ground that his admission would deprive the owner of his services.[3]

1: In later times, slavery was not confined to the low castes; insolvents could be made slaves by their creditors—the chief frequently buying the debt, and attaching the debtor to his followers. The children of freemen, by female slaves, followed the status of their mothers.2: HARDY'SBuddhism, ch. x. p. 482.3: HARDY'SEastern Monachism, ch. iv. p. 18.

2: HARDY'SBuddhism, ch. x. p. 482.

3: HARDY'SEastern Monachism, ch. iv. p. 18.

Like other property, slaves could be possessed by the Buddhist monasteries, and inscriptions, still existing upon the rocks of Mihintala and Dambool, attest the capacity of the priests to receive them as gifts, and to require that as slaves they should be exempted from taxation.

Unrelaxed in its assertion of abstract right, but mitigated in the forms of its practical enforcement, slavery endured in Ceylon till extinguished by the fiat of the British Government in 1845.[1] In the northern and Tamil districts of the island, its characteristics differed considerably from its aspect in the south and amongst the Kandyan mountains. In the former, the slaves were employed in the labours of the field and rewarded with a small proportion of the produce; but amongst the pure Singhalese, slavery was domestic rather than prædial, and those born to its duties were employed less as the servants, than as the suite of the Kandyan chiefs. Slaves swelled the train of their retainers on all occasions of display, and had certain domestic duties assigned to them, amongst which was the carrying of fire-wood, and the laying out of the corpse after death. The strongest proof of the general mildness of their treatment in all parts of the island, is derived from the fact, that when in 1845, Lord Stanley, now the Earl of Derby, directed the final abolition of the system, slavery was extinguished in Ceylon without a claim for compensation on the part of the proprietors.

1: An account of slavery in Ceylon, and the proceedings for its suppression, will be found in PRIDHAM'SCeylon, vol. i. p. 223.

Compulsory Labour.—Another institution, to the influence and operation of which the country was indebted for the construction of the works which diffused plenty throughout every region, was the system of Raja-kariya,by which the king had a right to employ, for public purposes, the compulsory labour of the inhabitants. To what extent this was capable of exaction, or under what safeguards it was enforced in early times, does not appear from the historical books. But on all occasions when tanks were to be formed, or canals cut for irrigation, theMahawansoalludes—almost in words of course—to the application of Raja-kariya for their construction[1], the people being summoned to the task by beat of drum.[2]

1: The inscription engraven on the rock at Mihintala, amongst other regulations for enforcing the observance by the temple tenants of the conditions on which their lands were held, declares that "if a fault be committed by any of the cultivators; the adequate fine shall be assessed according to usage; or in lieu thereof, the delinquent shall be directedto work at the lakein making an excavation not exceeding sixteen cubits in circumference and one cubit deep."— TURNOUR'SEpitome, &c., Appendix, p. 87.2:Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 149.

2:Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 149.

The only mention of the system which attracts particular attention, is the honour awarded to the most pious of the kings, who, whilst maintaining Raja-kariya as an institution, nevertheless stigmatised it as "oppression" when applied to non-productive objects; and on the occasion of erecting one of the most stupendous of the monuments dedicated to the national faith, felt that the merit of the act would be neutralised, were it to be accomplished by "unrequited" labour.[1]

1: Ibid., ch. xxvii. pp. 163, 165. King Tissa, A. D. 201, in imitation of Dutugaimunu. caused the restorations of monuments at the capital "to be made with paid labour."—Ibid., ch. xxxvi. p. 226. See anteVol. I. Pt. III. ch. v. p. 357.

AGRICULTURE.—Prior to the arrival of the Bengalis, and even for some centuries after the conquest of Wijayo, before the knowledge of agriculture had extended throughout the island, the inhabitants appear to have subsisted to a great extent by the chase.[1] Hunting the elk and the boar was one of the amusements of the early princes; the "Royal Huntsmen" had a range of buildings erected for their residence at Anarajapoora, B.C. 504[2], and the laws of the chase generously forbade to shoot the deer except in flight.[3] Dogs were trained to assist in the sport[4] and the oppressed aborigines, driven by their conquerors to the forests of Rohuna and Maya, are the subjects of frequent commendation in the pages of theMahawanso, from their singular ability in the use of the bow.[5]

1:Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 59; ch, xiv. p. 78; ch. xxiii. p. 142. The hunting of the hare is mentioned 161 B.C.Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 141.2: Ibid., ch. x. p. 66.3: Ibid., ch. xiv. p. 78. King Devenipiatissa, when descrying the elk which led him to the mountain where Mahindo was seated, exclaimed, "It is not fair to shoot him standing!" he twanged his bowstring and followed him as he fled, See ante,p. 341, n.4: Ibid., ch. xxviii p. 166.5: Ibid., ch. xxxiii. pp. 202, 204, &c.

1:Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 59; ch, xiv. p. 78; ch. xxiii. p. 142. The hunting of the hare is mentioned 161 B.C.Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 141.

2: Ibid., ch. x. p. 66.

3: Ibid., ch. xiv. p. 78. King Devenipiatissa, when descrying the elk which led him to the mountain where Mahindo was seated, exclaimed, "It is not fair to shoot him standing!" he twanged his bowstring and followed him as he fled, See ante,p. 341, n.

4: Ibid., ch. xxviii p. 166.

5: Ibid., ch. xxxiii. pp. 202, 204, &c.

Before the arrival of Wijayo, B.C. 543, agriculture was unknown in Ceylon, and grain, if grown at all, was not systematically cultivated. The Yakkhos, the aborigines, subsisted, as the Veddahs, their lineal descendants, live at the present day, on fruits, honey, and the products of the chase. Rice was distributed by Kuweni to the followers of Wijayo, but it was "rice procured from the wreckedships of mariners."[l] And two centuries later, so scanty was the production of native grain, that Asoca, amongst the presents which he sent to his ally Devenipiatissa, included "one hundred and sixty loads of hill paddi from Bengal."[2]

1:Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 49.2: Ibid., ch. xi. p. 70.

1:Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 49.

2: Ibid., ch. xi. p. 70.

A Singhalese narrative of the "Planting of the Bo-tree," an English version of which will be found amongst the translations prepared for Sir Alexander Johnston, mentions the fact, that rice was still imported into Ceylon from the Coromandel coast[1] in the second century before Christ.

1: UPHAM,Sacred Books of Ceylon,vol. iii. p. 231.

Irrigation.—It was to the Hindu kings who succeeded Wijayo, that Ceylon was indebted for the earliest knowledge of agriculture, for the construction of reservoirs, and the practice of irrigation for the cultivation of rice.[1]

1: A very able report on irrigation in some of the districts of Ceylon has been recently drawn up by Mr. BAILEY, of the Ceylon Civil Service; but the author has been led into an error in supposing that, "it cannot be to India that we must look for the origin of tanks and canals in Ceylon," and that the knowledge of their construction was derived through "the Arabian and Persian merchants who traded between Egypt and Ceylon." Mr. Bailey rests this conclusion on the assertion that the first Indian canal of which we have any record dates no farther back than the middle of the fourteenth century. There was nothing in common between the shallow canals for distributing the periodical inundation of the Nile over the level lands of Egypt (a country in which rice was little known), and the gigantic embankments by which hills were so connected in Ceylon as to convert the valleys between them into inland lakes; and there was no similarity to render the excavation of the one a model and precedent for the construction of the other. Probably the lake Moeris is what dwells in the mind of those who ascribe proficiency in irrigation to the ancient Egyptians; but although Herodotus asserts it to have been an excavation,cheiropoiêtoz kai oruktê(lib. ii. 149), geologic investigation has shown that Moeris is a natural lake created by the local depression of that portion of the Arsinoite nome. Neither Strabo nor Pliny, who believed it to be artificial, ascribed its origin to anything connected with irrigation, for which, in fact, its level would render it unsuitable. Nature had done so much for irrigation in Egypt, that art was forestalled; and even had it been otherwise, and had the natives of that country been adepts in the science, or capable of teaching it, the least qualified imparters of engineering knowledge would have been the Arab and Persian mariners, whose lives were spent in coasting the shores of the Indian Ocean. It is true that in Arabia itself, at a very early period, there is the tradition of the great artificial lake of Aram, in Yemen, about the time of Alexander the Great (SALE'SKoran, Introd. p.7); and evidence still more authentic shows that the practice of artificial irrigation was one of the earliest occupations of the human race. The Scriptures; in enumerating the descendants of Shem, state that "unto Eber were born two sons, and the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided." (Genesis,ch. x. ver. 25.) In this passage according to CYRIL C. GRAHAM, the termPeleghas a profounder meaning, and the sentence should have been translated—"for in his days the earth was cut into canals" (Cambridge Essay,1858.)But historical testimony exists which removes all obscurity from the inquiry as to who were the instructors of the Singhalese. The most ancient books of the Hindus show that the practice of canal-making was understood in India at as early a period as in Egypt. Canals are mentioned in theRayamana, the story of which belongs to the dimmest antiquity; and when Baratha, the half-brother of Rama, was about to search for him in the Dekkan, his train is described as including "labourers, with carts, bridge-builders, carpenters, and diggers of canals." (Ramayana, CARY'S Trans., vol. iii. p. 228.) TheMahawanso,removes all doubt as to the person by whom the Singhalese were instructed in forming works for irrigation, by naming the Brahman engineer contemporary with the construction of the earliest tanks in the fourth century before the Christian era. (Mahawanso, ch. x.) Somewhat later, B.C. 262, the inscription on the rock at Mihintala ascribes to the Malabars the system of managing the water for the rice lands, and directs that "according to the supply of water in the lake, the same shall be distributed to the lands of the wiharain the manner formerly regulated by the Tamils." (Notes toTURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 90.) To be convinced of the Tamil origin of the tank system which subsists to the present day in Ceylon, it is only necessary to see the tanks of the Southern Dekkan. The innumerable excavated reservoirs orcolamsof Ceylon will be found to correspond with theculamsof Mysore; and the vasteraysformed by drawing a bund to intercept the water flowing between two elevated ridges, exhibit the model which has been followed at Pathavie, Kandelai, Menery, and all the huge constructions of Ceylon, But whoever may have been the original instructors of the Singhalese in the formation of tanks, there seems every reason to believe that from their own subsequent experience, and the prodigious extent to which they occupied themselves in the formation of works of this kind, they attained a facility unsurpassed by the people of any other country. It is a curious circumstance in connection with this inquiry, that in the eighth century after Christ, the King of Kashmir despatched messengers to Ceylon to bring back workmen, whom he employed in constructing an artificial lake. (Raja-Tarangini, Book iv. sl. 505.) If it were necessary to search beyond India for the origin of cultivation in Ceylon, the Singhalese, instead of borrowing a system from Egypt, might more naturally have imitated the ingenious devices of their own co-religionists in China, where the system of irrigation as pursued in the military colonies of that country has been a theme of admiration in every age of their history. (SeeJournal Asiatique,1850, vol. lvi. pp. 341, 346.) And as these colonies were planted not only in the centre of the empire but on its north-west extremities towards Kaschgar and the north-east of India, where the new settlers occupied themselves in draining marshes and leading streams to water their arable lands, the probabilities are that their system may have been known and copied by the people of Hindustan.

But historical testimony exists which removes all obscurity from the inquiry as to who were the instructors of the Singhalese. The most ancient books of the Hindus show that the practice of canal-making was understood in India at as early a period as in Egypt. Canals are mentioned in theRayamana, the story of which belongs to the dimmest antiquity; and when Baratha, the half-brother of Rama, was about to search for him in the Dekkan, his train is described as including "labourers, with carts, bridge-builders, carpenters, and diggers of canals." (Ramayana, CARY'S Trans., vol. iii. p. 228.) TheMahawanso,removes all doubt as to the person by whom the Singhalese were instructed in forming works for irrigation, by naming the Brahman engineer contemporary with the construction of the earliest tanks in the fourth century before the Christian era. (Mahawanso, ch. x.) Somewhat later, B.C. 262, the inscription on the rock at Mihintala ascribes to the Malabars the system of managing the water for the rice lands, and directs that "according to the supply of water in the lake, the same shall be distributed to the lands of the wiharain the manner formerly regulated by the Tamils." (Notes toTURNOUR'SEpitome, p. 90.) To be convinced of the Tamil origin of the tank system which subsists to the present day in Ceylon, it is only necessary to see the tanks of the Southern Dekkan. The innumerable excavated reservoirs orcolamsof Ceylon will be found to correspond with theculamsof Mysore; and the vasteraysformed by drawing a bund to intercept the water flowing between two elevated ridges, exhibit the model which has been followed at Pathavie, Kandelai, Menery, and all the huge constructions of Ceylon, But whoever may have been the original instructors of the Singhalese in the formation of tanks, there seems every reason to believe that from their own subsequent experience, and the prodigious extent to which they occupied themselves in the formation of works of this kind, they attained a facility unsurpassed by the people of any other country. It is a curious circumstance in connection with this inquiry, that in the eighth century after Christ, the King of Kashmir despatched messengers to Ceylon to bring back workmen, whom he employed in constructing an artificial lake. (Raja-Tarangini, Book iv. sl. 505.) If it were necessary to search beyond India for the origin of cultivation in Ceylon, the Singhalese, instead of borrowing a system from Egypt, might more naturally have imitated the ingenious devices of their own co-religionists in China, where the system of irrigation as pursued in the military colonies of that country has been a theme of admiration in every age of their history. (SeeJournal Asiatique,1850, vol. lvi. pp. 341, 346.) And as these colonies were planted not only in the centre of the empire but on its north-west extremities towards Kaschgar and the north-east of India, where the new settlers occupied themselves in draining marshes and leading streams to water their arable lands, the probabilities are that their system may have been known and copied by the people of Hindustan.

The first tank in Ceylon was formed by the successor of Wijayo, B.C. 504, and their subsequent extension to an almost incredible number is ascribable to the influence of the Buddhist religion, which, abhorringthe destruction of animal life, taught its multitudinous votaries to subsist exclusively upon vegetable food. Hence the planting of gardens, the diffusion of fruit-trees and leguminous vegetables[1], the sowing of dry grain[2], the formation of reservoirs and canals, and the reclamation of land "in situations favourable for irrigation."

1: Beans, designated by the term ofMasáin theMahawanso, were grown in the second century before Christ, ch, xxiii. p, 140,2: The "cultivation of a crop of hill rice" is mentioned in theMahawansoB.C. 77, ch. xxxiv. p. 208.

1: Beans, designated by the term ofMasáin theMahawanso, were grown in the second century before Christ, ch, xxiii. p, 140,

2: The "cultivation of a crop of hill rice" is mentioned in theMahawansoB.C. 77, ch. xxxiv. p. 208.

It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of this system of water cultivation, in a country like the north of Ceylon, subject to periodical droughts. From physical and geological causes, the mode of cultivation in that section of the island differs essentially from that practised in the southern division; and whilst in the latter the frequency of the rains and abundance of rivers afford a copious supply of water, the rest of the country is mainly dependent upon artificial irrigation, and on the quantity of rain collected in tanks; or of water diverted from streams and directed into reservoirs.

As has been elsewhere[1] explained, the mountain ranges which tower along the south-western coast, and extend far towards the eastern, serve in both monsoons to intercept the trade winds and condense the vapours with which they are charged, thus ensuring to those regions a plentiful supply of rain. Hence the harvests in those portions of the island are regulated by the two monsoons, theyallain May and themahain November; and seed-time is adjusted so as to take advantage of the copious showers which fall at those periods.

1: SeeVol. I. Part I. ch. ii p. 67.

But in the northern portions of Ceylon, owing to the absence of mountains, this natural resource cannot be relied on. The winds in both monsoons traverse the island without parting with a sufficiency of moisture;droughts are of frequent occurrence and of long continuance; and vegetation in the low and scarcely undulated plains is mainly dependent on dews and whatever damp is distributed by the steady sea-breeze. In some places the sandy soil rests upon beds of madrepore and coral rock, through which the scanty rain percolates too quickly to refresh the soil; and the husbandman is entirely dependent upon wells and village tanks for the means of irrigation.

In a region exposed to such vicissitudes the risk would have been imminent and incessant, had the population been obliged to rely on supplies of dry grain alone, the growth of which must necessarily have been precarious, owing to the possible failure or deficiency of the rains. Hence frequent famines would have been inevitable in those seasons of prolonged dryness and scorching heat, when "the sky becomes as brass and the earth as iron."

What an unspeakable blessing that against such, calamities a security should have been found by the introduction of a grain calculated to germinate under water; and that a perennial supply of the latter, not only adequate for all ordinary purposes, but sufficient to guard against extraordinary emergencies of the seasons, should have been provided by the ingenuity of the people, aided by the bounteous care of their sovereigns. It is no matter of surprise that the kings who devoted their treasures and their personal energies to the formation of tanks and canals have entitled their memory to traditional veneration, as benefactors of their race and country. In striking contrast, it is the pithy remark of the author of theRajavali, mourning over the extinction of the Great Dynasty and the decline of the country, that "because the fertility of the land was decreasedthe kings who followed were no longer of such consequence as those who went before."[1]

1:Rajavali, p. 238

Simultaneously with the construction of works for the advancement of agriculture, the patriarchal village system, copied from that which existed from the earliest ages in India[1], was established in the newly settled districts; and each hamlet, with its governing "headman" its artisans, its barber, its astrologer and washerman, was taught to conduct its own affairs by its village council; to repair its tanks and watercourses, and to collect two harvests in each year by the combined labour of the whole village community.

1:Mahawanso, ch. x. p.67.

Between the agricultural system of the mountainous districts and that of the lowlands, there was at all times the same difference which still distinguishes the tank cultivation of Neuera-kalawa and the Wanny from the hanging rice lands of the Kandyan hills. In the latter, reservoirs are comparatively rare, as the natives rely on the certainty of the rains, which seldom fail at their due season in those lofty regions. Streams are conducted by means of channels ingeniously carried round the spurs of the hills and along the face of acclivities, so as to fertilise the fields below, which in the technical phrase of the Kandyans are "assoedamised" for the purpose; that is, formed into terraces, each protected by a shallow ledge over which the superfluous water trickles, from the highest level into that immediately below it; thus descending through all in succession till it escapes in the depths of the valley.

For the tillage of the lands with which the temples were so largely endowed in all quarters of the island, the sacred communities had assigned to them certain villages, a portion of whose labour was the property of the wihara[1]: slaves were also appropriated to them, and an instance is mentioned in the fifth century[2], of the inhabitants of a low-caste village having been bestowed on a monastery by the king Aggrabodhi, "in orderthat the priests might derive their service as slaves."[3] Sharing in a prerogative of royalty, some of the temples had, moreover, a right to the compulsory labour of the community; and in one of the inscriptions carved on the rock at Mihintala, the "Raja-kariya writer" is enumerated in the list of temple officers.[4] The temple lands were occasionally let to tenants whose rent was paid either in "land-fees," or in kind.[5]

1:Ibid., ch. xxxvii. p. 247.2: Rock inscriptions at Mihintala and at Dambool.3:Mahawansoch, xlii. TURNOUR, MS. translation.4: TURNOUR'SEpitome, Appendix,p. 88.5:Ibidpp. 86, 87.

1:Ibid., ch. xxxvii. p. 247.

2: Rock inscriptions at Mihintala and at Dambool.

3:Mahawansoch, xlii. TURNOUR, MS. translation.

4: TURNOUR'SEpitome, Appendix,p. 88.

5:Ibidpp. 86, 87.

Farm-stock.—The only farm-stock which appears to have been kept for tillage purposes, were buffaloes, which, then as now, were used in treading the soft mud of the irrigated rice-fields, preparatory to casting in the seed. Cows are alluded to in theMahawanso, but never in connection with labour; and although butter is spoken of, it is only that of the buffalo.[1]

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxvii p. 163.

Gardens.—Probably the earliest enclosures attempted in a state of incipient civilisation, were gardens for the exclusion of wild animals from fruit trees and vegetables, when these were first cultivated for the use of man; and to the present day, the frequent occurrence of the termination "watte" in the names of places on the map of Ceylon, is in itself an indication of the importance attached to them by the villagers. The term "garden," however, conveys to an European but an imperfect idea of the character and style of these places; which in Ceylon are so similar to the native gardens in the south of India, as to suggest a community of origin. Their leading features are lines of the graceful areca palms, groves of oranges, limes, jak-trees, and bread fruit; and irregular clumps of palmyras and coconuts. Beneath these, there is a minor growth, sometimes of cinnamon or coffee bushes; and always a wilderness of plaintains, guavas and papaws; a few of the commoner flowers; plots of brinjals (egg plants) and other esculents;and the stems of the standard trees are festooned with climbers, pepper vines, tomatas, and betel.

The Coco-nut Palm.—It is curious and suggestive as regards the coco-nut, which now enters so largely into the domestic economy of the Singhalese, that although it is sometimes spoken of in theMahawanso(but by no means so often as the palmyra), no allusion is ever made to it as an article of diet, or an element in the preparation of food, nor is it mentioned, before the reign of Prakrama I., A.D. 1153[1], in the list of those fruit-trees, the planting of which throughout the island is repeatedly recorded, as amongst the munificent acts of the Singhalese kings.

1:Mahawanso, ch. lxxii.

As the other species of the same genus of palms are confined to the New World[1], a doubt has been raised whether the coco-nut be indigenous in India, or an importation. If the latter, the first plant must have been introduced anterior to the historic age; and whatever the period at which the tree may have been first cultivated, a time is indicated when it was practically unknown in Ceylon by the fact, that a statue, without date or inscription, is carved in high relief in a niche hollowed out of a rock to the east of Galle, which tradition says is the monument to the Kustia Raja, an Indian prince, whose claim to remembrance is, that hefirsttaught the Singhalese the use of the coco-nut.[2]

1: BROWN'SNotesto TUCKEY'SExpedition to the Congo, p. 456.2: The earliest mention of the coco-nut in Ceylon occurs in theMahawanso, which refers to it as known at Rohuna to the south, B. c, 161 ( ch. xxv. p. 140). "The milk of the small red coco-nut" is stated to have been used been used by Dutugaimunu in preparing cement for building the Ruanwellé dagoba (Mah. ch. xxx. p. 169). The south-west of the island, and especially themargin of the seais still the locality in which the tree is found in greatest abundance in Ceylon. Hither, if originally self-sown, it must have been floated and flung ashore by the waves; and as the north-east coast, though washed by a powerful current, is almost altogether destitute of these palms, it is obvious that the coco-nut; if carried by sea from some other shore, must have been brought during the south-west monsoon from the coast near Cape Comorin, ÆLIAN notices as one of the leading peculiarities in the appearance of the sea coast of Ceylon, that the palm trees (by which, as the south of the island was the place of resort, he most probably means the coco-nut palms) grew in regular quincunxes, as if planted by skilful hands in a well ordered garden. [Greek: "HÊ nêsos, hên kalousi Taprobanên, echei phoinikônas men thaumastês pephuteumenous eis stoichon, hôsper oun en tois habrois tôn paradeisôn oi toutôn meledônoi phuteuousi ta dendra ta skiadêphora."]—Lib. xvi. cp. 18. The comparative silence of theMahawansoin relation to the coco-nut may probably be referable to the fact that its author resided and wrote in the interior of the island; over which, unlike the light seeds of other plants, its ponderous nuts could not have been distributed accidentally, where down to the present time it has been but partially introduced, and nowhere in any considerable number. Its presence throughout Ceylon is always indicative of the vicinity of man, and at a distance from the shore it appears in those places only where it has been planted by his care. The Singhalese believe that the coco-nut will not flourish "unless you walk under it and talk under it:" but its proximity to human habitations is possibly explained by the consideration that if exposed in the forest, it would be liable, when young, to be forced down by the elephants, who delight in its delicate leaves. See DAVY'SAngler in the Lake Districts, p.245.

1: BROWN'SNotesto TUCKEY'SExpedition to the Congo, p. 456.

2: The earliest mention of the coco-nut in Ceylon occurs in theMahawanso, which refers to it as known at Rohuna to the south, B. c, 161 ( ch. xxv. p. 140). "The milk of the small red coco-nut" is stated to have been used been used by Dutugaimunu in preparing cement for building the Ruanwellé dagoba (Mah. ch. xxx. p. 169). The south-west of the island, and especially themargin of the seais still the locality in which the tree is found in greatest abundance in Ceylon. Hither, if originally self-sown, it must have been floated and flung ashore by the waves; and as the north-east coast, though washed by a powerful current, is almost altogether destitute of these palms, it is obvious that the coco-nut; if carried by sea from some other shore, must have been brought during the south-west monsoon from the coast near Cape Comorin, ÆLIAN notices as one of the leading peculiarities in the appearance of the sea coast of Ceylon, that the palm trees (by which, as the south of the island was the place of resort, he most probably means the coco-nut palms) grew in regular quincunxes, as if planted by skilful hands in a well ordered garden. [Greek: "HÊ nêsos, hên kalousi Taprobanên, echei phoinikônas men thaumastês pephuteumenous eis stoichon, hôsper oun en tois habrois tôn paradeisôn oi toutôn meledônoi phuteuousi ta dendra ta skiadêphora."]—Lib. xvi. cp. 18. The comparative silence of theMahawansoin relation to the coco-nut may probably be referable to the fact that its author resided and wrote in the interior of the island; over which, unlike the light seeds of other plants, its ponderous nuts could not have been distributed accidentally, where down to the present time it has been but partially introduced, and nowhere in any considerable number. Its presence throughout Ceylon is always indicative of the vicinity of man, and at a distance from the shore it appears in those places only where it has been planted by his care. The Singhalese believe that the coco-nut will not flourish "unless you walk under it and talk under it:" but its proximity to human habitations is possibly explained by the consideration that if exposed in the forest, it would be liable, when young, to be forced down by the elephants, who delight in its delicate leaves. See DAVY'SAngler in the Lake Districts, p.245.

The mango, the jambo, and several other fruits are particularised, but the historical books make no mention either of the pine-apple or the plantain, which appear to have been of comparatively recent introduction. Pulse is alluded to at an early date under the generic designation of "Masá."[1]

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 140.

Rice and Curry.—Rice in various forms is always spoken of as the food, alike of the sovereign, the priests, and the people; rice prepared plainly, conjee (the water in which rice is boiled), "rice mixed with sugar and honey, and rice dressed with clarified butter."[1] Chillies are now and then mentioned as an additional condiment.[2] TheRajavalispeaks of curry in the second century before Christ[3] and theMahawansoin the fifth century after.[4]

1:Ibid., ch. xxxii. p. 196.2:Ibid., ch. xxv, p. 158; ch. xxvi. p. 160.3:Rajavali, pp. 196, 200, 202.4:Mahawanso, TURNOUR'S MS. translation, ch. xxxix.KNOX says that curry is a Portuguese word,carré(Relation, &c., part i. ch. iv. p. 12), but this is a misapprehension. Professor H.H. WILSON, in a private letter to me, says, "In Hindustan we are accustomed to consider 'curry' to be derived from,tarkari, a general term for esculent vegetables, but it is probably the English version of the Kanara and Malayalamkadi; pronounced with a hardr, 'kari' or 'kuri,' which means sour milk with rice boiled, which was originally used for such compounds as curry at the present day. The Karnatamajkke-kariis a dish of rice, sour milk, spices, red pepper, &c, &c."

1:Ibid., ch. xxxii. p. 196.

2:Ibid., ch. xxv, p. 158; ch. xxvi. p. 160.

3:Rajavali, pp. 196, 200, 202.

4:Mahawanso, TURNOUR'S MS. translation, ch. xxxix.

KNOX says that curry is a Portuguese word,carré(Relation, &c., part i. ch. iv. p. 12), but this is a misapprehension. Professor H.H. WILSON, in a private letter to me, says, "In Hindustan we are accustomed to consider 'curry' to be derived from,tarkari, a general term for esculent vegetables, but it is probably the English version of the Kanara and Malayalamkadi; pronounced with a hardr, 'kari' or 'kuri,' which means sour milk with rice boiled, which was originally used for such compounds as curry at the present day. The Karnatamajkke-kariis a dish of rice, sour milk, spices, red pepper, &c, &c."

Although the taking of life is sternly forbidden in the ethical code of Buddha, and the most prominent of theobligations undertaken by the priesthood is directed to its preservation even in the instances of insects and animalculæ, casuistry succeeded so far as to fix the crime on the slayer, and to exonerate the individual who merely partook of the flesh.[1] Even the inmates of the wiharas and monasteries discovered devices for the saving of conscience, and curried rice was not rejected in consequence of the animal ingredients incorporated with it. The mass of the population were nevertheless vegetarians, and so little value did they place on animal food, that according to the accounts furnished to EDRISI by the Arabian seamen returning from Ceylon, "a sheep sufficient to regale an assembly was to be bought there for half a drachm."[2]

1: HARDY'SEastern Monachism,ch. iv. p. 24; ch. ix. p. 92; ch. xvi. p. 158. HARDY'SBuddhism, ch. vii. p. 327.2: EDRISI;Géographie, &c., tom. i. p. 73.

1: HARDY'SEastern Monachism,ch. iv. p. 24; ch. ix. p. 92; ch. xvi. p. 158. HARDY'SBuddhism, ch. vii. p. 327.

2: EDRISI;Géographie, &c., tom. i. p. 73.

Betel—In connection with a diet so largely composed of vegetable food, arose the custom, which to the present day is universal in Ceylon,—of chewing the leaves of the betel vine, accompanied with lime and the sliced nut of the areca palm.[1] The betel (piper betel), which is now universally cultivated for this purpose, is presumed to have been introduced from some tropical island, as it has nowhere been found indigenous in continental India.[2] In Ceylon, its use is mentioned as early as the fifth century before Christ, when "betel leaves" formed the present sent by a princess to her lover.[3] In a conflict of Dutugaimunu with the Malabars, B.C. 161, the enemy seeing on his lips the red stain of the betel,mistook it for blood, and spread the false cry that the king had been slain.[4]

1: For an account of the medicinal influence of betel-chewing, seePart I. c. iii. § ii. p. 112.2: ROYLE'SEssay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine, p.85.3: B. C. 504.Mahawanso, ch. ix. p. 57. Dutugaimunu, when building the Ruanwellé dagoba, provided for the labourers amongst other articles "the five condiments used in mastication." This probably refers to the chewing of betel and its accompaniments (Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 175). A story is told of the wife of a Singhalese minister, about A. D. 56, who to warn him of a conspiracy, sent him his "betel, &c., for mastication, omitting the chunam," hoping that coming in search of it, he might escape his "impending fate."Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 219.4:Rajavali, p. 221.

1: For an account of the medicinal influence of betel-chewing, seePart I. c. iii. § ii. p. 112.

2: ROYLE'SEssay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine, p.85.

3: B. C. 504.Mahawanso, ch. ix. p. 57. Dutugaimunu, when building the Ruanwellé dagoba, provided for the labourers amongst other articles "the five condiments used in mastication." This probably refers to the chewing of betel and its accompaniments (Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 175). A story is told of the wife of a Singhalese minister, about A. D. 56, who to warn him of a conspiracy, sent him his "betel, &c., for mastication, omitting the chunam," hoping that coming in search of it, he might escape his "impending fate."Mahawanso, ch. xxxv. p. 219.

4:Rajavali, p. 221.

Intoxicating liquors are of sufficient antiquity to be denounced in the moral system of Buddhism. The use of toddy and drinks obtained from the fermentation of "bread and flour" is condemned in the laity, and strictly prohibited to the priesthood[1]; but the Arabian geographers mention that in the twelfth century, wine, in defiance of the prohibition, was imported from Persia, and drank by the Singhalese after being flavoured with cardamoms.[2]

1: HARDY'SBuddhism, e., ch. x. p. 474.2: EDRISI,Geographle,&c., Trad. JAUBERT, tom. i. p. 73.

1: HARDY'SBuddhism, e., ch. x. p. 474.

2: EDRISI,Geographle,&c., Trad. JAUBERT, tom. i. p. 73.

TRADE.—At a very early period the mass of the people of Ceylon were essentially agricultural, and the proportion of the population addicted to other pursuits consisted of the small number of handicraftsmen required in a community amongst whom civilisation and refinement were so slightly developed, that the bulk of the inhabitants may be said to have had few wants beyond the daily provision of food.

Upon trade the natives appear to have looked at all times with indifference. Other nations, both of the east and west of Ceylon, made the island their halting-place and emporium; the Chinese brought thither the wares destined for the countries beyond the Euphrates, and the Arabians and Persians met them with their products in exchange; but the Singhalese appear to have been uninterested spectators of this busy traffic, in which they can hardly be said to have taken any share. The inhabitants of the opposite coast of India, aware of the natural wealth of Ceylon, participated largely in its development, and the Tamils, who eagerly engaged in the pearl fishery, gave to the gulf of Manaar the name of Salabham, "the sea of gain."[l]

1: The Tamils gave the same name to Chilaw, which was the nearest town to the pearl fishery (and which Ibn Batuta callsSalawat); and eventually they called the whole islandSalabham.

Native Shipping.—The only mention made of native ships in the sacred writings of the Singhalese,is in connection with missions, whether for the promotion of Buddhism, or for the negotiation of marriages and alliances with the princes of India.[1] The building of dhoneys is adverted to as early as the first century, but they were only intended by a devout king to be stationed along the shores of the island, covered by day with white cloths, and by night illuminated with lamps, in order that from them priests, as the royal almoners, might distribute gifts and donations of food.[2]

1: TURNOUR'SEpitome, App. p. 73.2: By King Maha Dailiya, A.D. 8.Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 211;Rajavali, p. 228;Rajaratnacari, p. 52.

1: TURNOUR'SEpitome, App. p. 73.

2: By King Maha Dailiya, A.D. 8.Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 211;Rajavali, p. 228;Rajaratnacari, p. 52.

The genius of the people seems to have never inclined them to a sea-faring life, and the earliest notice which occurs of ships for the defence of the coast, is in connection with the Malabars who were taken into the royal service from their skill in naval affairs.[1] A national marine was afterwards established for this purpose, A.D. 495, by the King Mogallana.[2] In theSuy-shoo, a Chinese history of the Suy dynasty, it is stated that in A.D. 607, the king of Ceylon "sent the Brahman Kew-mo-lo with thirty vessels, to meet the approaching ships which conveyed an embassy from China."[3] And in the twelfth century, when Prakrama I. was about to enter on his foreign expeditions, "several hundreds of vessels were equipped for that service within five months."[4]

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