dth. These are
completely covered with an inscription in the old Pali language, which
has never been translated. Upon the left of one plain is a kind of
sunken area hewn out of the rock, in which sits a colossal figure of
Buddha, about twenty feet in height. On the right of the other plane
is a figure in the standing posture about the same height; and still
farther to the right, likewise hewn from the solid rock, is an immense
figure in the recumbent posture, which is about fifty-six feet in
length, or, as I measured it, not quite nineteen paces.
These figures are of a far superior class of sculpture to the idols
usually seen in Ceylon, especially that in the reclining posture, in
which the impression of the head upon the pillow is so well executed
that the massive pillow of gneiss rock actually appears yielding to the
weight of the head.
This temple is supposed to be coeval with the city, which was founded
about three hundred years before Christ, and is supposed to have been
in ruins for upward of six hundred years. The comparatively recent
date of its destruction renders its obscurity the more mysterious, as
there is no mention made of its annihilation in any of the Cingalese
records, although the city is constantly mentioned during the time of
its prosperity in the native history of Ceylon. It is my opinion that
its destruction was caused by famine.
In those days the kings of Ceylon were perpetually at war with each
other. The Queen of the South, from the great city of Mahagam in the
Hambantotte district, made constant war with the kings of Pollanarua.
They again made war with the Arabs and Malabars, who had invaded the
northern districts of Ceylon; and as in modern warfare the great art
consists in cutting off the enemy's supplies, so in those days the
first and most decisive blow to be inflicted was the cutting off the
"water." Thus, by simply turning the course of a river which supplied a
principal tank, not only would that tank lose its supply, but the whole
of the connected chain of lakes dependent upon the principal would in
like manner be deprived of water.
This being the case, the first summer or dry season would lay waste the
country. I have myself seen the lake of Minneria, which is twenty-two
miles in circumference, evaporate to the small dimensions of four miles
circuit during a dry season.
A population of some millions wholly dependent upon the supply of rice
for their existence would b
|