Evolution of the Indigenous Village Irrigation Systems of

Traditional Beliefs Based on came down from the original Vidya Jyothi Chronicles settlers - "it is a product of the Dr. C.R. Panabokke mind and not a re-creation of what commonly-held belief among actually took place." As Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian some historians and subsequently commented by Research and Training Institute . scholars in the past, was Perera (1960) 'the Mahavamsa A (HARTI) that the art of irrigated agriculture version is inlaid with myth and was brought to this country by the romance, but it is yet possible to early Aryan settlers who had extract from it a kernel of truth'. had developed on what we now migrated to Sri Lanka from various Two kernels of truth which could parts of continental India prior to be identified are : recognised as various types of the arrival of Vijaya around 500 B.C. young alluvial plains; while the This belief had been largely based (a) Kuveni spinning cotton; and irrigation systems in ancient Sri on various fragmentary references Lanka had, of necessity, to develop (b) the pool or rudimentary pond in the Pali Vamsa chronicles, chiefly on the old hard rock peneplain of beside which Kuveni was seated the Dipavamsa and Mahauamsa. the low country dry zone. whilst spinning; and I shall build Furthermore, the irrigation upon these two 'kernels' in the As commented by Geiger (1912), systems of the flat alluvial plains latter part of this text. the Dipawansa represents the very of Mesopotamia were 'run-of-the- first unaided attempt made at Doubts Raised by Discerning river type' where there was no need creating an epic from traditional Blinds for storage reservoirs, whereas for source materials available. "It irrigation in the hard rock presents a curious mixture of In his monumental volume titled, peneplain of Sri Lanka's dry zone, legends, myths and history, but it 'Ancient Ceylon', Henry Parker a storage reservoir was an essential contains a kernel of historical truth (1909) has distinguished between pre-requisite. buried in tradition and legends, (a) digging channels as was the most of which are of special value main requirement for irrigated in the reconstruction of history*. On the foregoing considerations, it agriculture in the flat alluvial plains is. highly doubtful that there was in the arid environments of ancient Mahanama, the author of the any kind of irrigation technology Mesopotamia 2,500 B.C. versus (b) Mahavamsa^ states very clearly that transfer that could have taken place construction of reservoirs that were his work was based on previous from the arid, mid-east irrigation so essential for irrigation in works written by Poranas which he systems to the 'wet -and- dry' peninsular India, as well as in the says of full of repetitions and monsoon tropics of the Indian basement rock terrain of Sri Lanka. Deccan and Sri Lanka's dry zone. contained unbalanced details and that his revised work is free from He further states that "there is Brohier (1975) questions the legend such faults. The historicity of the nothing to indicate that the first of Indo-Aryan colonisation of Mahavamsa has been adequately Gangetic settlers brought with Ceylon around the 6,h century B.C. proved on the strength of them any knowledge of the in the following terms, "how-be-it", contemporary Indian sources both construction of reservoirs, which as the concept of irrigation literary and epigraphic. Geiger a general rule, were neither development in the dry zone can (1927) had been able to bring required nor made in the districts hardly be accepted to have sparked together ample evidences from which where inhabited by their from just this legendary event of other sources to justify the faith ancestors." Parker (1909) also Vijaya and his followers - more which scholars placed on this states that 'credit for reservoir likely it connotes the arrival of chronicle. The commentary on the development and extension in the several small bands of migrants Mahavamsa is popularly known as island should go to the first Sinhala the Mahavamsa-Tika | Malalasekara, rulers and their responsible from peninsular India crossing over 1927). advisors*. to Ceylon in frail crafts in the pre- Christian era". This view point has The Vijayan legend as contained in It should also be borne in mind that been later supported by Seneviratne the Mahavamsa, according to G. C. the ancient irrigation systems of (2004) and will be discussed in a Mendis (1965), is not a story that Mesopotamia and the Indus valley subsequent section of this paper.

Economic Review: April/ May 2010 Recent Studies on Settlement as a detailed account of the Iron turn provided an efficient tool for Archaeology in Sri Lanka and Age in Peninsular India. A special man to clear jungle with the use of India note should be made of his fire and iron axes, according to statement that "Kurakkan (Eluecine Randhawa (1982). Thanks to the new vistas of cnracana) is a tetraploid of African knowledge generated in recent provenance, and that its presence It is now recognised that the Early years by Siran Deraniyagala (1992, in India as early as 2000 B.C. is Iron Age (EIA) 1997), we are now in a more reliable interesting as well as intriguing". had been an intrusive culture from position to be able to reconstruct Peninsular India, according to the sequential development of Taken in conjunction with Seneviratne (2004), and it human settlement and associated Velayuthan's 'Agro-Ecological represents "sporadic movements of agricultural development from Regions of India (1999)', and 'Agro- small communities from the early

Early Iron Age 'circa' lf5QQ - 500 Ecologial Regions of Sri Lanka Iron Age techno-cultural complex of B^C. (proto-historic) through to the (1996)' it is now possible to identify Peninsular and Deccan India into Early Historic 'circa' 500 B.C. and comparable Agro-Ecological Regions Sri Lanka". the subsequent Middle Historic 300 (AER) across which a commonality A.D.- 1,200 A.D. periods. of agro-technology and iirigatioh^ It has been further elaborated by technology transfer could havfev Seneviratne (2004) that there is no Similarly, Rukshan Jayawardena selectively taken place.. The Agro- evidence of a mass invasion of (1997) has been able': to reconstruct Ecological Regions Numbers 6, 7 imagined Dravidian or Aryan 'races'; with a high degree of; reliability, the and 8 located within the Deccan rather what had taken place was 'an growth of irrigated agriculture plateau of India are comparable intrusion of small communities during the early historic period in with the AER's DL 1, DL 2 and DL 5 bringing along with them Sri Lanka; and he concludes that in Sri Lanka. ^c ring logical and other cultural the technique of building small elements that integrated tanks and simpler sluices {ksla The State of Rain-fed Agriculture themselves with the pre-existing sorowwq) preceded the in Pre-Vijayan Sri Lanka and stone-using communities. This is construction of large tanks and Transition to the Small Village more in accordance with Brohier's more sophisticated sluices Tank (1975) perception which connotes (Bisokotuwa Sorowwa). the 'crossing over to the island of The period 1000 B.C. to 500 B.C. is very small bands of migrants in frail One should also take note of a considered as the Pre-Vijayan crafts'! significant feature of Sri Lanka's period in this paper. It also historical trajectory, which corresponds to the Early Iron Age It is also now established that it according to Senaka Bandaranayake (EIA), the earliest manifestation of was this culture that introduced (2000), is considered a "relatively which in Sri Lanka has been domesticated crops such as the late and extremely rapid radiocarbon dated as between 1000 various types of millet together with transition from the Stone Age B.C and 800 B.C. by Deraniyagala animal domestication, namely, the 'hunter-gatherer' to an advanced (1997). humped bull and horse to this and literate agrarian civilisation". country. Millet is a group name for This transformation which seems This Pre-Vijayan period in Sri Lanka a number of cereals known as to have taken place during the first was, on the whole, characterised by coarse grains which are grown millennium B.C. is, according to various forms of rain-fcri agriculture under rain-fed conditions on dry Siriweera (2004), a kind of that were themselves at different lands, and are of short duration, historical leap that by-passes many stages of development and which three to three and a half months of the complex stages of social and occurred together with other forms from seeding to harvest and, technological development that are of rudimentary 'slash-and-burn' as therefore, fit in very well to the dry found in the proto-historic cultures well as various types of 'fire-stick' zone's rain-fed maha cultivation of the Indus valley or in the farming as practised by some of the season. Kurakkan which is known developed regions in the Indian Australian aboriginals. Supporting as 'ragi ' in India, is the most Deccan. evidence for the prevalence of these widespread of the millets in the various forms of early rain-fed Indian sub-continent extending all agriculture cctuld be had from Of special relevance and value to the way to Nepal and Assam. Randhawa's (1982) description of this study has been the first of the the state of agriculture in later four volumes of "A History of By the 6lh century B.C. the Iron Age \^dic(1000B.C.to600 B.C.) period Agriculture in India " by Randhawa was well established across most of India. It was the mastery of iron (1982), which deals with the of Peninsular India, especially the technology that led to the invention Neolithic and Chalcolithic Deccan according to Randhawa Settlements in South India, as well of the socketed iron axe, which in (1982). axes, iron ploughshares and

Economic Review: April/ May 2010 sickles of iron made farming more areas during the course of field soil of Sri Lanka Panabokke, 1996). The efficient; and a large production of surveys conducted by the National three principal crops that iron together with manufacture of Soil Survey during the period 1960 dominated rain-fed agriculture at iron axes enabled the people of to 1970. this particular stage were: kurakkan Deccan India to cut down virgin {Elucine coracana) a food crop; forest and expand into hitherto With further improvements in iron gingelly (Sesamum indicum) an unexplored parts of the country. technology that had taken place in oilseed crop; and cotton [Gossypium Sri Lanka around this period, it had Arboreum indicum) a clothing fibre A similar, but at the same time, a become possible to produce harder crop. slightly less advanced development and better quality iron implements could be postulated for Sri Lanka which would have helped in a It is now known that kurakkan or by around 500 B.C. With further selective felling and burning of the finger millet had been cultivated in refinements that could have been tough, hard-wooded dry zone parts of Africa since the beginning made in iron technology, sharper forests. As a result, by 500 B.C., of the Iron Age, and it was the and harder tools would have rain-fed chena cultivation had staple crop of the countries in the become available for an accelerated spread across most parts of the African regions. It was introduced phase of cutting and burning the dry zone wherever a combination of to India some 3,500 years, ago hard wood forests of the dry zone a good quality of soil together with after which, it spread in Sri Lanka. of Sri Lanka. an assured dry season supply of It is mainly grown as a rain-fed crop domestic water was available. By in chenas, and to a lesser extent The early Iron Age (EIA) folk, matching the 1:500,000 scale Soil as an irrigated crop in the Jaffna according to Seneviratne (2004), Map of Sri Lanka 2002 edition, peninsula and in parts of South "were both semi-nomadic as well as against the hard-rock ground-water India. Its grain is of great nutritive sedentary communities; and they regions of the dry zone, now termed value, and it can be stored for long thrived on a multi-resource the Yegolith aquifer' (Panabokke, periods (for more than 50 years) spectrum of : 2007), it has been possible to without application of insecticides. identify the more favoured areas The seeds are small and they dry (a) hunter-gathering ; where such sedentary 'chena' out quickly, and insects cannot live (b) pastoral activities; and farmers would have been the inside them. It is also a hardy crop (c) subsistence farming" all of which pioneer settlers (Panabokke, which is less susceptible to pests had spread across the different Forthcoming). and diseases than any other grain habitats of the dry zone. crop. It tolerates dry spells in its early stages of growth, and it has a The hunter-gatherers thrived in the By around 350 B.C. iron tools of superior hardness had been greater ability to utilise soil savannah and other light open developed which made it possible phosphate reserves better than forests which best-suited these for settlers to dig and excavate the other cereals. One could, therefore, semi-nomadic communities. The weathered underlying rock or ' understand why it had become the dry damana grasslands, especially regolith' down to depths of around most dominant cereal food crop in in the Thamankaduwa region where 200 cm. This in turn enabled the Sri Lanka during the Early and essentially the habitat of the roving rain-fed chena farmers to make Middle Historic Periods between pastoralists of that period. rudimentary ponds of sufficient 500 and 300 B.C. Somasiri and Panabokke (1968) had depths in which they could save an studied the factors that govern the adequate supply of water to meet Gingelly or 'sesame' is believed to occurrence and development of their dry season's basic domestic have been introduced from Africa to these dry damana grasslands, and requirements (see, Panabokke- India via Mesopotamia. Once they have concluded that these Groundwater Conditions in Sri introduced and grown in India, grasslands are a 'biotic climax' Lanka in Regolith Aquifers in the sesame entered the Indian diet and which have been kept in this state Hard Basement Rock, 2007). cookery to such an extent that it by the annual firing by man (the came to be recognised as an pastoralists ) since the Early Sedentary rain-fed chena indigenous Indian crop. It was the Historic period, and continue to the cultivation, had by now, become the principal source of edible oil in the present period. It is significant that dominant and most widespread ancient Sri Lankan diet during this up to the present time there is a form of rain-fed agriculture in the early period prior to the use of great paucity, or even an absence, dry zone regions of the present- coconut oil in the subsequent of small village tank settlements day North Central (Rajarata), North period. within these dry damana areas. At Western (Wayamba) and Southern the same time, a high incidence of (Ruhuna) Sri Lanka, especially Based on the foregoing information potsherds had been encountered across the Reddish Brown Earth in respect of kurakkan (finger millet), within these dry damana grassland region of the country (See, Soil Map it could be justifiably inferred that

Economic Review: April/ May 2010 rain-fed agriculture of the Early and the increasing food Middle Historic periods of Sri requirements of an Lanka, was essentially kurakkan expanding population. baaed, and that the staple crop of Furthermore, in order to get the common people at that time beyond the status of Stream was kurakkan . However, its one subsistence living, it was Rudimentary Pond recognised that irrigation •Small Village main limitation was that its grain Reservoir yield per acre was less than rice, had become a necessity. specially irrigated rice and it, The evolution of the rudimentary ponds in the therefore, could not support rapidly Figure 1: Rudimentary Ponds and Position of increasing population. stream landscape of the Village Reservoir hard rock basement region Of all domesticated rain-fed crops has been described by Panabokke reliable supply of water, especially of that period, cotton was the most (2009).The accompanying Figure 1, for domestic needs, is an essential widespread and also readily grown shows the location of the prerequisite in order to tide over crop in the Old World according to rudimentary ponds in the stream the protracted dry season that Hutchinson (1962). The main race landscape of the hard rock occurs every year from May to late of cotton (Gossypium Arboreum basement. September. Of man's hierarchical indicum) had been extensively needs of water, that for drinking, cultivated in India even earlier than As further stated by Brohier (1959), washing and other domestic 1000 B.C . It is, also very well it is possible that many a primitive requirements gets precedence over recognised that the knowledge and pond-reservoir was later converted that for irrigation. cultivation of cotton had spread to to a tank as the science of the rest of the world from India. irrigation progressed. By around In the quest for an assured, but the second century B.C. transition limited supply of this precious It is, therefore, not surprising that to the small village tank had liquid water supply, it would soon by 500 B.C. it would have been a become almost complete. According have been recognised that, in the commonly grown crop in Sri Lanka, to Nicholas (1959), "the village tank absence of any form of naturally more specifically, because it was a well-established feature of occurring shallow ground-water in provided the most acceptable the dry zone by the beginning of the this hard rock basement region, source of fibre that could be woven second century B.C". some manner of surface storage of into clothing materials for daily water in small rudimentary ponds wear. In conclusion, it should be would have been the only feasible unequivocally recognised that while alternative. As perceptively The earliest known cotton fabrics rain-fed agriculture provided the commented by levers (1899) "it may in the Old World belonged to the foundation for the evolution of the be broadly stated that without Indus civilisation at Mohenjo-Daro small tank settlements, any future artificial storage of water, human in Sind, and are dated to attempt at small village tank existence in the North Central approximately 3000 B.C. It is, rehabilitation cannot afford to Province would be impossible". therefore, not surprising that the overlook the symbiotic role played art of making simple cotton fabrics by the rain-fed chena component in These early man-made rudimentary would have been prevalent in Sri respect of the whole village ponds would have been able to Lanka during the Pre-Vijayan settlement complex. Small village capture the rainfall as well as the period. The Vijayan legend provides tank rehabilitation cannot be local run-off during the rainy 'maha' a reliable indicator of the status of considered outside the context of season, and where these ponds agriculture around that period of 500 its associated rain-fed 'chena' were of sufficient depth, they could B.C. which states that Kuveni was lands, if it is to make any headway have stored and held an adequate seated under a tree spinning cotton in future. supply of water over the ensuing when Vijaya and his followers are five-month dry season, during said to have landed in Sri Lanka. The Evolution and Spread of the which, by frugal use could have met Similarly, the pool beside which Small Village Tank and Small their basic domestic water Kuveni was seated , indicates a Tank Cascade System in North requirements. further development of the Central Province of Sri Lanka. rudimentary ponds to a larger size It would not have been very long pool. At the outset, it should be borne before they would have discovered in mind that for any form of human that the ideal location for making By about 350 B.C., it was settlement to get established in such surface storage rudimentary experienced that rain-fed chena the exacting environment of Sri ponds were the numerous small cultivation alone could not meet Lanka's dry zone, an assured and a inland valleys that dissect or 'criss-

Economic Review: April/ May 2010 — cross' the undulating landscape of families located around this small and management throughout the the North Central dry zone. Quite reservoir-pond. This could be irrigation history of this country". fortuitously, the highest density of considered the earliest form of He has also brought out the special such small linear inland valleys small tank settlement from which features of the small tank cascade happens to occur around the grew out the traditional small tank systems in relation to the traditional settlements of the central pert of the North Central village as we now recognise it. In Raj arata in the special publication Province. This is quite evident by other words, it could be broadly titled, 'Food Security and Small reference to 1 inch to 1 mile topo stated * that the DNA of Sri Lanka's Tanks in Sri Lanka'. Of special sheets of the region as well as by tank irrigation civilisation had significance is, his recognition of stereoscopic view of air taken shape at this stage of its indigenous terms such as heenna photographs (Also see Panabokke evolution* (low mounds of earth), mudunna (2009), pages 12 - 17 for further (summit) and elawaka ( a sideway elaboration). By the third century B.C., stable elevating land in the keel of a human settlements had become shallow valley and several other It is, therefore, not surprising that well established around this early traditionally used names for this particular region afforded the prototype of the small village tanks. various land forms associated with best opportunities for the early The size or storage volume of these a cascade. settlers to locate these small tanks in their early stages, rudimentary ponds of sufficient especially in relation to their depth, The Small Anicut Systems depth which could provide the was just about sufficient to meet {Amunaaf of the Kandyan domestic water needs of the early the domestic needs of the family Kingdom settlers even during prolonged dry settlers around these very small periods. Furthermore, the inland tanks. Furthermore, at this stage During the (1524 - valley geomorphic location provided of evolution, their primary food 1815), there was a significant the most reliable and dependable needs came from 'swidden' or rain- migration of people from the dry position in this undulating fed chena cultivation with kurakkan zone to the mid and up-country landscape for a sustainable harvest being the main cereal component. regions of the country. As stated and storage of water. by Brohier (1975)," the certainty of Once they had advanced to a stage rain which seldom failed in the Hill With further improvements and where they were able to construct Country regions rendered a tank refinements in iron technology, it system for storing water village tanks with a larger storage was possible to make harder and unnecessary.... these up-country capacity, the cultivation of rice sharper iron tools which would fields were aswaddumised into a became possible. One special have enabled a deeper penetration succession of terraces carved out circumstance that favoured the and digging and excavation of of the sloping land, and these deeper ponds. Around 300 B.C. iron cultivation of wetland rice in that liyaddes were muddied for growing tools of superior hardness that part of the land immediately below rice" This aspect of land use is could engrave the 'Brahmi' scripts the small tank, was essentially the confined to what has come to be oa the hard rock, drip-ledges of • hydromorphic or seasonally wet soil called the Kandyan region. He caves had also been perfected. As condition. further states * the descendants of many as 4,000 lithic inscriptions on the great engineers who were the very hard rock surfaces of this Earlier in this chapter, mention unrivalled in their knowledge of the country have been found which was made of the numerous small art of irrigation were able to adapt have been reliably dated to the inland valleys that dissect or 'criss­ their science to the mountain zone period between 250 B.C. and 50 A.D. cross' the undulating landscape of with great success* He further (Raj Somadeva, 1997). the North Central Province. The states * the kings, nobles and the early settlers in this landscape people who sought refuge in the With such iron tools of superior took advantage of this feature to mountains had to establish a hardness it would have been make chains of small tanks along system of an indigenous agriculture possible to dig below the the length of these shallow valleys, which had hitherto supplied them decomposing rock to depths of more which gave rise to the development with food on a permanent , than 1.5 to 2.0 metres. This, in no of 'cascades' of small tanks that sedentary basis. They threw small uncertain terms, enabled the were discussed by Madduma blockades or anicuts (most of them advance from the small Bandara (1985) and M.U.A. reinforced with sticks and brush­ rudimentary pond to the earliest Tennakoon (1994) . wood) across the streams, to turn prototype of the small village the water into small channels to irrigate the liyaddas'. reservoir with a larger storage Tennakoon (1994) states that, "the capacity; and also with an adequate cascade concept is an age-old storage and supply of water that concept which had been the linking In the mountainous regions of Sri could meet the needs of several thread of irrigation development Lanka, there are numerous Tun-of- Economic Review: April/ May 2010 river' systems known as amunas the more reliable water Figure 2: Anicuts in Sri Lanka (anicuts). In a path-finding study supply that obtains in the of the anicut system of the Upper anicut {amuna) system N Walawe River Basin by F. Molle et. enables farmers to A al.,(2003), it is stated "Sri Lanka is achieve a higher cropping Upper Uda Walawe basin U Diatricti famous for the numerous anicuts intensity than in the All anicuts in Sri Lanka and small tanks. However, these small village tanks of the tanks occupy only one part of the dry zone which have a less island (namely, the dry zone). The reliable water supply as anicuts also constitute a very well as a comparatively prominent feature of water use in lower endowment of water. the island as could be seen in It is also observed that accompanying Figure 2 of this text. approximately 80 per cent This Figure prepared by Molle et al of the anicuts are located is best compared with Figure 1, of in the districts of Badulla, Page 3 of Panabokke's ' Small Kandy, Ratnapura and Village Tank Distribution in the Nuwara Eliya with the Source: Department of Agrarian Services Dry Zone (2009). Badulla District having a total of approximately 3,600 anicuts The most reliable statistics in the seventeenth century, L.S. and Kandy 1,500, Ratnapura 1,400 available to date in respect of Dewaraja (1995) states,. " The and Nuwara Eliya 1,100 village irrigation systems, both economy of the Kandyan kingdom respectively. By comparing the was a purely agrarian one, small village tanks, as well as distribution pattern of the anicuts dependant on the successful small anicuts (amunas) is that against the Agro-Ecological Regions cultivation of paddy. In the Kandyan provided by the Village Irrigation (AER) of Sri Lanka, it could also be areas the steep mountain slopes Survey 2002' published by the observed that the highest density were terraced or cut into steps Department of Agrarian Services. of small anicut systems are located three to eight feet wide, and the The results of this survey have been within the mid- and up-country water collected, regulated and published in a set of 25 volumes, Intermediate Zones of the Badulla, skilfully distributed from summit to representing each of the 25 Nuwara Eliya and Kandy Districts foot, a technique that has been administrative districts covered in all of which constitute the former preserved unchanged to this day." the survey. The key findings from Kandy an kingdom. It is also stated that all paddy this survey are given in Table 1. lands in the kingdom were subject Based on his study of the Upper to compulsory services, both Although the total number of anicut Walawe Basin, Molle (2003) military and otherwise, during the systems (12,950) is nearly the same concludes that, " the upper reigns of the former rulers. as the total number of small tanks catchment of the Walawe Basin had (11,261), the total command area of been the site of many early human What is of special importance of all anicuts put together (250,000) settlements, and kingdoms centred these anicut systems of the is only about half the total around cities such as Balangoda or Kandyan kingdom is their great command area (547,000 ) of the Kaltota which developed from the durability and sustainability over small tanks put together as shown second century B.C. to the fifteenth the past centuries up to present in Table 1 below. century A.D. The region then times. It is this durability and declined and it was sparsely stability that enabled the rulers of Despite this, however, the total populated when the British number of farm families benefiting established tea cultivation in the the Kandyan kingdom, notably from the anicuts {amunas) is nearly area. Rajasinghe II (Deveni Rajasinghe) the same as the number benefiting to engage in battle and drive out from small village tanks. Moreover, Writing on the social and economic the Portuguese and the Hollanders. as could be seen in the Table 1, conditions in the Kandyan kingdom Unlike the village tanks in the dry zone which could be easily breached and destroyed by the invading Table 1: Number of small tanks and anicuts, and their command armies, the anicut systems of the areas and number of farm families benefiting Hill Country were quite robust, and Type of Irrigation Total number Command Area Number of farmer could not be easily damaged and (acres) Families rendered non-functional, especially Small Tanks 11,261 547,000 334,000 those located within the inland Anicuts (Amunas) 12,950 250,000 349,000 valley systems and the terraced Source: Department of Agrarian Services, 2002. slopes of the landscape. At worst,

Economic Review: April/ May 2010 the enemy could only destroy the Deraniyagala, S.U. (1992). Pre and Panabokke, CR. (2009). Small Village standing crop at the harvesting Post Historic Settlement in Sri Lanka, Tank Systems of Sri Lanka, stage as carried out by the Economic Review, 1997. Vol 23. HARTI.P85 retreating Portuguese armies and Devaraja, Lorna, S. (1995). The Panabokke, CR. (2007). Groundwater later by the British in the aftermath Kandyan Kingdom, Vol. 11 U.O.P Conditions in Sri Lanka, National. of the Vva Rebellion. . Science Foundation.P150. Davy, John (1821). An Account of the Parker, Henry (1909). Ancient Ceylon John Davy (1821), in his " Account Interior of Ceylon,.Reprint. 1969 Luzgoc, London. of the Interior of Ceylon' compiled Geiger, W. (1912). The Dipawamsa Perera, L.S. (1960) Univ. Ceylon almost 200 years ago states that, and Mahawamsa, Govt. Printer, Review. P103. *in no part of the world is Colombo. agriculture more respected or more Randhawa, M.S. (1982). A History of followed than in the interior of Geiger, W. (1927). Pali Literature and Agriculture in India, I.C.A.R. New Language. Calcutta Delhi. Ceylon (referring to the Kandyan kingdom) where rice cultivation is Hutchinson, J.B. (1962). The Seneviratne, S. (2004). G.C. Mendis carried out with utmost, care and Classification of Cotton in Asia and Memorial Lecture, Problems ofCeylon attention." Taken together with Africa. World crops. O.U.P. History. PI-23 Robert Knox's (1681) very detailed levers," R.W. (1899) Manual of the Siriwera, W.I. (2004). History of Sri and accurate description of the North Central Province, Govt. Printer Lanka, Pre,History and Proto-History. various stages of rice cultivation in Colombo. Jayakody. the Kandyan kingdom, there is but Jayawardena, Rukshan (1997). Somasiri, S. and Panabokke, CR. little doubt that rice (paddy) Ancient Irrigation and Early Historic, (1968). S.L Ass. Advmt. Sci Annual cultivation under these small Sri Lanka. Economic Review, Vol 23. Session. anicut systems would have Knox, Robert (1681). A Historic Somadeva, Raj (1997). Economy in constituted the central core of the Relation of Ceylon. Reprint. 1958 Early Sri Lanka, Economic Review Kandyan culture as well as its Vol. 23, People's Bank. distinctive civilisation which had Malalasekera (1928). The Pali helpd it to ^endure against repeated Literature ofCeylon. Royal Asiatic Soc. Tennakoon, M.U.A. (1994). Cascade or EUangawa. (Sinhala Original) hostilities. Mendis, G.C. (1965). Problems of Ceylon History. Colombo Apothecaries Tennakoon. M.U.A. (2002) Evolution References: Co. of Small Tank System' in Food Security and Small Tank System , National Brohier, R.L. (1975). Pood and the Madduma Bandara, CM. (1985). Science Council. People, Lake House Publication. Catchment Ecosystems and Village Tank Cascades. Redel Pabe. Tennakoon. M.U.A.(2005). EUangawa Bandaranayake, Senaka (2000). (Sinhala Original) S.Godage and Sons. Settlement Patterns of Proto-historic Molle, F. et al. (2003). Anicut Systems Colombo 10. Sri Lanka. in Sri Lanka, IWMI, Working Paper No. 61. Velayuthan, M. (1999). Agro- Deraniyagala, S.U. (1992). The Pre- . Ecological Regions of India, I.C.A.R., History of Sri Lanka Vol. 1 8s 2. Arch. Nicholas C.W. (1959) History of Nagpur, India. _ Dept. Colombo Ceylon. Vol. 1 Ch.6. U.O.P.

J3) :

? /

1 SLUICE-VERTICALS PIPES A. OUTLET PIPE COLLARS 1. Mm(BUWr'CU(Yl«3ff ~J-•'-^-i WSTTOW SLOPE OF ftJNO 2. AUOUSWA (BURNT CLAY JUNCTION SLOCK) 6. BUNQ OF WEWA 2. JUNCTION BLOCK 9 SILL LEVEL OF SLUICE 3 ME7/-8A« [BURNT CLW OUtLEI PIPES) 7. FULL SUPPLY LEVEL 4 Cl/YOUTLEI T 1 " 6 SILL LEVEL OF SLUICE 3, SLUCE-OUTLET PIPES 10 FULL SUPPLY LEVEL r PIPE SURR0UW Main Feature of Haiti Horowwa Main Feature of Siras-keta Horowwa (Inlet side)

(Panabokke, C.R.(2009), Small Village Tank Systems of Sri Lanka: Their Evolution, Setting, Distribution and Essential Functions. HARTt, Colombo See page 79 to 81)

— Economic Review: April/ May 2010