Funday Times

A series by Gaveshaka in association with Studio Times
Ingenuity on the part of the ancient Sinhalese
From monasteries, dagobas, palaces and citadels let us move on to other man made unique structures in the ancient times. These have been made out of stone and remain intact to this day.

During the time of the Sinhalese kings, royal patronage was given to all activities connected with Buddhism. They accepted that it was their duty to feed the monks and look after their needs. Royal alms halls were a common sight in the palace complex. Alms halls were also erected at the leading monasteries too.

The Mahapali alms hall in Anuradhapura is attributed to King Devanampiyatissa (250 -210 B.C) during whose reign Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka by Arahant Mahinda. An inscription found nearby establishes that it was built by the king. Only some stone pillars are seen on the site today. A long stone trough has been found near the site. It is 23 feet 10 inches long with the outside length measuring 27 feet 6 inches. This is referred to as ‘gal neva’ or stone boat. In common parlance it is a ‘bath oruva’ meant to serve rice.

“By the side of the king’s palace, there is built a large kitchen in which daily is measured out food for eight thousand priests”. This is how a monk had described the alms hall to the Chinese traveler monk, Huen-Tsang. Well known Chinese Buddhist monk, Fa-Hsein has recorded that the king supplied five or six thousand persons within the city with food in common. “When any want they take their great bowls and go to the place of distribution and take as much as the vessels will hold, all returning with them full,” he wrote.

Historians believe that the monks would have lined up to receive the alms. As is the custom today when alms are offered to the monks, they queue up irrespective of seniority on a first come first served basis. When they sit to receive alms, of course, seniority counts and the monks sit accordingly.

Stone bridges
According to historians, a wide network of roads had existed in the old days. There is mention of constant movement of people from one area to another. One of the earliest main roads has joined the royal capital of Anuradhapura with Jambukolapattana, a port in the northern tip of the Jaffna Peninsula. On the road a bridge had been built across the Malvatu Oya. At the two ends of the bridge, stone posts had been fixed in rocks on the bed of the river. While the road passed below the embankment of a reservoir, another bridge had been built at the spot where the water was discharged from the reservoir. This bridge had stone beams laid on stone posts.

There is evidence to prove that there were at least seven stone bridges across Malvatu Oya. A stone bridge off Padaviya on the road to Jaffna is possibly the longest of the stone bridges. It is 730 feet long 30 feet wide. Some of the stone bridges are now on land with the rivers changing course over a period of time.

Professor W.I. Suraweera refers to three kinds of bridges. One was the ‘edanda’ where a single or double tree trunk or log was laid passing from one bank of a stream to the other. These are found in remote villages even today and people use them to get about in the area. They walk single file since the space is limited.

Then there were bridges, which could be used by four or five people walking abreast. The third type was a bridge built to take carts across. These would have been wide where carts could pass easily. They had been built using stone. Remnants of these can still be seen and they are commonly referred to as ‘gal paalam.’

The fact that elephants were used extensively for work obviously made it necessary for the bridges to be strong enough to carry their weight. Particularly during the time of war, the swift movement of armies made it necessary to have bridges across rivers. Mention is made of a long solid bridge being built by an army commander of Parakramabahu I (1153-86), thirty feet broad across the Kala Oya passable by elephants, horses and carriages drawn by horses.

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