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

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

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

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

[Footnote 1: Kuweni distributed to the companions of Wijayo; "rice and
other articles, _procured from the wrecked ships of mariners_."
(_Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 49.) A tank is mentioned as then existing near
the residence of Kuweni; but it was only to be used as a bath. (Ib. c.
vii. p. 48.) The _Rajaratnacari_ also mentions that, in the fabulous age
of the second Buddha, of the present Kalpa, there was a famine in
Ceylon, which dried up the cisterns and fountains of the inland. But
there is no evidence of the existence of systematic tillage anterior to
the reign of Wijayo.]

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

[Sidenote: B.C. 504.]

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

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

[Footnote 2: The first tank recorded in Ceylon is the Abayaweva, made by
Panduwasa, B.C. 505 (_Mahawanso_, ch. ix. p. 57). The second was the
Jayaweva, formed by Pandukabhaya, B.C. 437. (Ib. ch. x. p. 65.) The
_third_, the Gamini