a river and the formation of suitable canals, were
appropriated to the maintenance of the local priesthood[3]; a tank and
the thousands of acres which it fertilised were sometimes assigned for
the perpetual repairs of a dagoba[4], and the revenues of whole villages
and their surrounding rice fields were devoted to the support of a
single wihara.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 41, 45, 54, 55; King Saidaitissa B.C.
137, made "eighteen lakes" (_Rajavali_, p. 233). King Wasabha, who
ascended the throne A.D. 62, "caused sixteen large lakes to be enclosed"
(_Rajaratnacari_, p. 57). Detu Tissa, A.D. 253, excavated six
(_Rajavali_, p. 237), and King Maha Sen, A.D. 275, seventeen
(_Mahawanso_, ch, xxxviii. p. 236).]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch, xxxvii. p. 242.]

[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiv. p. 210; xxxv. p. 221; xxxviii. p.
237, _Rajaratnacari_, ch. ii. p. 57, 59, 64, 69, 74.]

[Footnote 4: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxv. p. 215, 218, 223; ch. xxxvii. p.
234; _Rajaratnacari_, ch. ii. p. 51. TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 21.]

[Footnote 5: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxv. p. 218, 221; _Rajaratnacari_, ch.
ii. p. 51; _Rajaviai_, p. 241.]

So lavish were these endowments, that one king, who signalised his reign
by such extravagances as laying a carpet seven miles in length, "in
order that pilgrims might proceed with unsoiled feet all the way from
the Kadambo river (the Malwatte oya) to the mountain Chetiyo
(Mihintala)," awarded a priest who had presented him with a draught of
water during the construction of a wihara, "land within the
circumference of half a yoyana (eight miles) for the maintenance of the
temple."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiv, p. 3.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]

It was in this manner that the beautiful tank at Mineri, one of the most
lovely of these artificial lakes, was enclosed by Maha Sen, A.D. 275;
and, together with the 80,000 amonams of ground which it waters, was
conferred on the Jeytawana Wihara which the king had just erected at
Anarajapoora.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, ch. ii. p. 69.]

To identify the crown still more closely with the interests of
agriculture, some of the kings superintended public works for irrigating
the lands of the temples[1]; and one more enthusiastic than the rest
toiled in the rice fields to enhance the merit of conferring their
produce on the priesthood.[2]

[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 33.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxiv. The Buddhist kings of B