36 The first of these major tanks was tbought to haw been constructed in 504 B.C. (Sir James Emerson Tennent, Ceylon. 1859, Vol. 1, p. 367). A few examples, straddling IS centuries. were:
| - | the Vavumk-kulam (3rd C, B.C.) (1,97S acres water surface, 596 million cubic feet water capacity), the Pavatkulam (3rd or 2nd C, B.C.) (2,029 acres water surface, 770 million cubic feet water capacity) - Parker, Ancient Ceylon 1909, DD. 363. 373 |
| - | the Tissawewa (3rd C, B.C.); and the Nuwarawewa (3rd C, B.C.), both still in service and still supplying water to the ancient capital Anuradhapura, which is now a provincial capital; |
| - | the Minneriya tank (275 A.D.) "The reservoir upwards of twenty miles in circumference ... the great embankment remains nearly perfect" - Tennent, supra Vol. 11, p. 600; |
| - | the Topawewa (4th C, A.D.), area considerably in excess of 1,000 acres; |
| - | the Kalawewa (Sth C, A.D.) - embankment 3.25 miles long, rising to a height of 40 feet, tapping the river Kala Oya and supplying water to the capital Anuradhapura through a canal 50 miles in length; |
| - | the Yodawewa (5th C, A.D.). Needham describes this as "A most grandiose conception ... the culmination of Ceylonese hydraulics ... an artificial lake with a six-and-a-half mile embankment on three sides of a square, sited on a sloping plain and not in a river valley at all." It was fed by a 50-mile canal from the river Malvatu-Oya; |
| - | the Parakrama Samudra (Sea of Parakraina) (I Ith C, A.D.), embankment 9 miles long, up to 40 feet high, enclosing 6,000 acres of water area. (Brohier, Ancient Irrtgation Works in Ceylon, 1934, p. 9.) |