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Sri Lanka’s Tank Cascade System
The tank cascade system, or ''wewa-ellangava'' system, is an ancient Sri Lankan irrigation infrastructure. The system is a network of small Pond, tanks draining to large reservoirs that store rainwater and surface runoff for later use. Originating in the 1st millennium BCE, the system was designated a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2017. Centralized bureaucratic management of large-scale systems was implemented from the 3rd to the 13th centuries. Geography The tank cascade system is largely located in the semi-arid north-central section of the island, which experiences equatorial heat, limited freshwater, and erratic rainfall patterns. Minimal groundwater storage capacity, high evaporation, and low or variable precipitation thanks to the monsoon cycle "in this hard rock region meant that no stable human settlement would have been possible without recourse to the storage of surface water in small tanks. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sri Lanka Tank
Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in languages of South Asia, South and classification schemes for Southeast Asian languages, Southeast Asian languages such as Marathi, Malay language, Malay (including Indonesian language, Indonesian and Malaysian language, Malaysian), Javanese language, Javanese, Balinese language, Balinese, Sinhala language, Sinhala, Thai language, Thai, Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu language, Telugu, Hindi language, Hindi, Nepali language, Nepali, Malayalam language, Malayalam, Kannada language, Kannada, Sanskrit, Pali, Khmer language, Khmer, and also among Philippine languages. It is usually transliterated as ''Sri'', ''Sree'', ''Shri'', Shiri, Shree, ''Si'', or ''Seri'' based on the local convention for transliteration. The term is used in Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia as a polite form of address equivalent to the English "Mr." in written and spoken l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spillway
A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure that water does not damage parts of the structure not designed to convey water. Spillways can include floodgates and fuse plugs to regulate water flow and reservoir level. Such features enable a spillway to regulate downstream flow—by releasing water in a controlled manner before the reservoir is full, operators can prevent an unacceptably large release later. Other uses of the term "spillway" include bypasses of dams and outlets of channels used during high water, and outlet channels carved through natural dams such as moraines. Water normally flows over a spillway only during flood periods, when the reservoir has reached its capacity and water continues entering faster than it can be released. In contrast, an intake tower is a structure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura ( si, අනුරාධපුරය, translit=Anurādhapuraya; ta, அனுராதபுரம், translit=Aṉurātapuram) is a major city located in north central plain of Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of North Central Province, Sri Lanka and the capital of Anuradhapura District. The city lies north of the current capital of Colombo in the North Central Province, on the banks of the historic Malvathu River. The city is now a World Heritage Site famous for its well-preserved ruins of the ancient Sinhalese civilization. While Mahavamsa place the founding of the city in 437 BCE, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement on the island for almost three millennia and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Asia. It is the cradle of the Hydraulic Sinhalese civilization, Theravada Buddhism, and the longest-serving ancient capital of Sri Lanka that has survived for 1500 years. Moreover, It was the first capit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abhayavapi
Abhaya Wewa (Sinhalese: ), historically Abhayavapi (Sinhalese: ) or Bassawak reservoir, is a reservoir in Sri Lanka, built by King Pandukabhaya who ruled in Anuradhapura from 437 BC to 367 BC, after constructing the city. It was constructed in 380 BC. The dam of the reservoir is 10 m high. The water of the reservoir is also accumulated in the Giritale and Kantalai. Currently, the reservoir is about 255 acres. The embankment of the reservoir is about 5910 feet long and 22 feet high above the sill level of the sluice. Size area is ; the length of the ''Waw Kandiya'' (Sinhalese: English: embankment Embankment may refer to: Geology and geography * A levee, an artificial bank raised above the immediately surrounding land to redirect or prevent flooding by a river, lake or sea * Embankment (earthworks), a raised bank to carry a road, railwa ...) is and height is . The width of the top of the embankment is to . Purpose Built inside the ancient Anuradhapura, it supplied wat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nachchaduwa Wewa (Nachchaduwa Tank)
Nachchaduwa wewa (Also known as Mahadaragala Reservoir) is a reservoir near Thammannakulama, Sri Lanka. The reservoir is used to store water brings from Kala Wewa through Yoda Ela channel. The reservoir was severely damaged in 1957 flood and the restoration of the tank was completed in 1958. History This tank is believed to be one of the sixteen large reservoirs built by King Mahasen Mahasena, also known in some records as Mahasen, was a king of Sri Lanka who ruled the country from 277 to 304 CE. He started the construction of large tanks or reservoirs in Sri Lanka, and built sixteen such tanks. After becoming king, Mahasena ... (277 – 304). It is said that he built this tank to supply water to the city and to safeguard the city from floods. However the chronicle Mahavamsa have made a reference to this reservoir during the time of King Moggallana II (540 - 560). References Reservoirs in Sri Lanka Lakes of Sri Lanka {{SriLanka-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polonnaruwa Kingdom
The Kingdom of Polonnaruwa ( si, පොළොන්නරුව රාජධානිය, Polonnaruwa Rājādhaniya) was the Sinhalese kingdom that expanded across the island of Sri Lanka and several overseas territories, from 1070 until 1232. The kingdom started expanding its overseas authority during the reign of Parakramabahu the Great. It had a stronghold in South India since its involvement in a civil war in the Pandya country. During this war, Pandya Nadu was seized as a province administered by the military of Polonnaruwa. The tributaries of the Chola empire, Tondi and Pasi, also came under its military rule. Rameshwaram was under Sinhalese rule until 1182. Its currency ''Kahapana'' was struck in these provinces. During the occupation of South India, construction works were undertaken. Despite being a kingdom, it had been under the control of its royal military, which captured power twice and remained dominant in politics. Other militaries also had captured power in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anuradhapura Kingdom
The Anuradhapura Kingdom (Sinhala language, Sinhala: , translit: Anurādhapura Rājadhāniya, Tamil language, Tamil: ), named for Anuradhapura, its capital city, was the first established monarchy, kingdom in ancient Sri Lanka related to the Sinhalese people. Founded by King Pandukabhaya in 437 BC, the kingdom's authority extended throughout the country, although several independent areas emerged from time to time which expanded towards the end of the kingdom. Nonetheless, the king of Anuradhapura was seen as the supreme ruler of the entire island throughout the Anuradhapura period. Buddhism played a major role in the Anuradhapura period, influencing its culture, laws, and methods of governance.Buddhism was such an important factor in this period that , p.196 asserts, "The island of Lanka belonged to the Buddha himself; it was like a treasury filled with the Three Jewels, three gems". The society and the culture were revolutionized when the faith was introduced during the rei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahāvaṃsa
The ''Mahāvaṃsa'' (, Sinhala: මහාවංශය, Pali: ''මහාවංස (Mahāvaṃsa)'' – written in the 5th century CE) is the meticulously kept historical chronicle of Sri Lanka written in the style of an epic poem written in the Pali language. It relates the history of Sri Lanka from its legendary beginnings up to the reign of Mahasena of Anuradhapura (302 CE) covering the period between the arrival of Prince Vijaya from India in 543 BCE to his reign (277–304 CE) and later updated by different writers. It was composed by a Buddhist monk at the Mahavihara temple in Anuradhapura about the 5th century CE. In 2021, a petition was made to declare the original leaf book a UNESCO heritage. Contents The contents of the ''Mahavamsa'' can be broadly divided into four categories: * The Buddha's Visits to Sri Lanka: This material recounts three legendary visits by the Buddha to the island of Sri Lanka. These stories describe the Buddha subduing or driving away the Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dīpavaṃsa
The ''Dīpavaṃsa'' ( sa, दीपवंस, , "Chronicle of the Island") is the oldest historical record of Sri Lanka. The chronicle is believed to be compiled from Atthakatha and other sources around the 3rd to 4th century CE. Together with the ''Mahāvaṃsa'', it is the source of many accounts of the ancient history of Sri Lanka and India. Its importance resides not only as a source of history and legend but also as an important early work in Buddhist and Pali literature. Contents It is probably authored by several Buddhist monks or nuns of the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya in the 3rd-4th century. The ''Dipavamsa'' was likely the first completely new Pali text composed in Sri Lanka; it was also among the last texts to be composed anonymously. The preamble begins with "Listen! I shall relate the chronicle of the Buddha's visits to the island, the arrival of the Tooth Relic and the Bodhi tree, the advent of the Buddha's doctrine, the rise of the teachers, the spread of Buddhis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indo-Aryan Migrations
The Indo-Aryan migrations were the migrations into the Indian subcontinent of Indo-Aryan peoples, an ethnolinguistic group that spoke Indo-Aryan languages, the predominant languages of today's North India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indo-Aryan population movements into the region from Central Asia are considered to have started after 2000 BCE, as a slow diffusion during the Late Harappan period, which led to a language shift in the northern Indian subcontinent. Several hundred years later, the Iranian languages were brought into the Iranian plateau by the Iranians, who were closely related to the Indo-Aryans. The Proto-Indo-Iranian culture, which gave rise to the Indo-Aryans and Iranians, developed on the Central Asian steppes north of the Caspian Sea as the Sintashta culture (2050Lindner, Stephan, (2020)"Chariots in the Eurasian Steppe: a Bayesian approach to the emergence of horse-drawn transport in the early second millennium BC" in Antiquity, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yaksha
The yakshas ( sa, यक्ष ; pi, yakkha, i=yes) are a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness. They appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, as well as ancient and medieval era temples of South Asia and Southeast Asia as guardian deities. The feminine form of the word is or ''yakshini'' ( sa, यक्षिणी ; Pali:Yakkhini). In Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, the has a dual personality. On the one hand, a may be an inoffensive nature- fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is also a darker version of the , which is a kind of ghost ( bhuta) that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travellers, similar to the . Early yakshas Several monumental yakshas are known from the time of the Maurya Empire period. They are variously dated from around the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century BCE. These statues are monumental ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahiyangana
Mahiyanganaya is a town situated close to the Mahaweli River in Badulla District, Uva Province of Sri Lanka. It is said that Gautama Buddha visited Mahiyanganaya on the Duruthu full moon poya day in order to settle a dispute arose between Yakkas and Nagas (two tribes which then inhabited the area) and this was his first ever visit to Sri Lanka. Then the Buddha preached Dhamma to Sumana Saman, a leader in this area, to whom the Buddha gave a handful of his hair relic so that people could worship. After that Sumana Saman (now the god Sumana Saman) built a golden chethiya in which the sacred hair relic was deposited. Later on about seven chethiyas were built over the original golden chethiya from time to time, the last one being built by the King Dutugemunu. As such, this historic town is a very sacred place for Buddhists. The majority of the people in this area are engaged in paddy cultivation being the main economic activity. The name Mahiyangana is a Pali word (in Sinhalese Bint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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