Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c13.43

c13.43

*Fortifica-tions* Forts and fortifications were few or none, the Kandyans trusting rather to the woods and hills as their natural protection. But watches were kept. The guard-house (*mura-gē*) at the top of Malabar Street, in Kandy, a small house covered with flat tiles, still remains. There were also certain *kaḍavat* or guarded entrances to the inner circle of the Kandyan kingdom, as at Ambuluva, where part of a wall still remains. In the Jud. Com. Diary for 6th October, 1819, there is a notice that a man in the last king’s reign was sent to Moragammana to teach the people there how to pound rice for the king, according to a new method, and on returning, found the gravets at Ambuluva shut (Lawrie’s Gazetteer, p. 43).