Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c9.28

c9.28

We have seen that less than four per cent. of the Kandyan population now belong to the artificers’ caste. But in the census report, on which this estimate is based, statistics are given of occupation, and not of caste; for in this social institution, Government affects a blindness which in actual administration it cannot maintain.* The number of persons belonging to the craftsman castes greatly exceeds the number of those still practising their craft, so that we may suppose that quite as many as ten per cent. of the population in the eighteenth century, consisted of craftsmen and their dependents. Of these, not more than half can have been *navandannō* (p. 54), the superior artificers which alone are spoken of in the present chapter. It is necessary to say a few words as to their origin.