The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t14.12

c11.t14.12

Equal, if not more, energy and funds were devoted by the civil service of Ceylon to the problem of irrigation. Parâkrama Bâhu I (*c* A. C. 1150) constructed 1470 tanks and 534 canals, and repaired 1395 large with 960 smaller tanks and 3621 canals. Today there is no part of the island, except the central mountain districts, in which the remains of canals and tanks are not to be found. And it appears on close investigation that almost all irrigation-works were links in a chain of large connected systems. There is, therefore, no hyperbole in the statement of Tennant that “excepting the exaggerated dimensions of Lake Moeris in Central Egypt and the mysterious basin of Al-aaram, the bursting of whose embankment devastated the Arabian city of Mareb, no similar constructions formed by any race, whether ancient or modern, exceed in colossal magnitude the stupendous tanks of Ceylon.”¹