Illustration 2.5. This is an imaginary drawing of an ancient village in Sri Lanka. Living mutually with nature and the simplic-
ity that was found in people’s life style as a result of that are prominent features of the rural life.around 35000 in the ancient ‘Magama’ city and
the adjacent urban settlements. Literary sources
say that some villages were protected by a fence.
Those villages were called ‘Parikkitta Gam’.
The villages which did not have such type of a
protection were called ‘Aparikkita Gam’.To introduce vast urban settlements the name
‘Pura (city)’ was used. There is a title called ‘ Pura
Kamatha’ mentioned in a Brahmi inscription
written in a distant time such as in 250 B.C. It
referred to the main architect in the city. The
word ‘ Nurupura’ was written in the Panakaduwa
copper plate which belonged to the period of
King Vijayabahu I (1055-1110 A.D.) to introduce
Anuradhapura.The most ancient inscriptions in this countryIt is difficult to come to a definite conclusion on
the size of the ancient settlements. It was based
on the abundance of natural resources prevailed
in various geographical areas. But, according
to the evidence found in the archaeological
research carried out so far, a small scale village
was normally not more than 0.15 hectares.
A medium scale rural settlement was about
2 hectares in size whereas a large scale urban
settlement was more than 2 hectares.
Normally there lived 5 or 6 families in a village.
Literary sources say that around 30 families
lived in some large scale villages. This situation
was completely different in urban settlements.
It has approximately been calculated that by
the 6th century A.D. there was a population