did that happen?
In about 900 B.C. the settlements spread in the
dry zone mainly around small tanks. These tanks
received water from rain. Normally, the water
in those tanks was enough for 10 or 15 families
who lived in a village for their day-to-day needs
for a short time period. In annual dry seasons
the water in those tanks ran dry. We can say that
the people might have faced difficulties in such
times by the experiences faced at present by the
people of the dry zone.
The problem of not having adequate rain water
collected in the tanks arose not only due to the
dry climatic condition. With the passing of time
more water was needed due to the increase of
population in villages. Since they had to cultivate
more lands in order to produce more food for
the increasing population, collecting more water
Fig. 3.1. The Ibbankatuwa burial ground (cemetery) in Dambulla was used between 700 and 450 B.C. The burial grounds
like these were used by the influential people like the Parumakas.
was essential for them. Our ancient villagers,
who faced such difficulties a number of times,
followed a successful method to address those
challenges: they constructed a system of tanks
by connecting a few tanks, which existed closely,
through canals. There were two objectives in it; the
first one was conserving water by carrying water
to a tank situated below from a tank situated up
when it overflowed during the rainy season; the
second was increasing the dampness of either side
of the land of a canal by sending water constantly
through the canal between the two tanks. They
were able to cultivate crops easily by increasing
the dampness in such a manner. Even today the
ruins of such tank systems could be seen in the dry
zone. The word ‘prolapsed tanks’ is used to name
such kind of a tank system. People in the dry zone
call it ‘Ellangawa’. The origin of tank – systems was
not merely a process of connecting a few tanks;