Illustration 5.1. A drawing made by an artist to show the way the ancient Devalaya, which was found in Galpaya, must have
existed at its early stages.They used the measurements such as, Kiriya,
Amuna, Karisaya, Pela. A field of one Karisa
means a place where one Karisa of paddy can
be sown. One Karisa is equal to four Amunas.
One Amuna is equal to two acres field. Having
a multiple link in measurements in this way is
an advanced mathematical feature. The fact
that should be taken into consideration here is
that to measure the space the ancient people of
this country had used units which are used to
measure the volume. Look at the cycle given
b e l ow.
Laha 40 = Pela 1
Pela 12 = Kuruni 12
Kuruni 44 = Amunu 1
Amunu 1 = Karisa 0.25
There is a description of a land which has
a reference that one Karisa was offered to a
Stupa built in that area, in an inscription, got
written by king Bathikabhaya, found in a place
called Dunumadalakanda in the Anuradhapura
district. An inscription, which was established
by King Kootatakannabhaya, found in the area
named Horiwila in Anuradhapura, says that
a plot of land of eight Karisa was offered to a
temple named Tissa in that area.There was a methodical system of measurements
to measure the length in the ancient time. The
smallest one of that was the atom. It was a small
one. To measure short distances, there were
measurements such as Angulaya and Viyatha. A