Illustration 6.1 Sri Lankan kings got the things such as money given to the temples and information relevant to the law
written on rocks. It meant the long lasting feature of those writing.
to the government officers of higher ranks and
they informed them to the king.
Slaves were at the lowest level of the society. Their
duty was to be engaged in various activities. They
did not have the freedom, which was enjoyed
by the others in the society. There were two
types of slaves those days. One group of them
were slaves from lineage. They were named as
‘Anwayathadasa’. There were mercenary slaves
too those days. The term ‘Dhanankeethadasa’
was used to name them.
The king did the things which were needed to
maintain better relationships and protect the
welfare of each group in this social organization.
Our intelligent kings had known that a society
could be protected from disruption by protecting
the bonds between each and every institution.
At present the term social cohesion is used to
describe this concept. Therefore, they always
tried to rule the country righteously.6.2 Law and Tradition
The common principles formed by a society are
very important to run a society. Those common
principles later become the law. The principles
which are formed by a society are of two types.
Some of them are systems of written laws. Other
social acceptances are traditional.The law and tradition control the anti-social
behaviours of people for the benefit of the
society. To protect the goodness of the society
our intelligent rulers acted in accordance with
law and tradition from ancient time.