For the tillage of the lands with which the temples were so largely endowed in all quarters of the island, the sacred communities had assigned to them certain villages, a portion of whose labour was the property of the wihara[1]:  slaves were also appropriated to them, and an instance is mentioned in the fifth century[2], of the inhabitants of a low-caste village having been bestowed on a monastery by the king Aggrabodhi, “in order that the priests might derive their service as slaves."[3] Sharing in a prerogative of royalty, some of the temples had, moreover, a right to the compulsory labour of the community; and in one of the inscriptions carved on the rock at Mihintala, the “Raja-kariya writer” is enumerated in the list of temple officers.[4] The temple lands were occasionally let to tenants whose rent was paid either in “land-fees,” or in kind.[5]

[Footnote 1:  Ibid., ch. xxxvii. p. 247.]

[Footnote 2:  Rock inscriptions at Mihintala and at Dambool.]

[Footnote 3:  Mahawanso ch, xlii.  TURNOUR, MS. translation.]

[Footnote 4:  TURNOUR’S Epitome, Appendix, p. 88.]

[Footnote 5:  Ibid pp. 86, 87.]

Farm-stock.—­The only farm-stock which appears to have been kept for tillage purposes, were buffaloes, which, then as now, were used in treading the soft mud of the irrigated rice-fields, preparatory to casting in the seed.  Cows are alluded to in the Mahawanso, but never in connection with labour; and although butter is spoken of, it is only that of the buffalo.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xxvii p. 163.]

Gardens.—­Probably the earliest enclosures attempted in a state of incipient civilisation, were gardens for the exclusion of wild animals from fruit trees and vegetables, when these were first cultivated for the use of man; and to the present day, the frequent occurrence of the termination “watte” in the names of places on the map of Ceylon, is in itself an indication of the importance attached to them by the villagers.  The term “garden,” however, conveys to an European but an imperfect idea of the character and style of these places; which in Ceylon are so similar to the native gardens in the south of India, as to suggest a community of origin.  Their leading features are lines of the graceful areca palms, groves of oranges, limes, jak-trees, and bread fruit; and irregular clumps of palmyras and coconuts.  Beneath these, there is a minor growth, sometimes of cinnamon or coffee bushes; and always a wilderness of plaintains, guavas and papaws; a few of the commoner flowers; plots of brinjals (egg plants) and other esculents; and the stems of the standard trees are festooned with climbers, pepper vines, tomatas, and betel.

The Coco-nut Palm.—­It is curious and suggestive as regards the coco-nut, which now enters so largely into the domestic economy of the Singhalese, that although it is sometimes spoken of in the Mahawanso (but by no means so often as the palmyra), no allusion is ever made to it as an article of diet, or an element in the preparation of food, nor is it mentioned, before the reign of Prakrama I., A.D. 1153[1], in the list of those fruit-trees, the planting of which throughout the island is repeatedly recorded, as amongst the munificent acts of the Singhalese kings.