Historical Guide To Anuradhapura’s Ruins

On author?s first visit to Anuradhapura some years ago, when he tried to learn something about the history of these sacred ruins, the general lack of knowledge about them surprised him. He found that what the local residents knew was limited to legends, while the learned priests, perhaps owing to a want of time for a detailed study, had a weakness to fix names from the Mahawansa onto these ruined structures, with little facts to support them. The licensed guides were generally more loquacious than accurate, and the usual kind of good books merely touched the fringe of the subject. This small and very informative work is a collection of observations and study that the author made during seven excursions to this ruins. The chapters note the Bo tree, the Tuparama monastery, the Uposatha ruins, Dakkina dagaba, Tisa Wewa, Jetavanarama, the tooth relic, Elara?s tomb, rock house monastery, Abhayagiri, Kiribat Vehara, Nuwerab Wewa, the great cemetery, Mihintale, Ambasthale, Kalu Diya Pokuns, etc. There are 12 photographs and a map of Anuradhapura?s ruins in this work. The author ventures to hope that this small book will supply the long felt need for a complete and popular work on the ruins of Anraradhapura. It was first published in 1939.