Vavunikulama Reservoir
Vavunikulama Tank is located about 40 km's north-west to Vavunia town.
The only reference to this tank is during the King Dutugemunu's period
where he found four large gem stones by the tank
In a northerly direction from the city, at a distance of seven yojanas,
in a cave opening on the Pelivapikagama tank, above on the sand, four
splendid gems had formed in size like to a small mill-stone, in colour
like flax-flowers, (radiantly) beautiful. When a hunter with his dogs
saw these he came to the king and told him: `I have seen precious stones
of such and such a kind.'
H. Parker How was a irrigation engineer in late 1800's
believes the original name of this tank is Peli Vapi and according to
him as 'the name, the distance from the city, and the reference to
a stream with sand-banks render the identification certain, there being
no other reservoir on the river, and no other stream with sandbanks at
that distance north of Anuradhapura'.
Source : H. Parker - Ancient Ceylon (1909)
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He also believes that this tank was built in the 3rd centaury
BC as King Dutugemunu reigned in 161-131 BC and before that the Anuradhapura
Kingdom was run by a Tamil invader named Elara who ruled between 205-161
BC. Therefore this tank would have been built before the time of Elara.
According to his report when the reservoir was full the water
covered an extent of 1975 acres, and the tank then had a capacity of 596
million cubic feet. The embankment is 13,350 feet or 2.5 miles (4 km) long.
The embankment is built in a straight line across the river for 2.5 km
and then it curves outward to encompass a another shallow valley. Based
on the flood escape the hight of water would have been 18 feet and the
crest is 8 feet higher than the flood escape.
Map
Created : January 10, 2009
Updated :
January 14, 2009
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