Highway System in Ancient Sri LankaP Vidanapathirana
Dr.(Mrs.) P. Vidanapathirana
Historical information about the ancient road network of Sri Lankais restricted to random records encountered in historical documents and also to information recorded as a result of research carried out during the British administration. This study is based on a recent research conducted with special attention towards the technical aspects of the ancient road system and it’s expansion over the island. An attempt is also made to reconstruct the road system that existed from thethird century BC up to 13th century AD. Modern research techniques are applied in identifying technical aspects and the expansion of the road system under discussion.
Political stability, strength of the ruling power, economic prosperity and the establishment, and the spread of religious institutions contributed to the sustainabulity and expansion of a developed road network during the period. Technical know-how and the expertise that had been applied and made use of in constructing road system in contemporary South Asian countries could be identified within the national road network in ancient Sri Lanka too. Geographically country being an island it had maintained a close relationship with several international sea routs hence asd and infrastructural facility, a road network connecting cities and urban areas to places inwards had developed. Furthermore island had maintained a close relationship with long distance sea routs that facilitated the international trade. That helped the existence of a systematic road network expanding towards regions and peripheries from the main cities.
Keywords: roads, infrastructure, transport technology, maintenance, reconstruction
Highway system in Sri Lanka: Method of study
Archaeological data has to be gathered on a national as well as on a provincial basis. This data may include ruins of neglected road patches of long established ancient road ways as well as stone and wooden bridges, ambalamas or wayside resting pleases, gavukanu or stone wayside pillars (to guide travellers about directions and distances, gavukanu were fixed at 4 mile distances), road junctions, ferries, rural settlements, monastery sites and geographical distribution of tanks. Thus framework regarding the basic principles carried out in the construction of a national and provincial road system could be established by comparing recorded historical data with already available ruins pertaining to road network that existed in the past. Such comparison may reveal features and the mode of construction of a national and provincial road system in the country (Vidanapathirana, 2012, 2016). Identification of such a framework will also express the development of contemporary social and cultural progress along with the political and economic stability of the country during the period. It is also necessary to understand various fluctuations and changers that occurred with respect to road contrition due to political and economic instabilities.
A well-organised road system in a country reflects the political stability economic strength and social as well as cultural development during a certain period of time. Above factors enable us to map out clearly the special distribution of boundaries contemporary urban, provincial and outlying areas. In the study special attention will be focussed on six main roads leading toward six directions from the main city of Anuradhpura during the Anuradhapura period (Vidanapathirana 2012). Along with political stability of Asokan Empire the Royal Highway stating from the city of Pataleputta wound up to Pesarwar (Purushupura) and Takhasila in the eastern boulder of Decan, covering three thousand miles to join the Silk Road (Needhum,1971; Hendrickson, 2010). Construction of such a high way is concurrent with the power and strength of the powerful ruler Emperor Asoka. Modern concept that a systematically constructed well maintained road network reflects the prosperity and developed of such a state is further strengthened by studies carried out on the