-| Anuradhapuram Tour | -
From
written records , Anuradhapura was made the royal capital by the king Panduk-Anhaya
in the 380 BC. It remained residence and royal capital for 119 successive Sinhalese
kings till the year 1000 AD when it was abandoned and the capital was moved
to Polonnaruwa . In the 3rd century BC the missionary Mahenda, son of the North-Indian
emperor Ashoka brought the teachings of the Buddha to Anuradhapura , which has
to this day influenced Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the form of the Theravada school.
After the conversion of the kingdom to Buddhism, an extraordinary age of the
cultural ascendancy and common wealth started.
As a Buddhist stronghold Anuradhapura became famous and was honored far across
the region, as result there were innumerable processions of the pilgrims to
the holy city. The reason of all these pilgrims for coming was the presence
of the holy Bodhi tree , which was grown from the branch of the very tree under
which the Lord Buddha got enlightment , as well as to visit the Thuparama dagoba
which contains as a relic the collarbone from the Lord Buddha.
The historical chronicles , like the Mahavamsa written by the monks , give us
a complete and unbroken documentation of the rise and fall of the Sinhalese
(Buddhist ) Kingdom. The economic basis for the rise and the dominant role of
the city were many tanks and channels, which wise rulers have built and became
a blessing for the rice cultivation and production.
At its Zenith the city's area was as large as Paris today with a population
of more than half a million. At the boundaries of the old holy city, still venerated
today , lays the new district town with only a population left of 40,000 , a
mere shadow of the old mother. Unfortunately the old monuments are not in a
state of good preservation, as they were covered by thick jungle of many centuries
and this has had a devastating effect. The old Anuradhapura of today is scattered
with erected stone pillars, remains of walls from palaces, monasteries, and
temples etc, and between old trees imposing dagobas rise majestically into the
sky.
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