The history of Giritale Tank, runs back to the pre-Buddhist era of Sri Lanka, to the reign of king Pandukhabaya (437-367 BC) or even earlier times. Mahavamsa chronicles the sensational events that led to the birth of this prince, woven around the life story of Unmada Chitra, the "Maddening Beauty" born after six uncles.

Tragedy got webbed into her life when a soothsayer predicted that a son born to her would kill the uncles and usurp the throne. Politics being dirty then as now, Chitra was locked up in a tower after she advanced to womanhood so that no man could impregnate her. Panduwasnuwara yet boasts ruins of this tower or Ektamge. The story itself is yet to expand. A cousin of Unmadachitra begins to scale the tower at midnight and a child is born - a son. A girl of a maid replaces the son to deceive the brood of uncles and the boy is swished out and grows up in all sorts of adverse environs to escape identification. When the time is up, he proves the soothsayer correct by killing all his uncles except one and becomes king, one of the greatest in Lanka's line of monarchs.

Giritale is aligned to the prince's hide and seek days. He hovers in and around the Polonnaruwa area avoiding the dangerous Anuradhapura terrain and Girikande becomes one of his famous haunts. Girikande is the Mountain of the Rock that still glorifies the landscape.

According to legend it is here that he meets his future partner, Swanrnapalee taking food to the fields. She was a lass of noble birth with regal connections and accompanied by her maids she is trekking to the fields in mid afternoon when prince Pandukhabaya befriends her. According to some sources this princess was the daughter of the uncle whose life he had spared. The district of Girikande he hands over formally to his father-in-law, who earns the title of Girkande Siva.

He himself had got attracted to the area's geographical lay out for he was our first tank building king, creator of Abhaya weva today also known as Basawakkulama. The hollow at the base of Girikande attracted him, the Mahavamsa reads "He had the hollow deepened and abundantly filled with water."

However, there is no specific evidence to conclude that he gave the final touches to Giritale tank in that long forgotten age prior to the coming of Buddhism too. Agbo II who ruled long after in the 7th centuary is credited with this feat. A very careful planning of this tank is apparent as not only rain water but water that cascades down the mountain too fills it. It is further fed by a tributary of the Mahaweli revealing a very intricate network of tanks and canals based on this River of Great Sands. The designing had included a strong embankment of stone that crosses the hollow at the base of the hill and plummets to level ground dampening the outlying forest.

It is thick forest but those who had braved the nettled jungle cover talk of exquisitely hewn stonework carved spouts and masonry work of rare quality. One can surmise that during the Polonnaruwa period Giritale grew around a carefully designed tank had been a prosperous suburb of the capital.

Giritale Tank Related references