Page 290 - Proceedings book

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is difficult to imagine that these were done purely for beauty. The water in these

ponds, which are finished with beauty in mind, may have been used for bathing and
drinking. These ponds were almost always decorated with various decorations.

4. For keeping the environment cool.

As the environment in dry regions such as Anuradhapura is very harsh, it is very

important to create a cool environment for the monks living in the monastery to

conduct their sermons and meditations. Due to the widespread construction of ponds,
the plants were supported by them. It was a strong reason for the cooling of the

environment, especially the construction of a large number of ponds and the high
amount of water vapor in the air. This fact is explained by the fact that 64 ponds have

been built in the area of 500 acres belonging to the Abhayagiri temple grounds

(Habarakada, 1996).

For above reasons ponds were constructed in different shapes. Such as,

- Rectangular shape – Elephant Pond (Eth pokuna) Anuradhapura
- Square shape – Kumara pond Polonnaruwa

- Lotus shape – Lotus Pond Polonnaruwa
- Key shape – Key Pond Anuradhapura

- L shape – Sigiriya water garden ponds ect.

Basically, when constructing these ponds craftsmen mainly had used bricks and
stones. Also, natural stone slabs have been used for this purpose. Stones are used in

the following ways for each purpose.

- Using naturally formed

coarse rock

- By using small stone
blocks

- Using finely cut large
blocks of rock

- Arrange in an orderly

and complementing Figure 6; Pond Technology
each other

- By digging the stone blade

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