3rd BC - 10th AD
Several centuries before the Jesus Christ, while the Greek empire was at its zenith, many other regions were emerging from the stone age; Anurdhapura was already and advanced civilization. The city was well laid out and well linked. Irrigated by sophisticated systems of man-made lake s and canals, this city was a world trade center. This is evidenced by the Greek merchant guide book titled "purples of the Erythraen Sea", Ptolemy's first ever map, and further by monk travelers Fa Hien and Buddagosha of, the 5 th century A. D.Anuradhapura was known from Tibet to Yellow Sea.
But unlike Greek and Roman ruins, Anuradhapura has only the remains of a monastic architecture. This city's name means the City of Anuradha. Anuradha was the first general of the king Vijaya: the legendary ancestor of the Sinhalese race. The city measured 52 square kilometers' and was maintained by at least 500 scavengers.The city was divided into several quarters. Foreign traders lived in one quarter. Their houses were of 2 or 3 stories. Artisans occupied some avenues.
Ruwanweliseya
Every monastery has a dagoba. Ruvanveliseya is the dagoba of Maha Vihara. It was built by a Sinhalese hero king Dutugemunu in the 2nd century B.C. The architect ingeniously combined the Buddhist philosophy in the architectural conception. He conceived this as a bubble of milk: representing life, which will burst in no time just like the fragility of our lives. Its dome represents the vastness of the doctrine; the four facets of the box oh top represents the four noble truths. The concentric rings there after indicate the noble eightfold path that leads man to illumination. The illumination: the whole truth is light and transparent like the rock crystal at the pinnacle. The 1956's restoration curb on the dome is much to the chagrin of the purists: which looks flatter than bubbly.Abayagiri Monastery
This was the home of mainly the Dhammaruchi sect, although it was open to many other sects including Mahayanism. There is little literary evidence as the rival monks of the Maha Vihara were the compilers of the chronicle. How ever, this 500-acre monastery was the biggest for 600 years, and Was home for 5000 monks. It was an international center of the arts, philosophy and mysticism, With branches in Java, Burma and China. Its center was this dagoba in ruin built over a sacred foot of the Buddha.
Sandakada Pahana ( The Moonstone )
The elaborate moonstone at its base is in itself a distinctive element of ancient sculpture in the island. These semi-circular slabs of granite or gneiss acquired increasingly complex bands of decorations over the years. They range from the near abstract tongues of fire and bands of creeper vines - to symbolic interpretations of the four perils of lifeThe latter consists of the elephant, a symbol of birth, the bull indicative of decay; the lion, resent in disease. and the geese, a symbol of death. Some also band of geese, which represents the dist between good, and evil. To some, the moon-stone is symbolic of transcending worldly temptations and achieving nibbane.At the heart of many moonstones is a lotus petal. Buddhists regard the lotus as a sacred flower, a symbol of the male and female creative forces that prevails throughout Sri Lankan art, architecture, sculpture and literature. It figures in the legend attached to the birth of the Buddha, when seven lotuses sprang into bloom at his feet as he took the first seven steps of his life. The lotus bloomed again in profusion at the moment he reached the state of Enlightenment.
