Ruins of Habagama Gal Palama and Amuna – හබගම පුරාණ ගල් පාලම ගල් අමුණ නටබුණ්

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Anuradhapura was the first real capital of Sri Lanka over two thousand two hundred years ago. The road network was in a highly developed stated during this era, with major roads leading to Trincomalee, Mannar, Jaffna and the southern kingdoms from Anuradhapura. These roads were not only used for foot traffic but carts carrying goods traveling on trade and commercial activities. With the development of the road network, the ancient kings built sturdy bridges out of granite slabs and pillars. Ruins in various bridges around Anuradhapura can be found across Malwathu Oya, Hal Pan Ela, Kandara Oya, Yan Oya, Kala Oya and Deduru Oya.

Outside the more popular stone bridges over Malwathu Oya and Halpan Oya, ruins of few other bridges have been discovered. The undiscovered bridges may be many more.

Ruins of such a ancient stone bridge can be found at the remote village of Habagama in Horowpathanana. The ruins lies across Yan Oya, 3 kilometers downstream from bridge on the Horowpathana – Parangiyawadiya road. Large number of rough rock pillars and slabs are scattered across the river banks. The pillars are around 2.5 – 3.0 meters high and you can clearly observe mortises and tenons cut in to the rock to fit the rock pillars to slabs of rock.  Some of the pillars are still standing in the river. They have been broken at the middle and some are jutting about a 1 meter in height. The pillars are laid at about 1 meter distance. However at some places this varies to about 1.5 to 2 meters.

It is believed that this route was the main road from Anuradhapura to Gokanna (Trincomalee) which was one of the main harbors where goods were imported and exported. This road would have been used by the carts carrying goods to and from Anuradhapura .

It is also believed that there has been a stone Amuna (weir) at this location to divert water to various smaller canals which in turn was used for agricultural purposes. Although no historical records are available on the weir or the stone bridge, according to folklore this weir has been built to divert water to the large pond known as Makarayawila (මකරයාවිල) on the archaeological site known as Brahmanayakanda (බ්‍රාහ්මණයාකන්ද) which lies about 1 km away from the stone bridge on the left bank of Yan Oya. The strongest evidence of the existence of an anicut here is the remains of ancient canals cut slightly above this site along the left and right banks of the Yan Oya. This ancient anvil seems to have used stones and cross planks.

According the reference documents and the “මධ්‍ය යාන් ඔය නිම්නයේ කොක්එබේ මෙගලිතික සුසානය ආශ්‍රිත පුරාවිද්‍යා කැනීම හා තදාශ්‍රිත ප්‍රදේශයේ පුරාණ මානව ජනාවාසකරණය.” book by Dr. Withanachchi states that these ruins lies 3 kilometers downstream the Yan Oya Bridge on the Horowpathana and Parangiyawadiya road. However all publications of Dr. Withanachchi provides the GPS location of 8.52082285487, 80.859557975 which places the ruins lies just 500 meters downstream the bridge. Thus this is possibly an mistake. Therefore the marker on the map is marked 3 km downstream the bridge.

There are at number of stone bridges discovered  in Sri Lanka. These are in various states while some have been conserved to an extent. The most popular is the bridge over the Malwathu Oya.

1. Stone Bridge over Malwathu Oya (Anuradhapura)
2. Stone Bridge over Halpan Ela (Anuradhapura)
3. Stone Bridge close to Mahakanadarawa Reservoir (Mihintale)
4. Stone Bridge at the Girihandu Seya  (Tiriyaya)
5. Kayankerni Stone Bridge  (Eastern Province)
6. Habagama Stone Bridge
7. Yanoya Stone Bridge
8. Weliela Mankada Stone Bridge
9. Palamgala Stone Bridge
10. Alubedda Stone Bridge
11. Palugaswewa Stone Bridge
12. Thirappane Stone Bridge
13. Ebawalapitiya Stone Bridge
14. Thulawelliya Stone Bridge

References

• විතානාච්චි, ච. රෝ. සහ මෙන්ඩිස්, ඩී. තු. , 2017. මධ්‍ය යාන් ඔය නිම්නයේ කොක්එබේ මෙගලිතික සුසානය ආශ්‍රිත පුරාවිද්‍යා කැනීම හා තදාශ්‍රිත ප්‍රදේශයේ පුරාණ මානව ජනාවාසකරණය. 1st ed. මිහින්තලේ: ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජරට විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය.
• පුරාණ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ශෛලමය පාලම් නිර්මාණ කිහිපයක් සහ එහි තාක්ෂණය පිලිබඳ මූලික විමසුමක් – ආචාර්ය චන්දන රෝහණ විතානාච්චි
• මධ්‍ය යාන්ඔය නිම්නයේ වාරි පුරාවිද්‍යාව – චන්දන රෝහණ විතානාච්චි
  Journal of Archaeology and Heritage Studies 2015

Also See

• Hydro Heritage of Sri Lanka
• Ancient Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka
• Other Places of Interest Within Close Proximity

Map of the The Ruins of Habagama Gal Palama

Traveling Directions to the Ruins of Habagama Gal Palama