The Royal Pleasure Gardens (22)

Going along the bunt (dam) on the East Side of the Tissa wewa, you will see a small pond and then a moated platform with the remains of three octagonal buildings. These were pavilions in the Royal Pleasure Gardens, and the brick gardens, and the brick channel which wanders along the foot of the bunt once watered these gardens. Further along are outcrops of rock and two baths can be seen. The northern bath (A) is cut in to the rock face, and has a delightful frieze of elephants playing in a lotus pond. It is a completely secular sculpture, made to amuse the charm, unlike most of the sculpture at Anuradhapura which are religious. There was probably a fountain in the bath, and in a small chamber by the side of the bath are the remains of a stone couch. Up the steps on the rock above, is a circular pool with traces of a building around it. Somewhere here was the fish Pond, which is mentioned in an inscription.

A long rock between the two baths had buildings along the top, perhaps pavilions. Coming to the second Bath (B) there is a chamber with a small bath next to it. The three holes in the façade of the chamber would have had jet attachments, the water cascading in a shower, maintaining a cool temperature in the chamber, in which there were couches. It is thought that the walls of the chamber were painted. This must have been a delightful small pleasure-house. The larger bath with steps leading to it would have been filled with water. To the east, a pond can be seen, perhaps the lily-pond referred to in the same inscription. The gardens which show signs of landscaping, and would have been planted with some of the many varieties of flowering and scented shrubs and trees mentioned in the Chronicle. A network of pipes led water all over the garden and the open channels, which remain flow around the natural and architectural contours.