The mode of raising a national force to make war against the invaders, is described in the Mahawanso[1]; the king issuing commands to ten warriors to enlist each ten men, and each of this hundred in turn to enrol ten more, and each of the new levy, ten others, till "the whole company embodied were eleven thousand one hundred and ten."
1: Ibid., ch. xxiii. p. 144.
The troops usually consisted of four classes: the "riders on elephants, the cavalry, then those in chariots, and the foot soldiers,"[1] and this organisation continued till the twelfth century.[2]
1: Rajavali, p. 208, The use of elephants in war is frequently adverted to in the Mahawamso, ch. xxv. p. 151-155, &c.
2: See the inscription on the tablet at Pollanarrua, A.D. 1187.
Their arms were "the five weapons of war," swords, spears, javelins, bows, and arrows, and a rope with a noose, running in a metal ring called narachana.[1] The archers were the main strength of the army, and their skill and dexterity are subjects of frequent eulogium.[2]
1: Mahawanso, ch, vii 48; ch. xxv p. 155.
VEDDAH DRAWING HIS BOW
2: One of the chiefs in the army of Dutugaimunu, B.C. 160, is described as combining all the excellences of the craft, being at once a "sound archer," who shot by ear, when his object was out of sight; "a lightning archer," whose arrow was as rapid as a thunderbolt; and a "sand-archer," who could send the shaft through a cart filled with sand and through hides "an hundred-fold thick."—Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 143. In one of the legends connected with the early life of Gotama, before he attained the exaltation of Buddhahood, he is represented as displaying his strength by taking "a bow which required a thousand men to bend it, and placing it against the toe of his right foot without standing up, he drew the string with his finger-nail."—HARDY'S Manual of Buddhism, ch. vii. p. 153. It is remarkable that at the present day this is the attitude assumed by a Veddah, when anxious to send an arrow with more than ordinary force. The following sketch is from a model in ebony executed by a native carver.