The city of Anuradha was founded in the 5th century BCE and
remained the capital of Sri Lanka for 1400 years. The city is
surrounded by four large reservoirs the largest of which is the
Nuvaravava. The Tissavava now provides the modern city of
Anuradhapura with its drinking water. All the reservoirs are fed
by a channel constructed in the 4th century CE which leads water
from the Kalavapi River about 50 miles from the city. Like
Lhasa, Kyoto, Xian and several other ancient Buddhist capitals,
Anuradhapura was a city surrounded by and to some degree dwarfed
by a number of huge monasteries and several other smaller ones.
The history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka up to the 13th century is
to a very large extent the history of Anuradhapura's three great
monasteries: the Mahavihara, the Abhayagiri and the Jetavana.
The Mahavihara or Great Monastery was founded by Venerable
Mahinda himself and Theravadins in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand,
Laos and Cambodia even today subscribe to the Mahavihara's
interpretation of the Pali