traditional clay industry as practice in Sri Lanka as a cottage industry.

In ancient Sri Lanka different types of trades were performed as cottage industries, and there were different groups of people engaged in different arts and crafts. Clay industry is one of the oldest cottage industries and it has 3 major components. Clay and Pottery Bricks Tiles

Clay and Pottery

The primarily utilitarian character of Sri Lankan pottery has been continuing to exist since the very beginning of Aryan Sinhalese civilization of Sri Lanka. The simplicity of ornamentation and charm of the elegance of pottery have held fast in the island for more than a couple of millenniums and a half in Sri Lanka. Low fired cooking pots, cooking pans, jugs, bowls, goblets, tiles, vases, are the most widely used kitchen utensils of Sri Lanka. In addition to the kitchen pots and pans, intricately designed products such as terracotta figures and carved vases too are popular in Sri Lanka. Ornaments such as figurines and delightful animals with distinctly Sinhalese characteristics are also produced at the pottery workshops in the countryside.

The domestic pottery were devoid of much decorations were made with clay. The simple instruments used by the potters were the wooden mallet, smooth stone and the wooden potters wheel (Sakaporuwa) turned by the assistant by hand. It revolves in a neatly formed stone pivot of which the cup like portion buried about 2/3 of its height to ground and stone having pin like projection at both ends is inserted into it the standingcup whose upper end is glued firmly with Koholle (glutinous compound of Jack fruit) to cup like receptacle on the bottom side of the wooden wheel (Figure 1c). The rotating surfaces are well oiled and the stone pivots made out of Kudugala are so durable could last about forty years in normal use and are passed on from father to son. The instrument known as used is irigahana katuwa to scrath the nebiliya. The items made for domestic uses are the pots and pans as heliya chatti mutii, appala, nebili and koraha (to sieve rice and grains). vil korha (to soak paddy). tali. pattra, kala, pintalli (containers of grain andwater). The special kaolin type (kirimeti) is used in making items. The clay is mixed by tamping by foot and afterwards it is heaped, and kept covered for few days to stabilize. To make an item a clay ball is kept on the rotating plate and it is raised and shaped by both hand while wheel is in motion. The operators assistant (usually his son) spins the wheel by turning it with hands. The finished product is removed and kept for drying after a few hours

with light blows from the wooden mallet the fine surface cavities are sealed. And allowed to it sun dry. Once sufficient quantity of objects is collected they are stacked with alternate layers of paddy husk in a kiln and burnt using firewood.

Bricks

The burnt/fired bricks have been used from very early times in Sri Lanka. It is recorded that bricks have been used in construction of the Thuparama Dagoba in Anuradhpura by King Devanampiyatissa in circa 245 BC. In Mahatupa (Ruwanweliseya) in 2nd century BC. From this time the bricks have been used in almost all important buildings and in outside of all ancient Bissokotuwa of sluices. Parker mentions that he has inspected the bricks of these working tanks and found they are of excellent quality. Bricks were made to exact size and shape to suit the intended use. In Elephant Wall (Athpavra) of Ruwanweliseya the special bricks for specific location and size, legs, trunks head etc were made in different sizes. Same is evident from the ethpavra of Nuwarawewa at Mihintale Road and Lankarama Dagoba. The bricks were normally marked in Brahmi letters from which the period of manufactory could be identified. In spires (kotha), which is tapering the bricks were made to size of each dagoba spire. The each layer is numbered as Doloswana (twelfth) etc., at the making prior to kilning, for easy assemblage. This has eased even the subsequent restoration of the collapsed spires too (Pidurugala Dagoba). Parker, attempted to identify the date of construction of the structures according to size of its bricks; however this method has not got a wide acceptability. In general average size of our ancient brick 18x9x2. The ancient bricks has very high compressive strength compared new ones made with the best known modern technology. Dr.Roland Silva (former Archeological Commissioner) mentions that the best made recent bricks (Weuda Tile Factory) commissioned for the restoration of Jethavana dagoba (wolrds largest brick structure) had a compressive strength 230 lbs/sq.in, while the ancient bricks used there needs 621 lbs/sq. ins to break it. This shows the technological excellence of our ancient brick maker of 1600 years ago compared to that of the 21st century. The analysis of the mineralogical content of the bricks showed that the silica content of ancient bricks is about 65% compared to 30-35 % of the modern bricks, however the void percentage of ancient bricks is more 3-8% due to hand compaction compared to 1-5% of the (Weuda) modern one. Ancient brick had a low clay content 35-45%, compared to 55-65% of the modern one. Its high percentage of load bearing silica contributed to the high tensile strength of ancient brick. The requirement of ancient bricks for great stupas Ruwanveliseya , Abayagiriya and Jethavana are 30, 54 and 62 mn and for 18 ft wide, 4 km long Anuradhapura

city wall is about 23 mn respectively shows the size of the brick industry in ancient Ceylon To complete Jethavana in 27 years (during the reign of the King) 2. 3mn bricks/year was required and considering 230 working days per year, if 100 brick makers made 100bricks a day it was a reality.

Tiles Tiles were made from early times. Making burnt clay tiles was another industry that has been in existence from early times. Tiles were used to cover the monasteries, religious buildings, royal palaces and houses of nobles. Tiles were used to cover some of our ancient buildings. In archeological excavations tile pieces were unearthed at number of locations. The original Sinhalese tiles were flat and some had groves to drain the rain water faster. Tiles found from ancient sites shows that they were made of different shapes and were provided with hooks or other arrangements to fix on to roof timber. Tiles were glazed even with different colours too. (Green and gilded ones are at Anuradhapura Museum). Dr. Roland Silva mentions that not only we have found glazed tiles, but also few drops of glazing compound too, and the debris of a workshop where it was done at Anuradhapura.