The Dawn and Dawn Society’s Magazine July 1910

In Christian Europe under the influence of Christianity with its mission of love for the poor the distressed and the oppresed the earliest work of charity for the -healing of the sick and the infirm by the opening of a hospital is dated the 7th or the ioth century t A. D. and the greater bulk of such healing establishments remained the hands of the clergy until the Reformation in the 16th ce [...] This movement both in the mainland and in the island of Ceylon aid not look upon the question of the secular wefare of the people as merely secular but recognised the problem of the advancement of religion and of the material welfare of the people not as two separated problems which must be tackled each in its own way but as essentially one problem each being the counterpart of the other. [...] The religious life of the kings and the people also showed itself in other works and activities all intended for the public good such for example as the extension of agriculture the reclamation of waste lands the construction of canals the damming up of great rivers for purposes of irrigation the excavation of huge lakes or tanks the formation of similar gigantic artificial lakes by the rai [...] He also thought of making the rice still more plentiful throughout Ceylon and to that end made the lake of Galgamie the lake of Sailirraze the lake of Calaw the lake of Mahaminia of Sokooram of Kimboowawrzazo of Ratmal Cadoo of Tiswadunzaw of Welanga of Ha/rale° of Sin' of Magadaranga and Cakrzvgatie ; and added to these. [...] As in the construction of irrigational works on a truly national scale for purposes of extesion of agriculture by the reclamation of waste lands so also in the _ establishment of hospitals and dispensaries and of asylums and charithalls on a similar national scale for the sick the distressed the indgent and the infirm of the land it will be seen that the same principle and ideal was o