ANURADHAPURA

anuradhapura, a ruined city of ceylon, famous for its ancient monuments. it is situated in the north-central province. anuradhapura became the capital of ceylon in the 5th century b.c., and attained its highest magnificence about the commencement of the christian era. in its prime it ranked beside nineveh and babylon in its colossal proportions--its four walls, each 16 m. long, enclosing an area of 256 sq. m.,--in the number of its inhabitants, and the splendour of its shrines and public edifices. it suffered much during the earlier tamil invasions, and was finally deserted as a royal residence in a.d. 769. it fell completely into decay, and it is only of recent years that the jungle has been cleared away, the ruins laid bare, and some measure of prosperity brought back to the surrounding country by the restoration of hundreds of village tanks. the ruins consist of three classes of buildings, _dagobas_, monastic buildings, and _pokunas_. the _dagobas_ are bell-shaped masses of masonry, varying from a few feet to over 1100 in circumference. some of them contain enough masonry to build a town for twenty-five thousand inhabitants. remains of the monastic buildings are to be found in every direction in the shape of raised stone platforms, foundations and stone pillars. the most famous is the brazen palace erected by king datagamana about 164 b.c. the _pokunas_ are bathing-tanks or tanks for the supply of drinking-water, which are scattered everywhere through the jungle. the city also contains a sacred bo-tree, which is said to date back to the year 245 b.c. the railway was extended from matale to anuradhapura in 1905. population: town, 3672; province, 79,110. anvil (from anglo-saxon _anfilt_ or _onfilti_, either that on which something is "welded" or "folded," cf. german _falzen_, to fold, or connected with other teutonic forms of the word, cf. german _amboss_, in which case the final syllable is from "beat," and the meaning is "that on which something is beaten"), a mass of iron on which material is supported while being shaped under the hammer (see forging). the common blacksmith's anvil is made of wrought iron, often in america of cast iron, with a smooth working face of hardened steel. it has at one end a projecting conical _beak_ or _bick_ for use in hammering curved pieces of metal; occasionally the other end is also provided with a bick, which is then partly rectangular in section. there is also a square hole in the face, into which tools, such as the anvil-cutter or chisel, can be dropped, cutting edge uppermost. for power hammers the anvil proper is supported on an anvil block which is of great massiveness, sometimes weighing over 200 tons for a 12-ton hammer, and this again rests on a strong foundation of timber and masonry or concrete. in anatomy the term anvil is applied to one of the bones of the middle ear, the _incus_, which is articulated with the _malleus_.