The Soraborawewa, the massive irrigation reservoir of ancient Bintenna lies about 1 k.m. away from the Mahiyanganaya town. Devotees who visit the Mahiyanaga Raja Maha Vihara never fail to visit this reservoir.
The reservoir was known as “Sea of Bintenna” in the ancient times. It is unique to all other ancient reservoirs as this is considered the only reservoir which does not make use of a Bisokotuwa. Generally, all the reservoirs have the sluice gates which regulate the water flow out of the reservoir through massive embankments. It was the Bisokotuwa which regulated the water pressure at the sluice gates inside the tank and protected the embankment from erosion.
The builders of the Soraborawewa have not placed sluice gates at the embankment, but have used strategically located natural rocks away from the embankment and cut a deep canal which acted as the sluice for the tank. Since the rock was not subject to erosion by the pressure of water, the ancient builders had decided to do away with the tried and tested Bisokotuwa for this creation.
The tank is believed to have been built during the 2nd century BC when the warrior Prince Gemunu was warring with invader Elara by a relatively unknown General called Bulatha. He was a strongman from the village of Kiripattiya in Ududumbara who had joined the army of Gemunu.
R. L. Brohier has stated in his book titled “The ancient irrigation works in Sri Lanka” that this reservoir has been built by damming the Diyawanna Oya with a 1,500 feet (485 metre) embankment. The tank covers 1,100 acres (4.5 sq. K.M.) and holds 11,800 acre feet of water in full capacity. The sluice gates are expertly cut into the natural rock and is about five feet wide.”
History records that Kings Parakramabahu the sixth (1412-1467 A.D.), Weera Parakrama Narendrasinghe (1707-1739 A.D.) and Keerthi Sri Rajasinghe (1747-1781 A.D.) had taken steps to develop this tank from time to time.
There are several folk songs woven around “Soraborawewa”.
“Anna balapan Bulatha karapu bale
Yathurudapu gal doren watura hele
Yana ennoidanarithibalum gale
Soraborawew anudutu es motada pin kale?”
Behold the work of powerful Bulatha
Water falls out through the locked rock door
The visitors flock here to see its wonder
What is the use of the eyes that never saw Soraborawewa?
In 1869, Badulla Assistant Government Agent K. Sharpe had visited the Soraborawewa with Moles Worth, the Director of the then Public Works Department and had instructed the Director to renovate the tank which had not been renovated for a long time. Accordingly, the tank was renovated and the work was completed in 1870. The latest renovation work was carried out by the Irrigation Department in 1966 under the Nagadeepa Mahawewa Project, increasing the water capacity of the Soraborawewa up to 20,000 acre feet.
The surroundings of the wewa
The rock cut sluice
The Soraborawewa
