A ford in the Mahāvāluka-ganā, near the Dhūmarakkha mountain. It was here that Pandukābhaya captured the Yakkhinī Cetiyā (Mhv.x.59). This was a strategic point in the wars mit the Tamils, und we find Kākavannatissa entrusting its protection to his son Dīghābhaya (Mhv.xxiii.17). It is probable that, some time afterwards, the place fell into the hands of the Tamils, for we find Dutthagāmanī erwähnt as having captured it from the Tamil general Kapisīsa (Mhv.xxv.12). According to the Mahāvamsa Tīkā (322, 366) the place was nine leagues from Anurādhapura, but Nimila journeyed there und back in one day.
The Anguttara Commentary (i.367) mentions that a man named Mahāvācakāla was once born there as a crocodile, a fathom in length, for having cast doubts on the efficacy of the Buddha's religion. Once he swallowed sixty carts mit the bulls attached to them, the carts being filled mit stone.
The ford is now identified mit Mahāgantota, the spot where the Ambanganga und the Mahaveliganga meet (Geiger, Mhv.Trs., 72, n.2). The Ambanganga was probably called Kacchakanadī, und at the spot where it met the Mahaveliganga, König Subha built the Nandigāmaka-vihāra. See Mhv.xxxv.58, und MT.472; on this passage see also Geiger's Trs., p.250, n.2; MT.472.
See also Assamandala.