Parākramabāhu I unified the three warring kingdoms of Sri Lanka in 1153 after decades of fragmented rule, and his subsequent reign produced one of the island's most ambitious irrigation and administrative programs. Small copper fractions like this were the working currency of that machinery — paying laborers, soldiers, and market traders in a kingdom that Parākramabāhu himself reportedly refused to let a single drop of rainwater reach the sea without first serving human use.
Parākramabāhu I unified the three warring kingdoms of Sri Lanka in 1153 after decades of fragmented rule, and his subsequent reign produced one of the island's most ambitious irrigation and administrative programs. Small copper fractions like this were the working currency of that machinery — paying laborers, soldiers, and market traders in a kingdom that Parākramabāhu himself reportedly refused to let a single drop of rainwater reach the sea without first serving human use.