At the Chunnakam bus stand grab a three-wheeler for the 3km squiggle of lanes leading west to the puzzling Kantarodai Ruins (Purana Rajamaha Vihara). Discovered in 1916 in a palmyra patch the size of a modest garden, some two-dozen pudding-shaped little dagobas, 1m to 2m in height, grow like mushrooms. The ruined foundations of many more are easy to make out.
It’s hardly a mind-blowing vista, and the dagobas are somewhat crudely patched up, but they’re probably 2000 years old and nobody really knows why they were built.
