The river that flows past Anurādhapura, on the eastern side, now called the Malvatu Oya (Mhv.vii.43; and Trs.58, n.3). Near the river was the Nivatta-cetiya (Mhv.xv.10). The river ford, the Gaṅgalatittha (MT.361), formed the beginning of the boundary (sīmā) of the Mahāvihāra, and this line also ended at the river bank (Mhv.xv.191). The road from Anurādhapura to Cetiyagiri lay across the Kadamba-nadī, and pious kings, such as Mahādāṭhika Mahānāga, spread carpets from the river up to the mountain so that pilgrims could wash their feet in the river and approach the mountain shrines with clean feet (Mhv.xxxiv.78).

The road from the Kadamba river to Thūpārāma passed through the Rājamātudvāra (SA.i.173). Moggallāna II dammed up the river among the mountains and thus formed three tanks, the Pattapāsānavāpi, the Dhanavāpi, and the Garītara (Cv.xli.61), and Udaya II built a weir for the overflow of the river (Cv.li.130).

In the time of Kakusandha Buddha, the capital of Sri Lanka, Abhayanagara, lay to the east of Kadamba-nadī (Mhv.xv.59; Dpv.xv.39; xvii.12; see also Mbv.120, 134 f).

See also Kalamba.