Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy

The inscription is engraved on both sides of a stone slab, now set up near the Buddhist temple at Dädigama (Dedigama) in Kegalle District. The slab has been broken into two fragments and repaired. The inscription was first recorded and translated by H. C. P. Bell in 1892. It is dated on the thirteenth day of the waxing moon in the month of Poson in the ninth year of Bhuvanekabāhu (the sixth of that name), whose reign began around 1470, although the precise year remains a matter of uncertainty. The text proclaims a grant of amnesty, by the king, to the inhabitants of the Four Kōraḷas who had recently rebelled against their sovereign and had just then been reduced to subjection.

The inscription is engraved on all four sides of a quadrangular stone pillar, currently in the stone gallery at the Colombo National Museum. The location where the pillar was found is not recorded. The pillar was broken into two pieces before it arrived at the museum. As a consequence, it was initially treated as two objects and the inscriptions on the fragments were recorded as distinct texts when eye-copies were produced for the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon in 1907 and 1924. However, the connection between the fragments was later recognised and the pieces were joined together. The inscription is dated on the tenth day of the first half of the month of Mändindina (February–March) in the eleventh year of Kassapa IV, referred to here by his biruda Kasub Sirisaṅgbo. Kassapa IV reigned between 898 and 914 A.D. The text records a grant of immunities to an estate which was an endowment of a lying-in-home founded by the Chief Secretary Senal (Sena).

Kaludiya Pokuna Archaeological Site, Central Province, Sri Lanka

The inscription is engraved on a slab standing near a ruined structure at a distance of about 250 feet to the south of the stupa in the ruined monastery at Kalupokuṇa or Kaludiyapokuṇa, which lies on the slopes of a range of hills known as Eravalagala, about a mile and a half to the south-east of Kum̆bukkan̆danvaḷa, in the Vagapaṇaha Pallēsiya Pattu of the Mātaḷē District. The inscription consists of forty-six lines. However, the upper part of the slab is badly damaged and consequently the first twenty-nine lines of the text are largely illegible, apart from a few words here and there. Fortunately, the name of the king who issued this edict – Mahasen Maharaj – can be read quite clearly in line 9. Maha (‘Great’) is apparently used here purely as an epithet and does not form an integral part of the king’s name. His mother’s name – Vidurāräjna – is also clear and his father’s name may be read as Udā Maharaj, though not with absolute certainty. Since the inscription may be dated to the tenth century on palaeographic grounds, he was presumably one of the three kings called Sena who ruled in this period: Sena III, Sena IV or Sena V. After studying the available evidence on the parentage of these kings, Senarath Paranavitana concluded that Sena IV (r. 972–975 A.D.) was most likely candidate. The inscription is a katikā, or a set of regulations agreed upon by common consent. It seems to have consisted of three sections: (1) rules for the guidance of the monks, (2) rules dealing with the temple officials, and (3) regulations to be observed by the royal officers in their dealings with the monastery. Of these three section, only the second and third are preserved.

Kaludiya Pokuna Archaeological Site, Central Province, Sri Lanka

Detail of Kaludiya Pokuna Cave Inscription

The inscription is engraved on the rock wall of a cave situated about 400 feet to the south-west of the stupa in the ruined monastery at Kalupokuṇa or Kaludiyapokuṇa, which lies on the slopes of a range of hills known as Eravalagala, about a mile and a half to the south-east of Kum̆bukkan̆danvaḷa, in the Vagapaṇaha Pallēsiya Pattu of the Mātaḷē District. The text contains sixty-seven lines, divided into five columns of unequal dimensions. It is dated on the fifth day of the bright half of the lunar month Poson in the eighth year of King Sirisaṅgbo. This biruda was used by a number of kings and it is not possible to identify definitively which one is intended here. However, on palaeographic grounds, Senarath Paranavitana suggests that the monarch in question may be Sena II (r. 866–901) or Kassapa IV (r. 912–929), more probably the former.

The inscription records the gifts made by different individuals for providing food to the inmates of the Dakiṇigiri monastery. The major part of the record is concerned with the gift of a person named Daḷanā, who invested twenty-three kaḷan̆das of gold for the daily supply of two aḍmanā of rice and one aḍmanā of curd and who stipulated that, in the event of dissension among the inmates of the of the monastery, the food intended for them should be thrown to crows and dogs. Evidently, Daḷanā was of opinion that if the members of the saṅgha quarrelled amongst themselves, they were less worthy of the offerings of the pious than such animals.

The inscription is engraved on the surface of the rock a few yards to the south of the ruined stupa at Labuäṭän̆digala, about one and a half miles to the north-east of Moraväva (Morawewa, 8.5897, 80.8352), a village in the Kalpē Kōraḷē of the North-Central Province. It was first recorded for scholarship by H. C. P. Bell in 1892. The inscription does include a date but may be attributed to the basis of palaeography to sometime around the fifth century A.D. It records that a person named Niṭalaviṭiya Sivayi, son of Raṭiya Sumanaya, deposited twenty kahāpaṇas for the benefit of the Devagiri vihara.

IN03136 is engraved immediately above the present record and appears from the palaeography to belong to the same period.

The inscription is engraved on the surface of the rock a few yards to the south of the ruined stupa at Labuäṭän̆digala, about one and a half miles to the north-east of Moraväva (Morawewa, 8.5897, 80.8352), a village in the Kalpē Kōraḷē of the North-Central Province. It was first recorded for scholarship by H. C. P. Bell in 1892. The inscription does include a date but may be attributed to the basis of palaeography to sometime around the fifth century A.D. It records that a certain individual named Sirinakayi deposited one hundred kahāpaṇas, the interest accruing from which was to be given to the monks of the Devagiri monastery for defraying the expenses connected with the vassa festival. Devagiri Vihāra was evidently the name of the monastery which existed on the rock in ancient times.

IN03137 is engraved immediately below the present record and appears from the palaeography to belong to the same period.