Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy

The inscription is engraved on a broken guardstone found on the site of an ancient and overgrown vihara in Eppāvaḷa (Eppawala) in North-Central Province; the discovery was reported in the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for the year 1890 and the guardstone was subsequently transferred to the premises of the Archaeological Commissioner at Anuradhapura. The lower part of the stone is missing but the inscription is complete except for the first two lines, which are too weathered to be read. Although the date of the inscription is no longer legible, the text may be attributed on palaeographic grounds to the latter half of the tenth century A.D. It is concerned with the registration of a gift to the image house and the Bō-tree at the Pamagalu Monastery by a person named Ukuṇuhusu Kottā. This was made by investing eight kaḷan̆das of gold in land and by depositing two kaḷan̆das so that the interest might be paid in paddy. Two more kaḷan̆das of gold were invested for the purpose of supplying curds and honey and for the maintenance of the canopy of the altar.

The inscription is engraved on a low flat hummock of gneiss rock, about eight feet to the south of the ruins of a small rubble-built stupa. The hummock is known locally as Tōṇigala (Thonigala) or Nāgaragala and lies in the jungle about 6 miles (9.5 km) from Vavuniya on the Horowpotana Road, close to the border between Northern Province and North-Central Province. The inscription was recorded by Henry Parker in 1886 and listed in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for 1892 but no attempt was made to interpret the text before Senarath Paranavitana’s edition in the early 1930s (Epigraphia Zeylanica 3, pp. 172–188). The inscription is dated in the third year of Śrīmeghavarṇṇa (Sri Meghavarna), the son of Mahāsena, who reigned in the fourth century A.D. It is a private document, and the king’s name is introduced only for purposes of dating. The text records that a certain minister deposited some quantities of grain and beans with a guild in the northern quarter of the city with the stipulation that the capital should remain unspent and the interest should be utilised for providing meals to the monks of the Yahisapavata monastery during the vassa season of every year. The inscription describes how much interest is to be taken and outlines the different kinds of provisions to be supplied for feeding the monks.

The inscription is engraved on the surface of a low, flat rock amidst the ruins of an ancient monastery at Vihāregala. This site lies at the southern end of the Puliyankuḷam range of hills, about two and half miles to the north-west of Galenbin̆dunuväva in the Uḍḍiyankuḷam Kōraḷē of the North-Central Province, and to the east of the village named Mahakälǟgama (Maha Kelegama, 8.28531, 80.680939). The inscription records that king Gajabāhu Gāmaṇī Abhaya re-granted the Uppaladoṇika tank, originally given by King Saba, to the Ekadvāra Monastery. The king in question is Gajabahu I, who reigned from 113 to 135 A.D. An earlier inscription (IN03122) is inscribed on the same rock as the present record, recording king Saba’s original grant. The two inscriptions were first recorded in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for 1893 (p. 7). The Uppadoṇika tank to which they refer is apparently the one now known as the Pahala Kayinattama Wewa, which lies only two miles north of the ruined monastery. An inscription on the bund of the Pahala Kayinattama Wewa (IN03121) confirms that it was given by king Saba to the Ekadvāra monastery.

The inscription is engraved within an outline framing on the dressed surface of a low, flat rock amidst the ruins of an ancient monastery at Vihāregala. This site lies at the southern end of the Puliyankuḷam range of hills, about two and half miles to the north-west of Galenbin̆dunuväva in the Uḍḍiyankuḷam Kōraḷē of the North-Central Province, and to the east of the village named Mahakälǟgama (Maha Kelegama, 8.28531, 80.680939). The inscription records that king Saba granted a tank named Uppaladoṇika to the monks to the Ekadvāra monastery. The king in question is Subha, who reigned between 60 and 66 A.D. A later inscription (IN03123) is inscribed on the same rock as the present record, in which king Gaja Bahu I (113–135 A.D.) re-grants the tank to the monastery. The two inscriptions were first recorded in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for 1893 (p. 7). The Uppadoṇika tank to which they refer is apparently the one now known as the Pahala Kayinattama Wewa, which lies only two miles north of the ruined monastery. An inscription on the bund of the Pahala Kayinattama Wewa (IN03121) confirms that it was given by king Saba to the Ekadvāra monastery.

The inscription is engraved on a rock on the embankment of the Pahala Kayināṭṭamaväva (Pahala Kayinattama Wewa) in the Uḍḍiyankuḷam Kōraḷē of the North-Central Province. The text registers a grant to the Ekadoraya monastery by king Saba. It does not explicitly state what is being granted but, since the inscription is located on the embankment of a tank, it is obvious that the tank itself is the object of the grant. From the contents of two related rock-inscriptions found two miles to the south of the present record (IN03122 and IN03123), Senerath Paranavitana was able to identify king Saba mentioned here as Subha, who reigned between 60 and 66 A.D.