Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy

This inscription is engraved on both sides of a large slab, which stands near the ancient irrigation canal at Poḷonnaruva. The inscription consists of 65 lines in total but the portion on the second side of the slab is now illegible. The text begins with the auspicious word svasti and a Sanskrit verse. It then states that Vijaya, the eldest son of Siṁha-Bāhu of the Kāliṅga-Cakravarti dynasty came over to Ceylon, defeated the Yakṣas, and became king; that a descendant of his was Parākrama-Bāhu, who brought the Island of Laṅkā under one canopy of dominion; and that this king, desiring the continuation of his dynasty, invited his sister’s son (bǟna) over from Siṁhapura, invested him with royal dignity, and in course of time died. The nephew was thereafter duly anointed king Vijaya-Bāhu, but the day after his accession to the throne some treacherous ministers rose against him. A chieftain named Vijayāyān-tän-nāvan, however, protected the king and, quelling the rebellion, restored peace to the country. In recognition of these distinguished services, king Vijaya-Bāhu granted him heritable lands with certain privileges, the details of which were originally recorded on the second side of the slab. The inscription thus corroborates and expands upon the account of Vijaya-Bāhu’s reign in the Mahāvaṁsa. Vijaya-Bāhu only reigned for a short time, ascending to the throne in 1186 and dying one year later at the hands of Mahinda and Dīpanī.

The inscription is engraved on the western slope of a long hummock of granite rock about a mile to the north of Topaväva. It was found by H. C. P. Bell, the Archaeological Commissioner, in September 1901 whilst exploring a collection of ruins discovered the previous year during the construction of a new road from Minneriya to Poḷonnaruva. Covering a smoothed area of rock, the inscription is located to the north of a flight of steps leading up to a ruined building, which has been identified with the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa (‘joy-conferring pavilion’) of king Niśśaṅka-Malla, who ruled between 1187 and 1196. The purpose of the inscription was to commemorate the consecration of the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa as a sanctuary whereby every one entering its premises had the right of asylum. The text begins with a Sanskrit verse in sragdharā metre, before giving an account of king Niśśaṅka-Malla’s birth and parentage, his administrative and charitable acts, the religious edifices and alms-houses he built, his tours in Ceylon, the so-called invasion of Southern India, and finally the erection and consecration of the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa.

The inscription covers both sides of a stone slab, which was found completely buried at the North Gate of the ruined citadel at Poḷonnaruva. The slab was subsequently placed in an upright position near the gate. There are 37 lines inscribed on the obverse and 36 lines on the reverse. Another copy of this inscription was found on a slab of similar size and shape at the East Gate of the citadel.

The inscription begins and ends with Sanskrit verses in śārdūla-vikrīḍita metre. The rest of the text is written in Sinhalese and displays the same bombastic style as other inscriptions of king Niśśaṅka-Malla, who reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. The inscription gives a panegyrical account of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s virtuous qualities and charitable acts, followed by an exhortation in which he advises his subjects to choose for their sovereign a prince or princess of his own Kāliṅga dynasty. He denounces vehemently the aspiration of the Govi caste and of the non-buddhistic princes from Coḷa or from Kēraḷa to the throne of Ceylon, emphasising these sentiments with the threat that all those who join them would be treated as traitors and would accordingly by extirpated together with their families and their worldly possessions. Wickremasinghe notes that the king’s appeal to his subjects to choose a sovereign from his own dynasty is similar to that given in the Galpota inscription (IN03081).

The inscription is written on the surface and sides of a stone slab. Wickremasinghe recorded in Epigraphia Zeylanica 2 (1912-27) that the slab was at the premises of the Archaeological Commissioner at Poḷonnaruva, to which it had be brought from “the spot where the present rest-house is”. The original site of the inscription is not known and the surviving text is incomplete. What remains of the inscription is a summary of the achievements of king Niśśaṅka Malla, similar to accounts found in other inscriptions of the same king and containing nothing new. Indeed, the text agrees almost word for word with the inner inscription on the Kiri-Vehera slab (IN03090) and with lines 10-12 of the Dambulla rock inscription (IN03032). It may be assumed that, following the established pattern of such inscriptions, the concluding lines of the present text revealed the specific purpose for which it was written. However, these crucial lines are missing. Wickremasinghe speculated that they might possibly be engraved on the reverse of the slab, which he had not seen.

Kiri-Vehera Dagaba, Polonnaruwa

This text is the inner inscription on the upper surface of a stone slab found lying on the maḷuva or terrace of the so-called ‘Kiri-vehera’ dāgaba in Poḷonnaruva, about eight or ten yards to the south-east of its south altar. The slab has two inscriptions. The first or outer inscription is engraved around all four edges of a large rectangular area, which covers almost the entire surface of slab. The second or inner inscription is engraved around all four edges of a smaller rectangular area, which is set within the first inscription. An ornamental border of swans (haṁsas) and foliage surrounds the outer inscription and a conventional crab and fish pattern frames the inner one.

Both inscriptions date from the reign of king Niśśaṅka-Malla. It is obvious from the contents of the two texts and from the few stumps of pillars still existing round the slab that it was originally situated inside a kūḍama or pavilion structure similar in style to the one at the Rankot-dāgaba (OB03067) and built about the same period, namely, between 1191 and 1196 A.D. The inscribed slab must have been the flagstone of a raised seat within the pavilion, from which the royalty was wont to worship the relics enshrined in the Kiri-vehera-dāgaba opposite.

The text of the first or outer inscription is the same as the Poḷonnaruva Stone Bath Slab Inscription (IN03088), the only exception being the concluding clause which indicates the pavilion (kūḍama), as the one from which His Majesty Kīrti Niśśaṅka-Malla worshipped the (Buddhist) relics.