Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy

Shiva Dewalaya No. 1, Polonnaruwa

The inscription is engraved around all four edges of the smoothed upper surface of a quadrangular slab, which once formed the top flagstone of a raised seat (āsana). It was examined by H. C. P. Bell sometime between 1901 and 1905. The slab was then lying inside a ruined shrine referred to by Bell as Śiva-Devālaya No. 1 and situated a little to the south of the main group of Buddhist ruins on the raised quadrangle near Tōpaväva. The stone is badly worn, rendering a considerable portion of the inscription totally illegible. However, what remains readable clearly shows that the text agrees almost word for word with the Poḷonnaruva Stone Bath Slab Inscription (IN03088), the only exception being the concluding sentence which indicates the inscribed seat or āsana as the one which king Niśśaṅka-Malla used to occupy when performing the function of lustral bathing (nānu mē) at the ceremony of propitiating the nine planetary gods (nava-graha-śānti). Niśśaṅka-Malla reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. No specific date is given in the inscription but the text must have been composed after the fourth year of the king’s reign because it refers to his visit to Anurādhapura, which took place in his fourth regnal year.

The inscription is engraved on a fragment of a stone slab found in the Tōpaväva village. The fragment originally formed part of a flagstone in the rectangular bath on the promontory at Tōpaväva. Numerous baths were discovered on the promontory in 1901. The other fragments of the flagstone are missing but Wickremasinghe was able to reconstruct the slab’s inscription after recognising that it was the same as the Rankot-dāgaba pillar inscription (IN03087), except for the concluding sentence which states the purpose for which the cistern was used by king Niśśaṅka-Malla. This king reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. No specific date is given in the inscription but, as Wickremasinghe notes, the text must have been composed after the fourth year of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s reign because it refers to the king’s visit to Anurādhapura, which took place in his fourth regnal year, and to his later tours of inspection.

Rankoth Vehera, Polonnaruwa.

The inscription is repeated on each of the four pillars which once supported the roof of an open pavilion on the southern terrace of the Ruvanväli or Rankot-dāgaba in Poḷonnaruva. According to the inscription, this pavilion was built to provide a place from which king Niśśanka Malla could pay his adorations to the relics enshrined in the dāgaba. Presumably, the pavilion originally contained an āsana (throne) or dias for this purpose. The pillars are square at the top and bottom with an octagonal section in the centre. All four pillars are fallen and two are broken. The inscription gives an account of some of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s acts, before describing the king’s use of the pavilion. Niśśaṅka-Malla reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. No specific date is given in the inscription but, as Wickremasinghe notes, the text must have been composed after the fourth year of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s reign because it refers to the king’s visit to Anurādhapura, which took place in his fourth regnal year, and to his later tours of inspection.

Of the four copies of the inscription on the four pillars, two were first transcribed and translated by Rhys Davids in 1875 for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. The third copy was edited by Müller in Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon (1883). The information below relates to the fourth copy, which was transcribed and translated for the first time by Wickremasinghe in Epigraphia Zeylanica 2 (1912-27). The fourth copy differs from the other three in the number of lines on each side and also in the beginning and end of each line.

Rankoth Vehera, Polonnaruwa.

The inscription is engraved around four sides of the smoothed upper surface of a stone seat (āsana). It was discovered in the jungle some two hundred yards to the east of the ruin known as Ran-kot-vehera in Poḷonnaruva. The inscription consists of six lines and dates from the reign of Niśśaṅka-Malla (1187-1196 A.D.). It gives an account of some of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s acts, before identifying the seat as the one which the king occupied to watch the construction of the Ruvanväli-dāgaba at Poḷonnaruva. Wickremasinghe notes that the stone-seat inscription must be earlier than the Galpota inscription (IN03081) because the latter post-dates the completion of the Ruvanväli-dāgaba. This dāgaba was built to a height of eighty cubits and adorned with a golden pinnacle, from which it gets its present name: Ran-kot-vehera (‘golden-spire-monastery’).

Niśśaṇka-Malla’s Council Chamber, Polonnaruwa.

The inscription is engraved around four sides of the smoothed upper surface of a stone seat (āsana). It was found outside the ruin of king Niśśaṇka-Malla’s Council Chamber on the promontory overlooking the Tōpa-väva tank in Poḷonnaruva. Consisting of eight lines and dating from the reign of Niśśaṅka-Malla (1187-1196 A.D.), the inscription begins with a panegyrical account of the king’s munificence and some of his acts. This account is similar to that given in Niśśaṅka-Malla’s Dambulla inscription (IN03032) and in the Häṭa-dā-gē Portico slab (IN03078). The inscription then proceeds to state that the ‘lion-seat’ is the one on which His Majesty sat whenever he witnessed the musical performances in the Kāliṅga Park. It also asserts that the stone itself was brought for this purpose from Eṇ̆ḍera-galla, which Wickremasinghe identifies with the village Eṇ̆ḍēru-gala (7.915035, 80.679343), situated about five miles west of the famous rock-fortress Sīgiri and half a mile from Inamalawa on the Dambulla-Trincomalee high road. The exact locality of the Kāliṅga Park, mentioned in this inscription and reputedly formed by Niśśaṅka-Malla, is uncertain. However, if the original site of the present ‘lion-seat’ was somewhere near the spot outside the ruin of the ‘Council Chamber’ where it was unearthed, then the Park must have occupied open ground on the eastern side of the structure.