Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy

This inscription is engraved on a stone slab found to the left of the flight of steps at the entrance to a ruined structure on the site of an ancient monastery situated in the Pānama Pattu of the Batticaloa District, about a mile to the south of the eighth mile-stone on the road from Potuvil to Vällavāya. The ancient name of this monastery was Rūṇu-maha-vehera; it is now known as Magul-maha-vihāra. The present inscription can be dated, on palaeographic grounds, to the fourteenth century. It is written as a palimpsest over a long tenth-century inscription which has thus been obliterated, save for thirteen lines at the end. The later inscription records that Rūṇu-maha-vehera, the ancient monastery at the site, was completely renovated by Vihāra-mahā-devī, the consort of the two brother kings named Pärakumbā, after it had fallen into ruin and that she endowed it with lands for its maintenance. Since these brothers are described in this inscription as ruling over Rohaṇa, it seems likely that they were local princes whose authority was confined to this region, rather than paramount sovereigns of Sri Lanka.

Nītupatpāṇa Vihara (also known Girihandu Seya), Tiriyāy, Trincomalee

This inscription is engraved on a rock situated about 200 feet (60.96 m) to the south of the vaṭadāgē at the ancient Buddhist monastery now called Nītupatpāṇa (also known Girihandu Seya) near the village of Tiriyāy (Thiriyai). This monastery stands at the summit of a hill, known by the Tamil name of Kandasāmimalai (the Hill of the Lord Skanda), about a mile to the west of the village, which is located near the sea-coast, roughly twenty-nine miles to the north of Trincomalee in the Eastern Province. The inscription was discovered in 1931, as reported in the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Annual Report for 1931–32 (pt. IV – Education, Science and Art [J], p. 19). It can be dated on palaeographic grounds to the late seventh or first half of the eighth century A.D. and is written in Sanskrit. As B. Ch. Chhabra (1934–41: 312) has shown, the inscription is in verse, the composer having employed the Nardaṭaka metre in the first ten stanzas and the Upajāti metre in the eleventh and final stanza. The engraver has allotted one line to each stanza.

The record begins with an account of some sea-faring merchants, before launching into a long eulogy of a shrine named Girikaṇḍi-caitya. The eulogy is followed by the pious wish of the author that, by the merit he has gained by praising the shrine, the world may be freed from the miseries of existence; this wish identifies the author as a Mahāyānist, something which can perhaps also be inferred from the fact that the document is written in Sanskrit. The next portion of the inscription states that Girikaṇḍi-caitya was founded by two groups of merchants. The record ends with the Buddhist formula about the transitory nature of mundane things.

Paranavitana (1934–41: 151–160) read the names of the groups of merchants who are stated in the inscription to have built the Girikaṇḍi-caitya as Trapussaka and Vallika, which he took to be corruptions of Trapuṣa (Tapussa in Pāli) and Bhallika (Bhalluka in the Nidānakathā), two merchants who offered food to the Buddha immediately after his enlightenment and were the recipients of some his hair. This led Paranavitana to conclude that the Girikaṇḍi-caitya at Tiriyāy was founded by these merchants to enshrine the hair-relics, although B. Ch. Chhabra (1934–41: 313–314) has challenged this interpretation (see Misc. Notes for discussion).

This inscription is engraved on the smaller of the two stone canoes found in the vicinity of the ‘Stone Canopy’ (Burrows’ Pavilion) in the area of the Abhayagiri Vihāra at Anurādharpura. It consists of three lines and can be dated on the basis of the palaeography to the latter half of the eighth century or the beginning of the ninth century. The purpose of the inscription is to state that the stone canoe was the gift of a novice (sāmaṇera) named Gonnā.

This inscription is engraved round the edge of a moonstone placed at the bottom of a flight of steps leading to the dāgäba at an old vihara called Tammannǟgala in the Nǟgampaha Kōraḷē of the Anurādhapura District. It was first noticed for scholarship by H. C. P. Bell in the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Annual Report for 1895 (p. 7, no. 14). Bell dated the inscription to the ninth century but Senarath Paranavitana argued on the basis of the palaeography for an earlier date, sometime between the reigns of Kassapa III (r. 732–738 A.D.) and Sena I (r. 846–866 A.D.). The inscription states that the moonstone on which it is engraved was a gift of a person named Valjeṭu of Piḷiyāna.

Ambasthala Dagoba, Mihintale

This inscription is engraved on a flagstone in the pavement of the Ambasthala Cetiya at Mihintaḷē. It can be dated on palaeographic grounds to the eighth century A.D. and consists of two lines of unequal length, the first measuring 3 feet 6 inches (106.68 cm) and the second 2 feet 1 inch (63.5 cm). This suggests that the record may be unfinished or that some letters have been effaced at the end of the second line. Due to the incomplete nature of the inscription, its purpose is not clear. In the surviving portion of the record, an individual named Mihindal (Mahinda) states that he salutes the officers in the palace of his king.