Vessagiri, or more commonly in Sinhalese Vessagiriya, is the traditional name of a forest-bound cluster of rocks in Anurādhapura. The site features three hummock-boulders of gneiss rock in a line from north to south (Rock A, Rock B and Rock C). The hummocks are surrounded by the ruins of a monastery, which had its cells in the caves of Rocks B and C (twenty-three caves in total). Some of the caves are inscribed with dedications to the Buddhist priesthood, plus there are a number of other rock inscriptions at the site, including the present record.
| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Inscription ID | IN03021 |
| Title | Vessagiri Rock B Inscription 1 |
| Alternative titles | |
| Parent Object | OB03010 |
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| Responsibility | |
| Author | Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe |
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| Language | සිංහල |
| Reigning monarch | |
| Commissioner | |
| Topic | dedication of a monastic cell to the venerable Asalaya |
| Date: | |
| Min | 175 |
| Max | 200 |
| Comment | Basis for dating: paleography. |
| Hand | |
| Letter size | 7.6 |
| Description | According to Wickremasinghe, the letters are on average 3 inches (7.6 cm) by 4 inches (10.2 cm) in size and resemble those of the Maharatmale inscription. |
| Layout | |
| Campus: | |
| Width | 145 |
| Height | |
| Description | Two lines of worn writing inscribed on the left at the top of the rock-cut steps, west of Rock B Cave 4 at Vessagiri. The first line is 145 cm in length and the second 86 cm. Owing to the indistinctness of the seventh, eighth, eleventh and eighteenth akṣaras, only a tentative reading can be given. |
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| Bibliography | |
| References | Edited by Wickremasinghe in Epigraphia Zeylanica 1 (1904-12): 21. |
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| Misc notes | |