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. In addition, two inscribed slabs associated with Vessagiri are preserved in the museum at Anurādhapura (OB03019 and OB03020). The present inscription is engraved on one of the slabs. It dates from the reign of king Dappula V (A.D. 940-952) and records a royal offering to the Virāṅkurā monastery.
| Metadata | |
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| Inscription ID | IN03023 |
| Title | Vessagiri Slab 1 Inscription |
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| Parent Object | OB03019 |
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| Responsibility | |
| Author | Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe |
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| Language | සිංහල |
| Reigning monarch | Dappula V |
| Commissioner | |
| Topic | grant of 200 kaḷaňdas weight of gold to the priest of the Vīrāṅkurā monastery |
| Date: | |
| Min | 942 |
| Max | 942 |
| Comment | Basis for dating: intrinsic. The inscription commemorates a grant made in second year of the accession of King Buddas Abahay Salamevan Dāpuḷa (r. 940-952), son of King Buddas Siri-Saṅgboy Abahay and Dēvā the sub-queen. |
| Hand | |
| Letter size | |
| Description | Letter size not reported. According to Wickremasinghe, the letters "exhibit the genuine type of the alphabet of the period". |
| Layout | |
| Campus: | |
| Width | 76.2 |
| Height | 55.9 |
| Description | Twenty five lines inscribed on a slab. |
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| Bibliography | |
| References | Edited by Wickremasinghe in Epigraphia Zeylanica 1 (1904-12): 23-29. |
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