IN03056 Slab-Inscription of Queen Līlāvatī

The slab was seen by Wickremasinghe in the Archaeological Commissioner’s Office at Anurādhapura. Its original location is uncertain but, as it was placed together with objects from Puliyaṉ-kuḷam, a small village situated two and a half miles north-east of Anurādhapura, it is assumed to have come from the same locality. The material from Puliyaṉ-kuḷam included several inscribed slabs from the piḷima-gē and the stone revetment of the dāgaba, three of which were marked ‘C/6’, ‘C/7’ and ‘C/8’. The present inscription is marked ‘D/8’. It is written in the Sinhalese alphabet of the 12th and 13th centuries A.D. and records the good deeds of the queen Līlāvatī, wife of King Parakkama Bāhu I. It tells us that she ruled the island with the aid of a Council of Ministers and that she built an almshouse in Anurādhapura. There is no date given in the inscription but her reign can be dated by other sources. Līlāvatī was on the throne first from 1197 to 1200 A.D., secondly in 1209 and lastly in 1211. The present grant was probably made during the first period, when the government was administered by Kitti Sēnāpati.