IN03058 Buddhannehäla Pillar Inscription

The inscribed stone pillar was discovered by Wickremasinghe and Bell in 1891 in Buddhannehäla (Buddhanagehela) in Kun͂chuṭṭu Kōrale, North-Central Province, about seven miles north of the ruins of Padaviya. Five caves and one dāgaba were found in Buddhannehäla and the present inscription was discovered in Cave No. 3. The pillar was placed upside down to serve as a door-jamb of a Śaiva shrine of about the eleventh or early twelfth century A.D. and was evidently brought there from elsewhere. Written in the Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th century A.D., the inscription covers the four sides of the pillar. On the first side, the inscription is surmounted by a large śrī and, above that, an emblem of the sun or a lotus. On the fourth side, a crow and a dog are cut underneath the inscription to indicate that whosoever transgresses the rules enjoined shall be born in the future as these animals. The inscription records regulations concerning the management of lands (fields, water, employees, cattle, sowing). Its use of the expression abhiṣekayen daru (‘son by sacred sprinkling’) indicates the prevalence of certain Brahmaṇic or more likely northern Buddhist (Mahāyāna) rites not sanctioned in the southern Buddhist Church. The inscription is dated in the third year of the reign of His Majesty Abhā Salamevan. This name (biruda) was used by a number of Sri Lankan monarchs. It may refer in this instance to Kassapa V (r. 929-939).