IN03092 Poḷonnaruva Slab Inscription at the North Gate of the Citadel

The inscription covers both sides of a stone slab, which was found completely buried at the North Gate of the ruined citadel at Poḷonnaruva. The slab was subsequently placed in an upright position near the gate. There are 37 lines inscribed on the obverse and 36 lines on the reverse. Another copy of this inscription was found on a slab of similar size and shape at the East Gate of the citadel.

 

The inscription begins and ends with Sanskrit verses in śārdūla-vikrīḍita metre. The rest of the text is written in Sinhalese and displays the same bombastic style as other inscriptions of king Niśśaṅka-Malla, who reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. The inscription gives a panegyrical account of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s virtuous qualities and charitable acts, followed by an exhortation in which he advises his subjects to choose for their sovereign a prince or princess of his own Kāliṅga dynasty. He denounces vehemently the aspiration of the Govi caste and of the non-buddhistic princes from Coḷa or from Kēraḷa to the throne of Ceylon, emphasising these sentiments with the threat that all those who join them would be treated as traitors and would accordingly by extirpated together with their families and their worldly possessions. Wickremasinghe notes that the king’s appeal to his subjects to choose a sovereign from his own dynasty is similar to that given in the Galpota inscription (IN03081).