IN03097 Räkiṭipe Pillar Inscription of Līlāvatī

The inscription is engraved on a stone fragment found between the years 1906 and 1912 in the village of Räkiṭipe in Unantänna-vasam, Diyatilaka kōrale in the Nuvara Eliya District. The abrupt ending of the inscription and the sun and moon emblems carved above the text indicate that the stone originally formed the top of a square pillar. The rest of the pillar is missing. As the extant fragment features only the first ten lines of the inscription, it is not possible to say what the subject-matter was. However, it seems from the first clause that the inscription recorded a grant of land or some other benefaction in the reign of Līlāvatī, the Queen-dowager of Parakkama-Bāhu I who ruled as sovereign in her own right for three separate periods, first in 1197, then in 1209-10 and finally in 1211-12. On the basis of palaeographic considerations, Wickremasinghe conjectures that this inscription may date to 1211 A.D., when Līlāvatī was installed on the throne for the third time, governing for seven months until deposed by the Pāṇḍyan King Parakkama.