IN03166 Gaḍalādeṇiya Rock-Inscription of Dharmmakīrtti Sthavira

This inscription is cut into the rock at the Gaḍalādeṇiya Vihārē, a fourteenth-century Buddhist shrine situated in Pilimathalawa, near Kandy. Rock-cut steps lead up the north-eastern side of the rock to reach the shrine. A number of inscriptions (including IN03154) are engraved, one above the other, to the right of the steps as one ascends. The present inscription is the earliest and also the longest of these inscriptions, covering more than half of the inscribed rock-surface. It is dated on the full-moon day of the month of Vesaga (Skt. Vaiśākha) in the third year of Bhuvanaikabāhu IV and also mentions the Śaka year 1266, expired. The part of the sentence which contains the date was interpreted by H. C. P. Bell (Report on the Kǟgalla District, p. 92, n. 1) and H. W. Codrington (A Short History of Ceylon, p. 88) to mean that the Śaka year given is the same as the year of accession of Bhuvanaikabāhu. However, Senarath Paranavitana argued that the sentence in fact indicated that the Śaka year in question was equivalent to the third year of the king. Hence the date of the inscription can be understood as the full-moon day of the month of Vesaga in Śaka 1266, which is equivalent to Wednesday 28 April 1344 A.D. The inscription is written in Sinhalese, except for the first line, which contains a Sanskrit śloka in the Indravajrā metre. The text records the foundation of the Buddhist shrine Gaḍalādeṇiya by the great sthavira Dharmmakīrtti. An account of the building of the temple, which comprises more than one-third of the record, is followed by a long list of lands dedicated to it by various personages. The inscription also gives certain details about the architectural features of the shrine and the images and paintings with which it was adorned. The shrine is said to have three storeys, the author of the inscription having apparently counted the terraced roof of the ardha-maṇḍapa and antarāla as the second storey and a cell on a higher level in the vimāna as the topmost storey. The name of the architect who designed the building is given as Gaṇeśvarācāri, which suggests that he was from South India, a supposition supported by the style of the architecture.