This inscription is engraved on a rock near the ruined stupa at a place called Veherakema in the heart of a dense forest, about six miles to the south-east of Lahugala in the Pānama Pattu of the Batticaloa District. It can be assigned on palaeographic grounds to around the seventh century A.D. and records that a ruler named Vahaka Maharaja caused a caitya to be built at the Macaḷa-vehera, which was presumably the name of the ancient monastery at this site. From his adoption of the title maharaja, it is clear that Vahaka was an independent ruler but Paranavitana could find no reference to a king of this name in the chronicles. He was perhaps a prince who, in the unsettled political conditions which prevailed in Anurādhapura during the greater part of the seventh century, set himself up as an independent sovereign of Rohaṇa, within which principality the inscription lies.
| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Inscription ID | IN03180 |
| Title | Veherakama Rock Inscription |
| Alternative titles | |
| Parent Object | OB03142 |
| Related Inscriptions | |
| Responsibility | |
| Author | Senarath Paranavitana |
| Print edition recorded by | |
| Source encoded | |
| Digitally edited by | |
| Edition improved by | |
| Authority for | |
| Metadata recorded by | |
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| Authoriy for improved | |
| Language | සිංහල |
| Reigning monarch | Vahaka Maharaja |
| Commissioner | |
| Topic | records that a ruler named Vahaka Maharaja caused a caitya to be built at the Macaḷa-vehera |
| Date: | |
| Min | 550 |
| Max | 700 |
| Comment | Basis for dating: palaeography. Senarath Paranavitana argues that the script is more developed than an inscription of Daḷa-Mugalana (i.e. Mogallāna II, who reigned circa 542–561 A.D.) discovered at Nilagama in the Māṭaḷē District but less developed than the Gäraṇ̆ḍigala rock inscription of Kassapa III (IN03127), who reigned circa 710–717 A.D. This would seem to suggest a date for the present inscription between these two reigns. The inscription mentions a ruler called Vahaka Maharaja. From his adoption of the title maharaja, it is clear that Vahaka was an independent ruler but Paranavitana could find no reference to a king of this name in the chronicles. He was perhaps a prince who, in the unsettled political conditions which prevailed in Anurādhapura during the greater part of the seventh century, set himself up as an independent sovereign of Rohaṇa, within which principality the inscription lies. |
| Hand | |
| Letter size | 12.7 cm |
| Description | The letters are, on average, 5 inches (12.7 cm) in size. |
| Layout | |
| Campus: | |
| Width | 198.12 |
| Height | 53.34 |
| Description | 3 lines boldly engraved on the surface of a large rock. The last line contains only six or seven letters and is too weathered to be deciphered. |
| Decoration | |
| Bibliography | |
| References | Edited and translated by Senarath Paranavitana in Epigraphia Zeylanica 4 (1934–41): 142–143, no. 17, I. |
| Add to bibliography | See Ceylon Journal of Science, Section G, vol. ii, pp. 182 and 198. |
| Misc notes | |