This inscription is engraved on the perpendicular face of a rock situated about 40 or 50 yards (35 or 45 m) to the north-east of the Ambastala Dāgäba at Mihintaḷē. The epigraph has been seriously damaged by the action of the weather and possibly also by the destructive attentions of vandals, to the extent that large portions of the writing are now totally effaced and many letters are not very clear. However, with help from Sylvain Lévi, Senarath Paranavitana identified part of the inscription as a copy of the Trikāyastava, a Sanskrit hymn consisting of three Sragdharāverses adoring the three bodies of the Buddha and a fourth verse in the same metre embodying the wish of the reciter. Lévi published a version of the Trikāyastava, restored to Sanskrit from a Chinese transliteration, in 1896, and another version was published by Baron A. von Staël-Holstein from a Tibetan codex in 1911. Neither version was perfect: the Tibetan version was missing the fourth verse and, although the Chinese version was complete, Lévi was unable to recognise certain words due to the fact that the Chinese alphabet does not allow for precise transliteration of Sanskrit. Nonetheless, using these two version together, Paranavitana was able to read the Trikāyastava in the Mihintaḷē inscription, filling in those portions which are missing on the stone. The Trikāyastava starts towards the close of the sixteenth line of the inscription and is continued over the next two and three-quarter lines. The first sixteen lines of the inscription also appear to be in Sanskrit verse and may include other religious hymns. However, the inscription’s poor state of preservation means that none of these verses can be deciphered. Equally difficult to make out are the final lines of the inscription, which contain some verses in the śloka metre. These verses appear to give an account of the person who had the epigraph engraved on the stone and his religious aspirations in doing this meritorious act. His name is not preserved but he seems to have been a monk.
| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Inscription ID | IN03202 |
| Title | Mihintaḷē Trikāyastava Rock Inscription |
| Alternative titles | |
| Parent Object | OB03161 |
| Related Inscriptions | |
| Responsibility | |
| Author | Senarath Paranavitana |
| Print edition recorded by | |
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| Digitally edited by | |
| Edition improved by | |
| Authority for | |
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| Language | संस्कृतम् |
| Reigning monarch | |
| Commissioner | |
| Topic | features verses from religious hymns, including the Trikāyastava, plus the final part of the inscription appears to give an account of the person who had the epigraph engraved on the stone and his religious aspirations in doing this meritorious act |
| Date: | |
| Min | 600 |
| Max | 800 |
| Comment | Basis for dating: palaeography. |
| Hand | |
| Letter size | 13.97 cm |
| Description | The size of the letters ranges from 1½ to 5½ inches (3.81 to 13.97 cm). The script shows many affinities with the Pallava Grantha alphabet of South India and may be attributed to the seventh or eighth century. |
| Layout | |
| Campus: | |
| Width | 502.92 |
| Height | 243.84 |
| Description | 21 lines engraved on the perpendicular surface of a rock. The inscription has been seriously damaged by the action of the weather and possibly also by the destructive attentions of vandals, so much so that large portions of the writing are now totally effaced and many letters, even in the better preserved parts, are not very clear. |
| Decoration | |
| Bibliography | |
| References | Edward Müller made a passing reference to this inscription in his Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon (1883: 52, no. 103b). In his paper ‘Mahāyānism in Ceylon’ (1928: 35–71), Senarath Paranavitana quoted two pādas of two verses in the Sragdhāra metre, occurring in lines 16–19 of this inscription. He later edited and translated the Trikāyastava portion of the inscription in Epigraphia Zeylanica 4 (1934–41) 242–246, no. 31. |
| Add to bibliography | |
| Misc notes | The edition given here deals with the portion of the inscription featuring the Trikāyastava. The words and phrases in parenthesis have been obliterated on the rock but were reconstructed by Senarath Paranavitana from the Tibetan codex of the Trikāyastava, as published by Baron A. von Staël-Holstein in the Bulletin de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, 1911, pp. 837–845 (http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3763259).
In preparing his edition of the inscription, Paranavitana also made use of a version of the Trikāyastava, restored to Sanskrit from a Chinese transliteration, by Sylvain Lévi, as published in Revue de l’histoire des Religions, Tome xxxvi (1896), pp. 17–21 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/23660468). |