IN03208 Aṁpiṭiya Rock Inscription

This inscription is engraved on a rock, which was found buried at a depth of several feet below the surface of a terraced paddy-field known as Mäddē-patana, situated in the village of Aṁpiṭiya in the Gandahayē Kōraḷē of Pāta Hēvāhäṭē, a division of Kandy District. The contents of the epigraph record the dedication of the village of Aṁpiṭiyē Maddegama to the god of Senkaḍagala, witnessed by the prince Arāvē Arttha-nāyaka ǟpā in the reign of Siri San̆gbō Śrī Vikrama-bāhu, ‘on the day on which the tusker of the god of Senkaḍagala was taken’. The significance of this event is obscure, the usual word in use for capturing a wild elephant being ban̆dinavā. Given that the inscription can be dated on palaeographic grounds to the fourteenth century, the king named in the record can be identified as Vikrama-bāhu III, who came to the throne about 1357 and reigned until at least 1374. In the past, this monarch was popularly credited with making Senkaḍagala (modern-day Kandy) into a capital city but H. W. Codrington has shown that this legend does not reflect the historical reality: it was not until the reign of Sēnāsammata Vikrama-bāhu, a ruler of the hill-country in the latter half of the fifteenth century, that Senkaḍagala was established as a major capital. However, as the present inscription shows, the city did exist prior to this date. Another early reference to the city occurs in the Sagama inscription (IN03211), which mentions Senkaḍagala Nātha-sāmī. This deity is doubtless the same as the ‘god of Senkaḍagala’ referred to here. The Nātha Dēvālē – the oldest temple in Kandy – is dedicated to the god’s cult.