This set of four copper plates are preserved in the Laṅkātilaka Temple at Udunuwara in Kandy District. These plates are dated in the seventh year of Rājāhirājasiṁha, who reigned from 1781 until 1798. The fourth plate is inscribed with grants of lands to the temple from this monarch and his predecessor, Kīrtiśrī Rājasiṁha (r. 1747–1781). The first three plates, meanwhile, are engraved with copies of earlier grants to the temple made by kings Bhuvanaikabāhu IV and Vikramabāhu III in the fourteenth century. These grants were originally recorded on a rock to the south of the temple (IN03212 and IN03213). However, there are some discrepancies between the rock inscriptions and the texts engraved on these plates. It cannot simply be the case that the engravers of the copper-plates struggled to decipher the original inscriptions, since the discrepancies affect portions of the text which remain clearly legible on the rock. Certain discrepancies appear to be the result of the eighteenth-century scribes having adapted the fourteenth-century text to match their notions of propriety and to magnify the part of Senā-Laṁkādhikāra in the grant to the temple. Furthermore, Senarath Paranavitana conjectures that the copper plates were not based directly on the rock inscriptions but were instead copied from earlier copper-plate charters, which contained variant versions of the texts. It certainly seems to have been the case that the grants proclaimed in the rock inscriptions were also recorded on copper plates, since the inscription of Bhuvanaikabāhu declares as much.
[LI. A1–A2]. When One Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty-six years had been completed in the era of the illustrious Śaka (king)—on the fifteenth of the bright half of Vesan̆ga in the third year of me, named Bhuvanaika-bāhu, who has attained to the sovereignty at this time. By Senā-Laṁkādhi-karin born in the Meheṇavara family.
[Ll. A2–B7]. The two Venerable Communities of the eminent Saṁgha in unison caused to be prepared, by making it level, an area sixty and seventy cubits in length and breadth, (respectively), by retaining (it) with granite to the height of a man, and on the stone base (adhiṣṭhāna) thus formed, (caused to be constructed) with many hundreds of thousands of bricks, (a shrine) of four storeys provided with a porch facing the eastern direction, and having constructed of brick five shrines for gods (devāla) at five places outside the moonlight terraces, adorned (that shrine) with ornamental work such as (figures) in relief of siddhas, vidyādharas, elephants, bulls, lions, tigers, kibisi, makara–pat, etc., placed golden pinnacles on the four dāgäbas at the four corners and on the dāgäba on the summit, which was built so as to have an elevation of thirty-two cubits from the base-moulding (of the shrine) up to the pinnacle (of the dāgäba), provided a library inside the uppermost dāgäba, constructing (a chamber) with door-frames and lintels, caused the Tripiṭaka to be transcribed and deposited in that chamber. (The shrine comprised) the fourth storey complete with twenty-eight principal images and a thousand other images (all) executed in painting, the third storey complete with Its Lordship the Recumbent Image, seven carpenters’ cubits in length, and five other images, the second storey complete with the twenty-eight Trees of Wisdom, the Twenty-four Predictions and a thousand images, which (storey) was caused to be constructed by all the chiefs (mudali) and the host together, and the lower-most storey, caused to be constructed by this personage named Senā-Laṁkādhikarī himself, housing Its Lordship the Principal Image, made by installing therein a relic-image with Their Lordships of two hundred and fifty-two relics—(which Image) is seated on the Diamond Throne with back to Its Lordship the Illustrious Great Bodhi-tree beautified with branches and leaves of gold on a Bodhi-tree of copper—and on either side (of the principal Image) two images of gods each five carpenter’s cubits in height, standing with cāmaras in their hands, (and moreover) two images of Lord Maitrī and Lord Lokeśvara of similar height, two images of celestial damsels, their lordships of a thousand painted images, the celestial forms of Śakra, Brahma, Visṇu, Mahesvara, Suyāma, Santusita and others, and the forms of the celestial damsels of all the beings aforesaid—all of these executed on the (makara)-toraṇa of mī wood, (which storey) also contained (representations) of the five hundred and fifty Jātakas and other (subjects), both among the paintings on the ceiling and the paintings on the walls (and was completed) by having made and installed (the figures of) the guardians of the gate and in the shrines of the gods the images of Their Lordships Kihiräḷi-Upulvan, who has assumed (the task of) the protection of Laṁkā, Sumaṇa, Vibhīṣaṇa, Gaṇapati, Khandhakumāra and others, together with images of their divine consorts—the lowermost storey (thus) complete with the images of Buddha and gods enumerated above.
[LI. B7–C4]. In front of this image-house named Laṁkātilaka which we (Bhuvanaikabāhu), the chiefs (mudali) and the hosts in unison caused to be built by spending a sum of thirty-six millions in masuran reckoning including paddy, gold, silver, cloths and other payments in kind, made to numerous artisans including Sthapatirāyara, Senā-Laṁkādhikāra caused to be erected by his sons, ladies of his household and others, a great maṇḍapa, twenty-eight cubits (in length), and on one side of this (maṇḍapa) was installed an image (of the Buddha) within a makara–toraṇa, made of solid bronze, weighing thousands, and equivalent in height and breadth to his own stature. (He) also constructed a kitchen, eleven cubits in length, for cooking offerings of food to the Buddha and the deities above mentioned. To the east, facing the said maṇḍapa, he also caused to be constructed a flight of steps one hundred and twenty cubits in length, and of a breadth sufficient for four or five persons to go along abreast without touching each other body.
He also constructed a boundary wall of granite four hundred cubits (in perimeter) with . . . . . . at the four corners. On the western side he built a great gateway of two storeys, measuring eight cubits in length as well as in breadth, outside which he laid out streets for those engaged in the service of the vihāra, including male slaves, female slaves, workmen and others, to reside in. He also established two convents for the comfortable lodging of the venerable members of the Saṁgha of the two fraternities, including senior theras of moderate wants, flower-gardens and orchards of fruit trees. And whereas Senā-Laṁkādhikāra intimated to us that an endowment should be made for the maintenance of this (shrine) in the future (the following grants have been made):
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[Ll. C4–E4] Please see translation of lines 12–29 of the Laṅkātilaka Rock Inscription of Bhuvanaikabāhu IV (IN03212).
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[Ll. E4–F3]. ‘Should there be any noble persons who would protect and preserve in the said manner this complete act of religious merit, namely the illustrious great vihāra, be it a pre-eminent king already born (i.e. now living) or a pre-eminent king to be born in the future, or a pre-eminent minister already born (i.e. now living), or great dignitaries such as princes, heirs-apparent, bankers, generals, heads of castes, or likewise the illustrious and wealthy members of the army, Tamil as well as Sinhalese, I salute them with my two hands, with the ten-finger-nails close together, placed on my head.’ So saying, that great Senā-Laṁkādhikārī, bearing noble virtues like unto the conduct of a Bodhisattva, made this exhortation.
‘Between giving and the protection of what has been given, protection is the more meritorious. By giving one attains Heaven; by protection, Immortality.’ According to this well-said adage, the argument with regard to the relative benefits of one-self giving and protecting what has been given by others is analogous to that a person who guards a field by having a fence put up derives greater benefit from the harvest than the one who has merely sown the seed, and that a mother who has brought up a child with the protection due to a son obtains greater benefits from that son than the mother who had only given birth to a son. In this wise, any persons who sustain this act of religious merit effected by the king Laṁkā-Senevirat will obtain for themselves happiness in Heaven and the happiness of Nivāṇa; in the end they will realise for themselves the Great Nirvāṇa which is Immortality.
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[Ll. F3–G1] Please see translation of the Laṅkātilaka Rock Inscription of Vikramabāhu III (IN03213).
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[Ll.G1–2]. To the effect that the village of Goḍavela which had formerly been dedicated to the great vihara of Laṁkātilaka has been dedicated (again) to this self-same vihara by me on Tuesday, the sixth day of the waxing moon in the month of Poson in the twenty-first year of me, by the name Kīrtti-Śrī-Rājasiṁha, the Lord of the Three Siṁhalas, (this has been written).
[Ll. G2–G8]. To the effect that the village of Rabbegamu, which had been dedicated formerly to the Laṁkātilaka-vihāra, including high lands and mud lands, house-sites, trees, men attached (to it) and all else, was dedicated (again) to the self-same vihāra by me on Monday, bearing the third tithi of the waxing moon in the month of Il in the seventh (year) of me, named Srī-Rājādhirājasiṁha, for the purpose of maintaining the vihāra, conducting offerings and audiences in this great vihāra of Laṁkātilaka up to (the end of) the pupillary succession of His Reverence Kobbǟkaḍuve Śrīnivāsa who, occupying the position of teacher to us, advises us with regard to conduct according to the religion, also making us proficient in all branches of learning such as letters and writing—(this has been written).
Know therefore that estates and lands have been granted as freehold formerly by great and eminent kings beginning with Bhuvanaikabāhu, and that this dedication has been made having had it written on copper-plates, so that it may not be confiscated in the future by kings, great ministers of kings, and others up to the disappearance of the Śāsana. Should there be any persons hereafter who will cause any obstacle to this they will fall into the eight great hells of which the first is Sañjīva, and suffer great torment there, and will not see deliverance therefore. On the other hand, should there be any persons who will support this by a mere word even, they will obtain the affluence of Heaven and Liberation, and will in the end see the Great Nirvāṇa which is Immortality.