IN03218 Periyakaḍu-vihāra Rock Inscription of circa 6th century

This inscription was discovered by Senarath Paranavitana in 1931 at the site of an ancient monastery, now called Periyakaḍu-vihāra, near Nälava in the Ihala Visidekē Kōrale of the Hiriyāla Hatpattu, Kuruṇǟgala District. It consists of four lines engraved on a rock and can be dated on palaeographic grounds to the last decades of the fifth or the first half of the sixth century. The epigraph records that an individual named Naga, residing at Taḷahaya, settled a debt that he had incurred and caused the cessation of his slavery in the royal monastery of Ekadora, the latter being the ancient name for Periyakaḍu-vihāra. It is well known that, in ancient Sri Lanka, as in India, one particular class of slave was the iṇa-dāsa – a person who had submitted himself to slavery on account of a debt that he had incurred. In such instances, the payment of the debt, either in money or in services rendered, would automatically result in the cessation of the slavery caused by the debt.