IN03222 Rajagala Inscription of circa 200 B.C. commemorating Saint Mahinda

This inscription is engraved on a rock, which stands among the remains of an extensive ancient monastery on the rocky hill called Rājagala or Rāssahela in the Vävugam Patty of the Batticaloa District. It was discovered in 1935 by W. E. Fernando, the Draughtsman of the Archaeological Department, who had been sent by Senarath Paranavitana to explore the site (see Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Annual Report for 1935, p. 9). Fernando prepared an estampage of the inscription but it did not give a clear reading of the latter part of the inscription, which was faint and covered with moss. A clearer estampage was created sometime later, after the site had been opened up for cultivation and cleared of jungle. The inscription is written in early Brāhmī characters and refers to the two theras called Iḍika (P. Iṭṭhiya) and Mahida (P. Mahinda) in connection with a nearby stupa. Since these two theras are described as having come to the island of Sri Lanka from overseas, the Mahida in question can be identified as Saint Mahinda, who travelled from India to preach Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the third century B.C. It is stated in the chronicle that, after Mahinda’s cremation, half of his bodily relics were distributed across the island, to be enshrined in stupas specially built for the purpose. It would seem that one such stupa was erected at Rājagala and the present inscription was engraved to commemorate this fact. In terms of dating, it is not impossible that the stupa was built shortly after Mahinda’s death, which occurred about 200 B.C., with the inscription being incised around the same time. The palaeography contains nothing that militates against this view.