IN03226 Andaragollǟgala Rock Inscription

This inscription is engraved on a rock-boulder at Andaragollǟgala to the south of a ruined brick structure which was probably an ancient stupa. Andaragollǟgala is a group of detached rocks about three miles south-east of Maradanmaḍuva and about three-quarters of a mile east of Tim̆biriväva, close to the eastern boundary of the Vilpattu National Park. The inscription was discovered in 1953 by C. W. Nicholas, the head of the Wild Life Department. An estampage was prepared by the Archaeological Department in 1954 and the record was included as number 46 in the List of Inscriptions in the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Annual Report for that year. The inscription records that an individual called Girivela Cada freed his son from slavery. It is dated in the second year of a king named Daḷa-Opatisa (Dāṭhopatissa) but it is not clear from the text whether the monarch in question was the first or second of that name. Both Dāṭhopatissa I and II reigned in the seventh century, the former from 640 until 652 and the latter from 664 until 673. Senarath Paranavitana draws attention to the fact that the king in the present inscription is given the sovereign epithet of mapurumuka. By contrast, the Dakkhiṇa-vihāra inscription, which is also dated in the reign of a king called Dāṭhopatissa, uses the epithet purumaka. This may suggest that two inscriptions belong to different kings. Since there is some reason to suppose that the Dakkhiṇa-vihāra inscription is a record of Dāṭhopatissa I, it may be that the present epigraph belongs to  Dāṭhopatissa II. However, this is only conjecture.