IN03138 Kaludiyapokuṇa Cave Inscription
The inscription is engraved on the rock wall of a cave situated about 400 feet to the south-west of the stupa in the ruined monastery at Kalupokuṇa or Kaludiyapokuṇa, which lies on the slopes of a range of hills known as Eravalagala, about a mile and a half to the south-east of Kum̆bukkan̆danvaḷa, in the Vagapaṇaha Pallēsiya Pattu of the Mātaḷē District. The text contains sixty-seven lines, divided into five columns of unequal dimensions. It is dated on the fifth day of the bright half of the lunar month Poson in the eighth year of King Sirisaṅgbo. This biruda was used by a number of kings and it is not possible to identify definitively which one is intended here. However, on palaeographic grounds, Senarath Paranavitana suggests that the monarch in question may be Sena II (r. 866–901) or Kassapa IV (r. 912–929), more probably the former.
The inscription records the gifts made by different individuals for providing food to the inmates of the Dakiṇigiri monastery. The major part of the record is concerned with the gift of a person named Daḷanā, who invested twenty-three kaḷan̆das of gold for the daily supply of two aḍmanā of rice and one aḍmanā of curd and who stipulated that, in the event of dissension among the inmates of the of the monastery, the food intended for them should be thrown to crows and dogs. Evidently, Daḷanā was of opinion that if the members of the saṅgha quarrelled amongst themselves, they were less worthy of the offerings of the pious than such animals.
IN03137 Labuäṭabän̆digala Rock Inscription 2
The inscription is engraved on the surface of the rock a few yards to the south of the ruined stupa at Labuäṭän̆digala, about one and a half miles to the north-east of Moraväva (Morawewa, 8.5897, 80.8352), a village in the Kalpē Kōraḷē of the North-Central Province. It was first recorded for scholarship by H. C. P. Bell in 1892. The inscription does include a date but may be attributed to the basis of palaeography to sometime around the fifth century A.D. It records that a person named Niṭalaviṭiya Sivayi, son of Raṭiya Sumanaya, deposited twenty kahāpaṇas for the benefit of the Devagiri vihara.
IN03136 is engraved immediately above the present record and appears from the palaeography to belong to the same period.
OB03112 Labuäṭabän̆digala Rock
IN03136 Labuäṭabän̆digala Rock Inscription 1
The inscription is engraved on the surface of the rock a few yards to the south of the ruined stupa at Labuäṭän̆digala, about one and a half miles to the north-east of Moraväva (Morawewa, 8.5897, 80.8352), a village in the Kalpē Kōraḷē of the North-Central Province. It was first recorded for scholarship by H. C. P. Bell in 1892. The inscription does include a date but may be attributed to the basis of palaeography to sometime around the fifth century A.D. It records that a certain individual named Sirinakayi deposited one hundred kahāpaṇas, the interest accruing from which was to be given to the monks of the Devagiri monastery for defraying the expenses connected with the vassa festival. Devagiri Vihāra was evidently the name of the monastery which existed on the rock in ancient times.
IN03137 is engraved immediately below the present record and appears from the palaeography to belong to the same period.
OB03111 Palkum̆bura Copper Plate of Bhuvanaika Bāhu VII
IN03135 Palkum̆bura Sannasa of Bhuvanaika Bāhu VII
The inscription is engraved on a charred copper plate. When H. W. Codrington recorded the plate was in the third volume of Epigraphia Zeylanica in the 1930s, he noted that it was in the possession of the in the possession of the Palkum̆bura Vihārē in Hārispattuva of the Kandy District. However, the record relates to a different temple. The plate has been badly damaged by fire. It is dated in the reign of Bhuvanaika Bāhu VII and records a grant of land, subject to a payment to Viṣṇu, to the Mahā Thero of the Senevirat-muḷa establishment.
OB03110 Maḍavaḷa Inscribed Rock
IN03134 Maḍavaḷa Rock Inscription
The inscription is cut in bold letters on a rock in the village of Maḍavaḷa (Madawala) in the Pāta Dumbara division of Kandy District. It records a grant of land made to a silversmith Paramaṇāyā of Siddāvulla and his son Suriyā by King Siri San̆gbō Śrī Parākrama Bāhu VI in the year following the forty-sixth of his reign in the presence of Dantoṭa-vature Devan and Divāṇavatte Laṁkā Adhikārin. The signatures of these dignitaries are reproduced in the upper left-hand corner of the record as Äpaṇa and Joti Siṭāṇa. The latter is probably the ruler of the hill country, whose later rebellion is described in the Rājāvaliya. Parākrama Bāhu VI ascended to the throne in 1412 A.D. Accordingly, the date of the grant – the full moon of Vesak in his forty-seventh year – fell in April 1458.
IN03133 Kevulgama Pillar Inscription
The inscription is engraved on a slab-pillar, which originally stood in Kandēvatta or Kandē Disānāyaka Mudiyansēlāgē-vatta situated in Pamunētänna, a hamlet of Kevulgama village in Gampaha Kōraḷē West of Uḍa Dumbara in Kandy District. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the pillar was blasted in search of hidden treasure. The upper and main part of the pillar were then removed to the local vihārē and built into the inner doorway of the temple, concealing three lines of the inscription at the top and two at the bottom. It was copied in this partially obscured state by the Archaeological Survey in 1909. H. W. Codrington later convinced the priest at the vihārē to excavate the pillar, revealing the hidden lines of the inscription. The remaining fragment of the pillar was also brought by the priest from its original site to the pansala below the temple, enabling Codrington to provide a complete edition of the inscription in the third volume of Epigraphia Zeylanica (pp. 230–235, no. 23). Luckily, the blasting and resulting fragmentation of the pillar did not cause any irreparable damage to the inscription.
The inscription is written in Sinhalese and dated on the first day of the waxing moon of Hila in the first year of king Siri San̆gabo Kālin̆ga Vijaya Bāhu. Three rulers are known to have used the name Kālin̆ga Vijaya Bāhu. In a slab inscription found at the Hatadage in Polonnaruwa (IN03099), Sāhasa Malla is so styled with the prefix Siri San̆gabo, precisely as in the present inscription. According to the Nikāya Saṅgrahava, Māgha also bore the name Kālin̆ga Vijaya Bāhu but it is not known whether he used the biruda Siri San̆gabo. Last of all, Vijaya Bāhu III appears in the Rājaratnākaraya under the name; he was a descendent of Siri San̆gabo. On palaeographic grounds, the present inscription could belong to any of these princes. However, there is no proof that Vijaya Bāhu III ever held Uḍa Dumbara, which is described in the inscription as being in Pihiṭi (the King’s Country). Meanwhile, Māgha was a Kāliṅga invader and oppressed the Sinhalese. Hence, by process of elimination, Codrington identifies Sāhasa Malla as the king being referred to here. Since Sāhasa Malla took the throne in 1200 A.D., the date of the inscription can be fixed as 1 October 1200. The text records a grant to an individual named Gulpiṭi or Gulhiṭi But Pām̆bul-lē-daruvan for loyalty to His Majesty even to the receiving of wounds in his service.