Language: संस्कृतम्

Velaikkara Slab Inscription near the Atadage, Polonnaruwa

The inscription is incised on a fine granite slab found lying prone in the Tōpa-väva quadrangle (the Dalada Maluwa) in Polonnaruwa. The find was reported by H. C. P. Bell in his Annual Report of the Ceylon Archaeological Survey for 1903 (p. 11). The slab was subsequently framed with cement and placed upright near the Atadage in the Tōpa-väva quadrangle, where it stands today. Consisting of forty-nine lines in total, the inscription is written in Tamil with an introductory Sanskrit verse. It was erected by the members of the Vēḷäikkāṟa (or Velaikkara) community. As part of the expeditionary forces of Rājēndra Coḷa I, the Velaikkaras established themselves as a powerful force in northern Sri Lankan following the capture of Mahinda V in 1017–18 A.D. They were subjugated by king Vijaya-Bāhu I in 1073 A.D. but rebelled against his authority eleven years later, after he asked them to fight in his military campaign against their own kinsmen, the Coḷas. Although the king’s forces quickly quelled the rebellion, the Velaikkara community continued to hold considerable power. Indeed, such was their influence that, during the turbulent period of internal conflict that followed Vijaya-Bāhu I’s death, they were entrusted with the protection of the Sacred Tooth-relic Temple, which had been built (probably some twenty or thirty years earlier) by the minister Deva Senāpati under Vijaya-Bāhu’s orders. This inscription was erected around this time to provide written assurance that the Velaikkara soldiers would protect the sacred relics. The first part of the text serves as an introduction, describing Vijaya-Bāhu I’s charitable acts, including the building of the Tooth-relic temple. The second part details the provisions made by the Velaikkaras for the protection of the temple and relics. No date is given in the text but, drawing on a combination of palaeographic and historical evidence, Wickremasinghe argues that it dates from between 1137 and 1153 A.D., belonging either to the reign of Vikkama-Bāhu (1116–1137 A.D.) or, more probably, to that of his son Gaja-Bāhu (1137–1153 A.D.).

The inscription is covers the upper end of the prepared surface of a stone slab, which was discovered in July 1921 in or near a village called Ānaulundāva to the north of Poḷonnaruva. The text consists three lines written in the Sinhalese alphabet of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The third line is no longer legible and the first and second consist only of a number of high sounding titles of honour in Sanskrit. Wickremasinghe notes that these titles are practically identical with those applied to certain members of a guild of merchants called Vīra-Baṇañju or Vīra-Vaḷañjiyar, who are referred to as prominent donors in several Kanarese inscriptions of the twelfth century, including those from Kolhāpūr, Miraj and Mamdāpūr (see Epigraphia Indica 19 [1927-28], pp. 19-41). The inscription would thus seem to suggest that these merchants were present in Sri Lanka in the twelfth century, leading Wickremasinghe to infer the possibility of their having acquired important trading and other concessions during the time of Kīrti Niśśaṅka-Malla. Following their practice in Mysore and elsewhere in India, the merchants may have set up the present slab to record one of their pious gifts to a Hindu temple.

The inscription is incised on both sides of a quadrangular slab, which was discovered sometime before 1874, standing upright at a spot north of the Häṭadāgē in Poḷonnaruva. The text is mostly in Sinhalese but two Sanskrit stanzas in śārdūlavikrīḍita metre make up the first and last five lines; these stanzas are separated from the rest of the text by fish emblems. The inscription gives an account of the parentage and ascent to the throne of Siri San̆gabo Kāliṅga Vijaya-Bāhu, noting that he was the (half-)brother of king Niśśaṅka-Malla and assumed the biruda epithet Sāhaṣa-Malla. It then records that Sāhaṣa-Malla appointed the general Lak-Vijaya-Sin̆gu-Senevi as his prime minister and granted him much wealth.

Whereas most Sri Lankan inscriptions of this period are dated only by the regnal years of ruling monarchs, this record contains a date in the Buddha-varṣa and thus provides a fixed point of historical reference within broader chronologies of the period. The date given in the inscription is 1743 years, 3 months and 27 days of the Buddhavarṣa, Wednesday, the twelfth day of the bright fortnight of the lunar month of Binera (Bhādrapada, Aug.-Sept.). Following Fleet (1909: 331), Wickremasinghe identified this date with Wednesday 23 August 1200 A.D. It refers to Sāhasa-Malla’s anointment as king and not the incision of the inscription. However, the grant recorded in the inscription is described as having taken place in the first year of the king’s reign (between August 1200 and August 1201 A.D.).

This inscription is engraved on both sides of a large slab, which stands near the ancient irrigation canal at Poḷonnaruva. The inscription consists of 65 lines in total but the portion on the second side of the slab is now illegible. The text begins with the auspicious word svasti and a Sanskrit verse. It then states that Vijaya, the eldest son of Siṁha-Bāhu of the Kāliṅga-Cakravarti dynasty came over to Ceylon, defeated the Yakṣas, and became king; that a descendant of his was Parākrama-Bāhu, who brought the Island of Laṅkā under one canopy of dominion; and that this king, desiring the continuation of his dynasty, invited his sister’s son (bǟna) over from Siṁhapura, invested him with royal dignity, and in course of time died. The nephew was thereafter duly anointed king Vijaya-Bāhu, but the day after his accession to the throne some treacherous ministers rose against him. A chieftain named Vijayāyān-tän-nāvan, however, protected the king and, quelling the rebellion, restored peace to the country. In recognition of these distinguished services, king Vijaya-Bāhu granted him heritable lands with certain privileges, the details of which were originally recorded on the second side of the slab. The inscription thus corroborates and expands upon the account of Vijaya-Bāhu’s reign in the Mahāvaṁsa. Vijaya-Bāhu only reigned for a short time, ascending to the throne in 1186 and dying one year later at the hands of Mahinda and Dīpanī.

The inscription is engraved on the western slope of a long hummock of granite rock about a mile to the north of Topaväva. It was found by H. C. P. Bell, the Archaeological Commissioner, in September 1901 whilst exploring a collection of ruins discovered the previous year during the construction of a new road from Minneriya to Poḷonnaruva. Covering a smoothed area of rock, the inscription is located to the north of a flight of steps leading up to a ruined building, which has been identified with the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa (‘joy-conferring pavilion’) of king Niśśaṅka-Malla, who ruled between 1187 and 1196. The purpose of the inscription was to commemorate the consecration of the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa as a sanctuary whereby every one entering its premises had the right of asylum. The text begins with a Sanskrit verse in sragdharā metre, before giving an account of king Niśśaṅka-Malla’s birth and parentage, his administrative and charitable acts, the religious edifices and alms-houses he built, his tours in Ceylon, the so-called invasion of Southern India, and finally the erection and consecration of the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa.