Language: සිංහල

Ruwanwelisaya, Anuradhapura

Ruanweli Dagoba, c. 1891. Image from: Ricalton, James, (1891). ‘The City of the Sacred Bo-Tree (Anuradhapura),’ Scribner’s Magazine 10, pp. 319–336, image opposite p. 328.

This inscription is engraved on a large stone slab in the pavement of the Ruvanvälisǟya at Anurādhapura in close proximity to its southern vāhalkaḍa. A short donative records that the slab was incorporated into the paving at this spot in the ninth century. Before that, the slab seems to have served as the landing above a flight of steps in some old building. The inscription consists of twenty-two lines and was evidently never completed, since the last line ends abruptly before coming to a period and the horizontal partitions that separate the lines of writing are only complete up to the fourteenth line. It seems that, for some reason or other, the engraving of the inscription was interrupted before the final touches could be completed, perhaps as a result of the many internal revolutions and foreign invasions that marked the early thirteenth century in Sri Lanka. Although the inscription was apparently in relatively good state of preservation when it was discovered for scholarship in the nineteenth century, it has since suffered considerable damage, largely as a result of carts having been driven over the slab during the restoration of the dāgäba. The language of the inscription is Sinhalese, although it also includes a large proportion of Sanskrit words. The record is dated in the second year of Kalyāṇavatī (r. 1202–1208) and gives an account of the offerings made to the Ruvanvälisǟya by a minister called Vijayānāvan, his wife and his sister’s son. Vijayānāvan is described as having administered the treasuries of kings, including Parākramabāhu.

This inscription is engraved on all four sides of a fragmentary stone pillar in the collection of the National Museum in Colombo. The provenance of the pillar has not been recorded. It appears to have been repurposed, sometime after it was originally inscribed and erected, as a riser in a flight of steps, resulting in the loss of some letters from the inscription. The text originally continued on the lower half of the pillar, which has been lost. The inscription can be dated on palaeographic grounds to the early tenth century. From the surviving portion of the text, it is clear that the record registered a grant of immunities by a king who had the viruda name of Abhā Salamevan and who is described as a brother of King Sirisaṅgbo Kasub (Sirisaṅghabodhi Kassapa). Senarath Paranavitana argues that the latter monarch is probably Kassapa IV, since he was the only monarch of the name who ruled in this period and had the viruda title Sirisaṅgbo. However, Kassapa IV is not known to have any younger brothers who succeeded him on the throne. Hence the identity of the Abhā Salamevan of the present inscription remains unclear.

This inscription is engraved on a rock near the ruined stupa on the ancient site now known as Veheragala at Tim̆biriväva in the Mahapotāna Kōraḷē West of the Anurādhapura District. There are four other inscriptions on the same rock, all of which are more or less fragmentary. Written in the Brāhmī script of the early centuries A.D., these records were first brought to notice by H. C. P. Bell in 1896. The present inscription registers the gift of a tank by a lady named Anuḷabi to the monastery called Gagapavata, which was doubtless the name of the ancient vihara at the site. It is dated in the second year of King Mekavaṇa Aba, who is described as the son of the great king Sirinaka (Sirināga). Bell took Mekavaṇa Aba to the same as Sirimeghavaṇṇa, the son of Mahāsena. However, highlighting a number of flaws in Bell’s reasoning, Senarath Paranavitana argued instead that Mekavaṇa Aba should be identified with Goṭhābhaya, the father of Mahāsena. The identity of Goṭhābhaya’s father is not recorded in the chronicles but Paranavitana suggested that he may have been Sirināga II, identifying both kings as members of the dynasty founded by Vasabha. (Paranavitana’s genealogical table of this dynasty can be viewed here.)

Vessagiri rock shelters, Anurādhapura

This inscription is engraved on a small, solitary boulder near the ruined structure to the west of Rock B at the site now called Vessagiri, near Anurādhapura. The record dates from the third or early fourth century A.D. It is unusual because it records a grant of tanks and villages made by one king, presumably to the monastery on the site, but is dated in the reign of another monarch. The king who donated the tanks and villages is named as Tisa (Tissa), the son of Sirinaka and grandson of Tisa. Meanwhile, the king in whose reign the inscription is dated is called Sirinaka (Sirināga), the son of Tisa and grandson of Sirinaka. Although the repetition of family names is somewhat confusing, it appears from the text that Sirinaka, the publisher of the grant, was the son of king Tisa, the donor of the benefactions. Both kings were, it seems, named after their grandfathers and their genealogy may be diagrammatically represented as follows:

Tisa Maharaja

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Sirinaka Maharaja

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Tisa Maharaja (the donor)

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Sirinaka Maharaja (the publisher)

The identification of these kings presents no difficulty as the chronicles mention only two kings named Sirināga, who were indeed related as grandfather and grandson. The publisher of this inscription must therefore have been Sirināga II. Working backwards, his father – the donor of the grant – must have been Vohārika Tissa, who is described in the chronicles as Sirināga I’s son. This king’s personal name was ‘Tissa’ but he was given the additional epithet ‘Vohārika’ to commemorate his knowledge of the law.

This inscription is engraved on the wall of a cave at Habässa, the site of an ancient monastery in the forest on the right bank of the Kum̆bukkan Oya, about six miles south-east of the village called Okkampiṭiya in the Buttala Kōraḷē of the Ūva Province. At this site are two long and narrow hummocks of gneiss rock running north-west to south-east. Both have steep overhanging sides, forming a number of caves with drip-ledges. The cave containing the present inscription is one of three caves situated at the southern extremity of the southern range of rock.

The inscription can be dated on the basis of the script and language to the second century A.D. It records the grant of an irrigation channel and three fields to the ancient monastery of Ulibikala-Naka-maha-vihara by the uparāja Naka (Nāga), grandson of King Vahaba (Vasabha) and son of King Utara (Uttara). No king named Uttara is mentioned in the chronicles of Sri Lanka, hence this inscription is of great historical importance as a record of his existence. As his son, Nāga, is described here as a grandson of King Vasabha (r. 66–110 A.D.), it is clear that Uttara was either a son or a son-in-law of the latter – probably a son, since royal genealogies from this period tend to trace the descent directly on the paternal side. The Mahāvaṁsa and the other chronicles mention only one son of Vasabha, namely Vaṁkanāsika Tissa (Tissa the Crooked-Nosed), who succeeded him as king. ‘Uttara’ may, therefore, have been another name of Tissa but it is equally possible that certain historical facts were omitted from the chronicles and that Vasabha did, in fact, have another son who became king.

The present inscription was probably engraved during the reign of Tissa’s son and successor, Gajabāhu I. However, it is noteworthy that the donor of this inscription – an individual called Nāga, who is described here as holding the subordinate rank and office of uparāja – did not deem it necessary to mention the paramount sovereign of the day. In later medieval periods, the title uparāja was generally used by the heir-apparent and the same may be the case here. This conjecture finds support in the chronicles, which record that Gajabāhu’s successor was Mahallaka Nāga (‘Old’ Nāga), indicating that Tissa did have an heir called Nāga.