Material: Rock / granite

Gal Vihara, Polonnaruwa. Photograph by John & Co. Published in: The Buddhist Annual of Ceylon, vol. 3, no. 2 (1928), p. 89.

The inscription is engraved on the smoothed area of sloping rock to the right of the cave entrance.

The inscription is incised on the sloping granite rockface immediately to the right of the central cave shrine at the rock-cut temple known as Gal-vihāra, which is situated in Polonnaruwa, about one and a half miles north of the Promontory. Famed for its four large rock-relief statues of the Buddha, this temple was originally known as Uttarārāma (North Park). It was built by king Parakkama-Bāhu I, who reigned between 1153 and 1186 A.D. The inscription sets out a code of conduct for the Buddhist clergy. It is divided into two parts, each one terminating in a fish symbol. The first part contains a historical introduction (lines 1–18) and the second part details disciplinary injunctions (lines 18–51).

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.