Material: Rock

This inscription is cut into the rock at the Gaḍalādeṇiya Vihārē, a fourteenth-century Buddhist shrine situated in Pilimathalawa, near Kandy. Rock-cut steps lead up the north-eastern side of the rock to reach the shrine. A number of inscriptions (including IN03154) are engraved, one above the other, to the right of the steps as one ascends. The present inscription is the earliest and also the longest of these inscriptions, covering more than half of the inscribed rock-surface. It is dated on the full-moon day of the month of Vesaga (Skt. Vaiśākha) in the third year of Bhuvanaikabāhu IV and also mentions the Śaka year 1266, expired. The part of the sentence which contains the date was interpreted by H. C. P. Bell (Report on the Kǟgalla District, p. 92, n. 1) and H. W. Codrington (A Short History of Ceylon, p. 88) to mean that the Śaka year given is the same as the year of accession of Bhuvanaikabāhu. However, Senarath Paranavitana argued that the sentence in fact indicated that the Śaka year in question was equivalent to the third year of the king. Hence the date of the inscription can be understood as the full-moon day of the month of Vesaga in Śaka 1266, which is equivalent to Wednesday 28 April 1344 A.D. The inscription is written in Sinhalese, except for the first line, which contains a Sanskrit śloka in the Indravajrā metre. The text records the foundation of the Buddhist shrine Gaḍalādeṇiya by the great sthavira Dharmmakīrtti. An account of the building of the temple, which comprises more than one-third of the record, is followed by a long list of lands dedicated to it by various personages. The inscription also gives certain details about the architectural features of the shrine and the images and paintings with which it was adorned. The shrine is said to have three storeys, the author of the inscription having apparently counted the terraced roof of the ardha-maṇḍapa and antarāla as the second storey and a cell on a higher level in the vimāna as the topmost storey. The name of the architect who designed the building is given as Gaṇeśvarācāri, which suggests that he was from South India, a supposition supported by the style of the architecture.

Gadaladeniya Vihara, Kandy, Sri Lanka

Sign marking the site of the Gaḍalādeṇiya Rock Inscription of Sēnāsammata Vikrama Bāhu (IN03154).

This inscription is cut into the rock at the Gaḍalādeṇiya Vihārē, immediately below the record of the monk Dharmmakīrtti (IN03166), the founder of the vihara. The Gaḍalādeṇiya Vihārē is situated in Pilimathalawa, near Kandy. The present inscription is dated in the eighth year of Sēnāsammata Vikrama Bāhu cakravartti, who was the founder of Kandy as a capital and reigned from 1469 until 1511 A.D. The text promises that no loss of life shall be inflicted on the people of certain provinces named and declares that the heriot or maḷāraya of those who have fallen in warfare or in the elephant hunt shall, in the absence of an heir, be devoted to the restoration of vihārēs in disrepair.

The inscription is engraved at the bottom of the rock-cut steps on the south-western side of Devanagala, a rock situated about three miles to the south-east of Māvanälla in the Galboḍa Kōraḷē of the Kǟgalla District. These steps lead to the summit of the rock, upon which are the ruins of a massive stone building called Paraṇa Vihāra, an old dāgäba, and an image house of Kandyan style. The inscription was first noticed by Edward Müller in his Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon (1883: 60, 87, 120, no. 135), although he did not recognise the text’s historical significance, which was subsequently highlighted by H. C. P. Bell in his Report on the Kegalla District of the Province of Sabaragamuwa (1904: 73–76).

The inscription is dated to the twelfth year of Parākramabāhu I. This king ascended to the throne in 1153 A.D., hence the inscription must have been engraved in 1164–1165 A.D. It registers a grant of certain lands by the king to the general Kit Nuvaragal (Kitti Nagaragiri) in recognition of the latter’s services in an expedition against the Rāmañña country in the Pagan kingdom (modern-day Burma/Myanmar). The inscription provides valuable information about this expedition. It indicates that the campaign took place in or shortly before the twelfth year of Parākramabāhu’s reign and enables us to identify the Pagan monarch at the time of the conflict Alaungsithu (r. 1112–1167 A.D.). These details are not mentioned in the account of the expedition in the Mahāvaṁsa. Alaungsithu is referred to in the inscription as ‘Bhuvanāditta’, a title which, although applied to several Pagan kings, was particularly associated with him.

Kaludiya Pokuna Archaeological Site, Central Province, Sri Lanka

Detail of Kaludiya Pokuna 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.