Metadata
Object ID OB03126
Title Saṁgamu Vihāra
Subtitle
Inscription(s) IN03153
Child Object
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Responsibility
Author Senarath Paranavitana
Metadata recorded by
Authority for metadata
Metadata improved by
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Description
Material Rock
Object Type Rock
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Details An ancient Buddhist monastery situated on the low, rocky hill at Saṁgamuva, a village about two miles to the north-east of Gokarälla, in the Häḍahaya Kōraḷē of the Kuruṇǟgala District. The neighbouring Meddeketiya tank, when full, approaches almost to the foot of the hill on the eastern side, along which ran the old path leading to the shrines and monastic dwellings. A series of over one hundred steps, cut into the bare side of the rock, lead up the side of the hill to a plateau, upon which stand the ruins of an old stupa and other monastic buildings. A twelfth-century inscription detailing a peace treaty between Gajabāhu II and Parakramabāhu I (IN03153) is engraved at the top of the steps, to the left as one ascends the hill. The modern vihara is also in this area, together with a flat rock bearing fragmentary traces of several inscriptions, which may be dated on palaeographic grounds between the fifth and seventh centuries. From the plateau, rough stone steps lead to a shrine, dating from the Kandyan period, built in a cave near the top of the hill. A pre-Christian Brāhmī inscription is incised on the drip-ledge of the cave, though it is now concealed by a later wall. In the vicinity of this shrine, a gigantic rock boulder, under which was another, more spacious cave, has tumbled down at an unknown period, damaging the Brāhmī inscription on its drip-ledge. There are four more caves at the site: two near the shrine, one at the foot of the hill close to the tank, and the last, the most spacious one at the site, about 100 yards to the south of the shrine.
History
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Found:
Date 1931
Place Sangamu
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Place Sangamu
Authority Paranavitana, S. (1934–41). ‘No. 1. Saṁgamu Vihāra Rock-Inscription,’ Epigraphia Zeylanica 4, pp. 1–8.
Details The site and its inscriptions were first explored and recorded for scholarship by Senarath Paranavitana in 1931 (see Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Annual Report for 1930–31, p. 5).
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