| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Object ID | OB03167 |
| Title | Jetavanārāma Inscribed Stone Fragment |
| Subtitle | |
| Inscription(s) | IN03209 |
| Child Object | |
| Parent Object | |
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| Responsibility | |
| Author | Senarath Paranavitana |
| Metadata recorded by | |
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| Description | |
| Material | Stone / marble |
| Object Type | Stone slab |
| Dimensions: | |
| Width | 10.16 cm |
| Height | 59.055 cm |
| Depth | 13.335 cm |
| Weight | |
| Details | A fragment of an irregularly shaped octagonal stone slab, which appears from its shape to have originally formed a cross-bar of a railing. At one end of the stone is a tenon and probably there was another at the other (now missing) extremity. The stone has been inscribed on seven of its eight facets, with two lines on each face. The writing on five of the facets remains in a good state of preservation but the rest of the inscription has been much damaged, apparently as a result of a deliberate attempt at defacement. |
| History | |
| Created: | |
| Date | |
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| Other ancient history | |
| Found: | |
| Date | 1893 |
| Place | Jētavanārāma |
| Other modern history | |
| Latest: | |
| Date | |
| Place | Colombo Museum |
| Authority | Paranavitana, S. (1934–41). ‘No. 36. A Fragmentary Inscription from Jetavanārāma now in the Colombo Museum,’ Epigraphia Zeylanica 4, pp. 273–285. |
| Details | Unearthed in 1893 by H. C. P. Bell in one of the buildings of the group called monastery L in the extensive monastic complex at Jetavanārāma in Anurādhapura, which was then incorrectly believed to be the Abhayagiri vihara. The fragment was subsequently moved to the National Museum at Colombo. |
| Notes | The stone is the same variety of marble or limestone used in the sculptures which adorned the Buddhist stupas at Amarāvatī and Nāgārjunakoṇḍa in the Kṛishna valley. This variety of stone is not found in Sri Lanka but a few small pieces of sculpture in the same material and in the style character of the Āndhra art have been discovered at Anurādharpura and some other places in the island. There is no doubt that these sculptures were imported to Sri Lanka from the Āndhra country; similarly, the stone on which the present inscription is engraved must have been imported from the same region. It is not possible to tell whether the stone was originally meant for a monument in the Āndhra country or whether it was always intended for export. However, there is reason to believe that the inscription, at least, was engraved after the stone arrived in Sri Lanka. |