Object type: Pillar

This inscription is engraved on the four faces of a rough stone pillar, which Senarath Paranavitana reported in the 1930s to be lying near the village called Viyaulpata (possibly Wayaulpota) in the Ināmaḷuva Kōraḷē of the Mātalē District. Since the stone of the pillar has not be dressed, its edges are not straight. The inscription runs vertically along the height of the pillar but, due to the uneven shape and rough surface of the pillar, the lines of the text are irregular and not of equal length. The record is dated in the first year of a king styled Sirisaṁboy and contains an edict issued by the heir-apparent (mahāpā) of the time, named Minhindal (Mahinda), granting certain immunities to a monastic dwelling called Sāṅguṇā-panhala. The viruda title ‘Sirisaṁbo’ or ‘Sirisaṁboy’ was borne by several kings of the ninth century, to which period this inscription has to be assigned on palaeographic grounds. The only Sirisaṁbo of this century whose mahāpā was called Mahinda was Sena II. Hence we can confidently assign the inscription to his reign, which began around 846 or possibly 866 and continued for thirty-four years. The inscribed pillar was set up and its edict proclaimed by two officers named Kaṇṇā (Kṛṣṇa) and Rāvaṇā, who are described as members of the body-guard, presumably meaning the mahāpā’s body-guard. These two officials, before setting up the pillar, are said to have assembled together the notables in the vicinity, probably from the monastic establishment mentioned in the inscription. This was doubtless done to give publicity to the royal order, so that the privileges granted by it might be respected by those concerned.

Magul Maha Viharaya, Lahugala

This fragmentary inscription is engraved on three sides of a broken stone pillar found among the ruins of an ancient monastery situated in the Pānama Pattu of the Batticaloa District, about a mile to the south of the eighth mile-stone on the road from Potuvil to Vällavāya. The ancient name of this monastery was Rūṇu-maha-vehera; it is now known as Magul-maha-vihāra. The upper half of the pillar has been broken off and lost, resulting in the loss of large parts of the inscription. The record can be dated, on palaeographic grounds, to the fourteenth century. The extant portion of the inscription records that Rūṇu-maha-vehera, the ancient monastery at the site, was completely renovated by Vihāra-mahā-devī, the consort of the two brother kings named Parākramabāhu, after it had fallen into ruin and that she endowed it with lands for its maintenance. It seems that the inscription originally included a detailed account of the successful campaign fought by the brother kings after the Coḷa army but the inscription is mutilated just at the point where the reference to this historical event begins. The pillar was apparently set up after the demise of these kings, since the inscription tells us in the past tense that Vihāra-mahā-devī ‘was the chief consort of the two brother kings’. Since these brothers are described as ruling over Rohaṇa in another inscription found at Magul-maha-vihāra (IN03188), it seems likely that they were local princes whose authority was confined to this region, rather than paramount sovereigns of Sri Lanka.

This inscription is engraved on all four sides of a quadrangular stone pillar, which was discovered at the eastern porch of the Quadrangle at Poḷonnaruva and afterwards moved to the Archaeological Museum at Anurādhapura. The pillar’s base and capital are both missing and it seems to have been utilised as a lintel, for on one side are two square mortice holds, which were obviously intended for fitting it to the two door-jambs. H. C. P. Bell included the pillar in the list of inscriptions copied between 1901 and 1905 in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for 1905 (p. 40, no. 42). The inscription can be assigned to around the tenth century A.D. on palaeographic grounds. It is dated in the second year of a king styled Sirisaṅgbo, whom Bell identified with Mahinda IV (r. 975–991 A.D.). However, this identification is untenable, since the mother and father of the king in question are named in the inscription as Saṅgā-räjna and Mihind-maha[rad] respectively. In the tenth century, only two kings were sons of a monarch called Mihind (Mahinda). These were Sena V (r. 991–1001) and Mahinda V (r. 1001–1037), the two sons of Mahinda IV. The former used the viruda title Salamevan and cannot therefore be identified with the Sirisaṅgbo referred to here. Instead, the monarch of the present inscription must be Mahinda V, who was entitled to the name of Sirisaṅgbo from his place in the order of succession. The inscription records a grant of immunities to land in the village of Muhund-naru, in the Eastern Quarter, belonging to a pirivena, of which the name is obliterated, in the monastery called Mahamevnā Tisaram.

The inscription is engraved on all four sides of the lower part of a pillar, which was unearthed in about 1931 in the paddy field at Mäda-Ulpota, an abandoned village in the Gan̆gala Uḍasiya Pattuva of the Mātaḷē District. The pillar fragment now stands in a chena adjoining the field. The inscription was first copied for scholarship by Senarath Paranavitana in July 1932. The name of the king in whose reign the document was dated has not been preserved. The inscription records the grant of immunities to a land which was situated in a village called Panāväli and which, apparently, was set apart for the benefit of the servitors at the Council Hall (attāṇi–hala). In style, the inscription resembles the Poḷonnaruva Council Chamber pillar inscription (IN03158) and enables us to settle one or two doubtful points in the reading of that record.

This inscription is engraved across all four sides of the upper half of an inscribed pillar situated at the bottom of the rough stone steps leading to the top of the hill at the ancient monastery known as Rajamaha Vihāra at Vihāregama in the Uḍukaha Kōraḷē West of the Dam̆badeṇi Hatpattu in the Kuruṇǟgala District. The pillar is said to have been moved to its present site from a neighbouring chena in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century but its original location is not known. The lower portion of the pillar is missing. The inscription was copied for scholarship for the first time by Senarath Paranavitana in 1931 (see Ceylon Journal of Science, Section G, vol. ii, p. 211).

The inscription is dated in the ninth year of an unnamed king who was the elder brother or cousin (bǟ) of the heir-apparent (mahapā), also unnamed, by whom the edict was issued. On the basis of the palaeography, the inscription can be assigned to a reign between Kassapa IV (r. 912–929) and Mahinda V (r. 1001–1017). Of the kings who reigned during this period, Senarath Paranavitana identified two who reigned for more than nine years and whose heir-apparent was either their younger brother or cousin, namely Kassapa V (r. 929–939) and Sena V (r. 991–1001). This inscription therefore probably belongs to one or other of these kings, although without further information it is impossible to draw any firm conclusions.

The text registers the gift of a land, the name of which is not preserved, to a person named Niligalu Bud, and the immunities granted thereto. In style, the document closely resembles the Poḷonnaruva Council Chamber pillar inscription (IN03158), many words and phrases being peculiar to both.