Object type: Rock

Vessagiri, or more commonly in Sinhalese Vessagiriya, is the traditional name of a forest-bound cluster of rocks in Anurādhapura. The site features three hummock-boulders of gneiss rock in a line from north to south (Rock A, Rock B and Rock C). The hummocks are surrounded by the ruins of a monastery, which had its cells in the caves of Rocks B and C (twenty-three caves in total). Some of the caves are inscribed with dedications to the Buddhist priesthood, plus there are a number of other rock inscriptions at the site.

The present inscription is engraved on the eastern face of Rock B. In 1904, Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe noted the existence on an inscription – or possibly two inscriptions – in this area but he was unable to make out their contents. Two decades later, Senarath Paranavitana gave a more detailed account of the inscriptions on this part of the rock, identifying four separate records, one of which is dealt with here (for the others, see IN03022, IN03170 and IN03171). None of these four inscriptions is dated. However, they can be assigned on palaeographic grounds to the sixth century A.D. It is also significant that one (IN03022) refers to Boya-Opulavana-Kasapi-gari (P. Bodhi-Uppalavaṇṇa-Kassapagiri) and another (IN03171) mentions Kasaba-giriye. These were alternative names for the ancient monastery of Issarasamaṇa-vihāra, which Paranavitana connects with modern Vessagiriya. This monastery was richly endowed by king Kassapa I, who renamed the foundation after himself and his two daughters, Bodhi and Uppalavaṇṇā, as reflected in the inscriptions here. Hence these records must postdate Kassapa I’s accession to the throne, which Paranavitana places around 526 A.D. All four inscriptions record how certain named individuals obtained freedom from slavery for themselves or their relatives. In one of the inscriptions (IN03171), this freedom is said to have been granted after payments were made to the monastery, suggesting that the monastery owned the slaves in question.

Vessagiri rock shelters, Anurādhapura

The inscription is engraved on a rock at Nāgirikanda, situated in the Kadavat Kōraḷē of the North-Century Province. This site was the location of an ancient Buddhist monastery, although most vestiges of this ancient foundation were destroyed or obscured by when a new shrine was constructed on the same spot during the Kandyan period. Two inscriptions, both of them engraved on rocks, have been discovered at this place. The earlier one is a short record of three lines, which can be assigned on palaeographic grounds to about the fourth century A.D. The other inscription, which is later and longer, is dealt with here. It was first published in a scholarly context by Edward Müller in his Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon (1883: 51, 77 and 111, no. 97b) and later featured in the list of inscriptions in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for 1890 (p. 9). The inscription was recopied in 1894 under the direction of H. C. P. Bell and again in 1928 by Senarath Paranavitana, who went on to produce an improved edition and translation of the text for the fourth volume of Epigraphia Zeylanica (pp. 115–128, no. 14). The script of this inscription is of considerable importance, since it represents the transitional stage between Brāhmī and the medieval Sinhalese. The record dates from the sixth century and registers the gift of some tanks and paddy fields to the ancient monastery on the site of the inscription, which was called Bamaṇagiriya, by a king whose name appears to be Maha-Kumaratasa, although that part of the text is quite worn. Paranavitana identified this monarch with the king called Kumāra-Dhātusena in the Mahāvaṁsa and Kumāradāsa in the Pujāvalī and subsequent Sinhalese chronicles. There is some uncertainty around the exact date of this king’s accession to the throne with Geiger, Wijesinghe and Wickremasinghe placing this event in 513, 515 and 570 A.D. respectively.

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.

The inscription is engraved on a flat rock in the village of Koṭṭangē in the Mādurē Kōraḷē of the Vǟuḍavili Hatpattu in the Kuruṇǟgala District. When Senarath Paranavitana visited the site in 1931, the rock lay just within the boundaries of a coconut plantation called the Ōgoḍapola Estate in the Delviṭa Group. It was at that time completely buried under about two feet of earth, soil having washed down the hillside and covered the rock. However, a local villager who had seen the rock some years previously alerted Paranavitana to its existence. Paranavitana was then able to remove the earth and reveal the inscription, which he copied for the Archaeological Department. The existence of an inscription at this place had previously been mentioned in the Return of the Architectural and Archaeological and other Antiquities existing in Ceylon, which was published by the Ceylon Government in 1890, but it is not clear whether the inscription in question was the present record or IN03164, which is engraved on another rock in the same vicinity.

No date is given in the inscription. It opens with a Sanskrit verse, a significant portion of which is no longer legible. The rest of the inscription is written in Sinhalese and records that a mahāthera of the Vilgammuḷa fraternity, whose name is obliterated, granted to the saṅgha the pamuṇu village of Kaḷama and some other lands belonging to him. This mahāthera is said to have been the grandson of a personage who belonged to the Lämäni family but, unfortunately, the name of the latter is not preserved. We may presume that the mahāthera was a grandson of Loke Arakmenā, to whom the village was originally granted by Lokeśvara, as recorded in the other inscription at this site (IN03164). This supposition gains further strength from the fact that, as shown by the title ‘Arakmenā’, general Loke belonged to the Lämäni stock; his connection with the Vilgammuḷa fraternity is also shown by the stipulation in the first inscription that any disputes concerning the lands in question were to be settled by a mahāthera of that religious institution.

The inscription is incised in two panels either side of a natural crevice on the top of a boulder in an area of land known as Puvak-aram̆ba or Koṭṭangē-aram̆ba in the village of Koṭṭangē in the Mādurē Kōraḷē of the Vǟuḍavili Hatpattu in the Kuruṇǟgala District. It was first copied for scholarship by the Archaeological Department in 1931. The existence of an inscription at this place had previously been mentioned in the Return of the Architectural and Archaeological and other Antiquities existing in Ceylon, which was published by the Ceylon Government in 1890, but it is not clear whether the inscription in question was the present record or IN03165, which is engraved on another rock in the same vicinity.

The present inscription registers the grant of a village named Kaḷama to the general Loke Arakmenā, by the king Lokeśvara-bāhu Cakravartti, in recognition of the former’s services in defeating the Coḷas. The name Lokeśvara-bāhu in this record obviously stands for Lokis-sara or Lokeśvara of the chronicles. Two rulers of this name are mentioned in the historical writings of Sri Lanka, both of whom occupied the throne for short periods in troubled times. On palaeographic grounds, Senarath Paranavitana assigned this record to the second of these kings, who reigned for seven months at Poḷonnaruva in 1210 and was preceded and succeeded on the throne by queen Līlāvatī. The encounter, referred to in this record, between the Coḷas and the Sinhalese – presumably on Sri Lankan soil – is not mentioned in the chronicles.

Gadaladeniya Vihara, Kandy, Sri Lanka

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