Object type: Rock

The inscription is engraved on a low flat hummock of gneiss rock, about eight feet to the south of the ruins of a small rubble-built stupa. The hummock is known locally as Tōṇigala (Thonigala) or Nāgaragala and lies in the jungle about 6 miles (9.5 km) from Vavuniya on the Horowpotana Road, close to the border between Northern Province and North-Central Province. The inscription was recorded by Henry Parker in 1886 and listed in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for 1892 but no attempt was made to interpret the text before Senarath Paranavitana’s edition in the early 1930s (Epigraphia Zeylanica 3, pp. 172–188). The inscription is dated in the third year of Śrīmeghavarṇṇa (Sri Meghavarna), the son of Mahāsena, who reigned in the fourth century A.D. It is a private document, and the king’s name is introduced only for purposes of dating. The text records that a certain minister deposited some quantities of grain and beans with a guild in the northern quarter of the city with the stipulation that the capital should remain unspent and the interest should be utilised for providing meals to the monks of the Yahisapavata monastery during the vassa season of every year. The inscription describes how much interest is to be taken and outlines the different kinds of provisions to be supplied for feeding the monks.

The inscription is engraved on the surface of a low, flat rock amidst the ruins of an ancient monastery at Vihāregala. This site lies at the southern end of the Puliyankuḷam range of hills, about two and half miles to the north-west of Galenbin̆dunuväva in the Uḍḍiyankuḷam Kōraḷē of the North-Central Province, and to the east of the village named Mahakälǟgama (Maha Kelegama, 8.28531, 80.680939). The inscription records that king Gajabāhu Gāmaṇī Abhaya re-granted the Uppaladoṇika tank, originally given by King Saba, to the Ekadvāra Monastery. The king in question is Gajabahu I, who reigned from 113 to 135 A.D. An earlier inscription (IN03122) is inscribed on the same rock as the present record, recording king Saba’s original grant. The two inscriptions were first recorded in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for 1893 (p. 7). The Uppadoṇika tank to which they refer is apparently the one now known as the Pahala Kayinattama Wewa, which lies only two miles north of the ruined monastery. An inscription on the bund of the Pahala Kayinattama Wewa (IN03121) confirms that it was given by king Saba to the Ekadvāra monastery.

The inscription is engraved within an outline framing on the dressed surface of a low, flat rock amidst the ruins of an ancient monastery at Vihāregala. This site lies at the southern end of the Puliyankuḷam range of hills, about two and half miles to the north-west of Galenbin̆dunuväva in the Uḍḍiyankuḷam Kōraḷē of the North-Central Province, and to the east of the village named Mahakälǟgama (Maha Kelegama, 8.28531, 80.680939). The inscription records that king Saba granted a tank named Uppaladoṇika to the monks to the Ekadvāra monastery. The king in question is Subha, who reigned between 60 and 66 A.D. A later inscription (IN03123) is inscribed on the same rock as the present record, in which king Gaja Bahu I (113–135 A.D.) re-grants the tank to the monastery. The two inscriptions were first recorded in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for 1893 (p. 7). The Uppadoṇika tank to which they refer is apparently the one now known as the Pahala Kayinattama Wewa, which lies only two miles north of the ruined monastery. An inscription on the bund of the Pahala Kayinattama Wewa (IN03121) confirms that it was given by king Saba to the Ekadvāra monastery.

The inscription is engraved on a rock on the embankment of the Pahala Kayināṭṭamaväva (Pahala Kayinattama Wewa) in the Uḍḍiyankuḷam Kōraḷē of the North-Central Province. The text registers a grant to the Ekadoraya monastery by king Saba. It does not explicitly state what is being granted but, since the inscription is located on the embankment of a tank, it is obvious that the tank itself is the object of the grant. From the contents of two related rock-inscriptions found two miles to the south of the present record (IN03122 and IN03123), Senerath Paranavitana was able to identify king Saba mentioned here as Subha, who reigned between 60 and 66 A.D.

The inscription is carved on the sloping side of a gneiss boulder, which stands just to the west of a larger cluster of boulders and caverns on the beach at Kuccavēli (Kuchchaveli) – a small fishing-village in Kaḍḍukkuḷam East, twenty-one miles to the north of Trincomalee. To the right of the inscription, an area of the boulder’s surface measuring about four feet (121.92 cm) square has been partitioned into sixteen compartments of equal proportions, into each of which has been carved in low-relief a representation of a stūpa. The inscription is written in Sanskrit and consists of two verses in the Upajāti and Vasantatilakā metres. The palaeography indicates a date later than the fifth century A.D. and earlier than the eighth. From the degree of development in the script, Senarath Paranavitana tentatively ascribes the record to the seventh century A.D., making it one of the earliest Sanskrit inscriptions in Sri Lanka. The contents of the inscription do not furnish any more precise information about the date. It simply states the pious wish of the author that, by the merit he has gained (presumably through making the carvings on the boulder), he may become a Buddha in the future for the deliverance of suffering humanity.

Discovered for scholarship by H.C.P. Bell in September 1897, the inscription is cut into the surface of the rock near the crest of a ridge at Mōlāhiṭiyavelēgala, a low reach of rock running East–West in parallel with the Dim̆bulāgala hills, about ten miles to the south-east of Poḷonnaruva. Four inscriptions, including the present record, are engraved at the termination of two long parallel lines in the rock, possibly marking a “procession path”.

The present record refers to another inscription, which is incised directly above it. The two inscriptions are surrounded by a decorative frame and it is clear that they are intended to be read together. The upper inscription (IN03118) records that king Abaya donated a canal to the monks residing in the Pilipavata monastery. The lower inscription (i.e. the present record)  records the confirmation of this donation by king Naka. Senarath Paranavitana identified Abaya and Naka – the two kings mentioned in these records – with, respectively, Bhātika Abhaya (r. 20 B.C.–A.D. 9) and his younger brother and successor Mahānāga, surnamed Mahādāṭhika (r. A.D. 9–21).