Object type: Stone slab

This inscription is engraved on a stone slab, which was discovered by Senarath Paranavitana in 1933. Paranavitana found the slab among the ruins of a Śaiva kōvil at a place named Pālamōṭṭai near Kantaḷāy in the Trincomalee District of the Eastern Province. The architectural style of these ruins suggests that they date from the Poḷonnaruva period – a conclusion which is confirmed by the inscription. The inscription is badly weathered and some letters in the first four lines can only be read conjecturally. Due to the damaged condition of the record, it is difficult to decipher the name of the king in whose reign the record is dated. Senarath Paranavitana initially read the king’s name as Jayabāhu and the regnal year as the eighth (Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Annual Report for 1933, p. 14). However, after consulting with K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer, Paranavitana revised his reading, taking the king’s name to be Vijayabāhu and the number of the regnal year, which is given in figures, to be forty-two (Epigraphia Zeylanica 4, pp. 192–193). If these readings are correct, the inscription can be assigned to the reign of Vijayabāhu I (r. 1056–1111), although this cannot be accepted with certainty.

The purpose of the inscription is to register donations to the god Śiva in the temple named Teṉ-Kailāsam (the Southern Kailāsam) at Kantaḷāy by a female Brahmin named Nāgaiccāṉi in memory of her husband. The inscription also records that the shrine had the name of Vijayarāja Īśvaram and that Kantḷāy was also called Vijayarāja Caturvedimaṅgalam. The appellation of the shrine suggests that it was founded by or under the patronage of Vijayabāhu I. The chronicles and other inscriptions represent this monarch as a great patron of Buddhism but clearly his zeal for Buddhism did not prevent him from extending his patronage to other faiths practiced by his subjects. The term ‘Caturvedimaṅgalam’ frequently features in South Indian inscriptions, where it is appended to the names of villages inhabited by Brahmins. As it was called Vijayarāja Caturvedimaṅgalam, Kantaḷāy must have had a colony of Brahmins who lived there under the protection of Vijayabāhu I. An inscription of king Niśśaṁka Malla found at the site (IN03105) indicates that Kantaḷāy kept its character as a seat of Brahmins for at least a century longer. In the present inscription, the charitable endowment is placed under the protection of the Veḷaikkāra regiment of Śrī Vikkirama Calāmega. As indicated by the Poḷonnaruva Slab Inscription of the Vēḷäikkāṟas (IN03103), the practice of placing a religious institution and its endowments under the protection of a regiment like the Veḷaikkāras was not unknown.

Magul Maha Viharaya, Lahugala

This inscription is engraved on a stone slab found to the left of the flight of steps at the entrance to a ruined structure on the site 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 present inscription can be dated, on palaeographic grounds, to the fourteenth century. It is written as a palimpsest over a long tenth-century inscription which has thus been obliterated, save for thirteen lines at the end. The later 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 Pärakumbā, after it had fallen into ruin and that she endowed it with lands for its maintenance. Since these brothers are described in this inscription as ruling over Rohaṇa, 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 a stone slab preserved in the Archaeological Museum at Anurādhapura. The slab’s original provenance is not known, the museum’s records stating only that it was removed to the museum from the Government Agent’s premises at Anurādhapura. It appears that the slab was previously used as a tread in a flight of steps. The inscription consists of two lines and can be assigned on palaeographic grounds to the end of the seventh century A.D. It declares that the step on which it is written was the gift of an individual, presumably a monk, named Daḷanā.

This inscription is engraved across the front, one side and the back of a stone slab now preserved in the Archaeological Museum at Anurādhapura. Senarath Paranavitana recorded that the slab was said to have been discovered in the area of the Abhayagiri Vihāra in Anurādhapura. He also noted that it had been included in the list of lithic inscriptions from Nuvara-kalāviya exhibited at Anurādhapura in the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Annual Report for 1911–12 (p. 73, no. 16). He was unable to find any other references to the slab giving further details about its provenance.  The inscription registers some donations made to a Buddhist monastery by the queen of a king called Badadasa Ḷa-Parideva. Neither the name of the monastery nor that of the queen is preserved. However, it seems that the final part of the monastery’s name may have been la, suggesting that it was not the Abhayagiri Vihara, in which case we may perhaps assume that the slab was originally situated elsewhere and brought to this vihara at a later date, possibly for some architectural purpose. As for the king’s name, Paranavitana argues that Parideva may be taken as a clerical error for or variant of Paridadeva – a combination of the personal name Pārinda and the suffix deva, which could be applied to the appellation of any royal personage. According to the chronicle, Pārinda was one of the six Tamil rulers who occupied the throne of Anurādhapura in the fifth century A.D., prior to the accession of Dhātusena. Since Ḷa in Sinhalese means ‘tender’ or ‘young’, Ḷa-Pari(da)deva can be understood as ‘Pārindadeva the Younger’, which equates to Khudda Pārinda (the lesser Pārinda), the name given in the chronicle to king Pārinda’s younger brother and successor. Hence Paranavitana attributes this inscription to Khudda Pārinda, the Tamil king who reigned from 437 to 452 (or from 498 to 513, according to Wickremasinghe’s chronology).

The inscription is engraved on a stone slab, which was discovered near Batalagoḍa-väva, an ancient irrigation reservoir situated about eight miles from Kuruṇǟgala on the road to Dam̆bulla. The slab has been broken into several fragments, some of which are missing. The remaining pieces have been joined and the gaps filled with cement by an overzealous restorer, who – not content with merely putting together what was left of the record – also guessed at what the missing portions of the text may have said and inscribed his suggestions on the cement. Most of this guesswork is unacceptable and has been omitted from the edition of the text published here.

The Batalogoda reservoir was restored by the Ceylon Government around the turn of the twentieth century. Henry Parker was in charge of the restoration work and gave a detailed description of the tank, including an account of the present inscription, in his Ancient Ceylon (1909: 254, 397–400). He was presumably the one responsible for the repair of the slab.

The inscription is dated in the fifth year of Queen Kalyāṇavatī, who ascended the throne in 1202 A.D. It records the repairs effected to the Batalagoḍa-väva and the benefactions made to a neighbouring shrine by an officer (adhikāri) named Cūḍāmaṇi. The part of the inscription containing the titles of this officer has been lost. The general Lakvijaya Ābo Senevinā is also mentioned, though the nature of his involvement is not clear as the section of inscription where his name occurs is very fragmentary. It may, however, be surmised that it was at his command that Cūḍāmaṇi carried out the works at Batalgoḍa. This general is obviously the same as Lakvijaya Siṅgu Senevi Ābonā, who placed Sāhasmalla on the throne. The same individual is called by the name ‘Āyuṣmat’ in the Sanskrit inscription of Sāhasmalla at Poḷonnaruva (IN03099) and therefore can also be identified with the general called Āyasmanta in the Mahāvaṁsa, who placed Kalyāṇavatī – the monarch of the present inscription – on the throne. Clearly he was a very powerful figure and a veritable king-maker in early thirteenth century Sri Lanka.

Rajavesyabhujanga Mandapa, Polonnaruwa. Photographed before (above) and after (below) restoration in 1931 by the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon. Images published in: Kern Institute. (1933). Annual Bibliography of Indian Archaeology for the year 1931. Leyden: E. J. Brill, plate V.