Place: Anuradhapura

The inscription was found near Perimiyankulam or Perumäiyaṉ-kuḷam, “the tank of the great personage”, or Perumäiyāṉa-kuḷam, “the great tank”, situated on the path to Galkaḍawala, one and a half miles north of the Sacred Bōdhi-tree at Anurādhapura. Müller (1883: 27) describes the inscription as “on a flat rock by the side of a hollowed-out cave”. There are many stone pillars near the place, which is north-west of the Laṅkārāmaya. The inscription is on the whole very well preserved. It consists of 4 lines recording a gift of revenue, derived from water supply in Palinakaraka tank in Tihalaka-karisa and in Ketavalika tank at Amanaratana, to a thēra named Majibuka (or -bika) for looking after certain dilapidated buildings at Patnagala belonging to the architect Ayisayi, son of Batakaya, keeper of the royal store.

The inscription is situated in the ruins of an ancient site, close by the Ratmale wewa, south-west from Anurādhapura, not far from the Kurunegala Road. Four lines are engraved on a large slab rock. The inscription mentions three names of kings: Devānapiya Tisa-maharaja, Devānapiya Puṭikaṇa Gamiṇi Abhaya-maharaja, Devānapiya Naka-maharaja. These have been identified by Goldschmidt and Müller as the kings Vaṅkanāsika Tissa, Gaja-bāhu and Mahallaka Nāga of the Mahāvaṁsa. The inscription records the donation from the king Mahallaka Nāga (circa A.D. 135-141) of gruel, boiled rice, undergarments and silk outer garments for the Vassa ceremony to 20 monks at Vihirabijaka and at Muṭigulika and Parivataka monasteries.

Abhayagiri vihara, Anuradhapura

The inscription is engraved on a copper plate, which was found in 1893 at the ruins of what was then believed to be the Abhayagiri Vihāra in Anuradhapura. This vihāra has since been correctly identified as the Jetavana vihāra. The text of the copper-plate inscription is written in the Nāgāri script. It was first edited in the first volume of Epigraphia Zeylanica (p. 40) by Wickremasinghe, who believed the language of the inscription to be mixed Sanskrit. However, Paranavitana recognised that the text was actually in Pāli and published a revised in the third volume of Epigraphia Zeylanica (p. 170). As Paranavitana noted, apart from one or two clerical errors, the verse is identical with the verse of the Vaṭṭaka Jātaka. The plate was the votive offering of a Buddhist pilgrim. However, it is not known whether the pilgrim was from North India or a Sri Lankan devotee who was acquainted with the Nāgāri script. Although this script is used in a number of other inscriptions from Sri Lanka, including some stone records, many clay votive tablets and certain coin legends from the tenth century, this copper plate is an unusual – and perhaps unique – example of the script being used for the Pāli language in medieval times. The peculiar formation of some of the letters was probably due to the scribe being somewhat unfamiliar with script, while the orthographical errors in the inscription may be due to the fact that the script was not generally used to write in Pāli.

The verse was uttered by the Bodhisattva, then born as a quail, when the jungle fire was advancing to swallow him, and when his father and mother had fled. As soon as the verse was uttered, the progress of the fire was checked and the surrounding area was rendered immune from fire for a whole aeon. The incident is counted as one of the five great miracles of the Bodhisattva’s career. It is therefore easy to understand that this stanza should have been considered a fitting subject to be engraved on copper and used as a votive offering. It may also have been used as a charm against fire.

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. In addition, two inscribed slabs associated with Vessagiri are preserved in the museum at Anurādhapura. One of the slab inscriptions (IN03023) is of the king Dappula V (A.D. 940-952) and records a royal offering to the Virāṅkurā monastery. The second slab is inscribed on its front and back with inscriptions of the king Mahinda IV (975-991) detailing benefactions made to the clergy of the monastery Bo-Upulvan-Kusub-giri Vehera. The inscription on the back of this slab is dealt with here (see IN03024 for the inscription on the front).