Person: Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe

The inscription is engraved on a stone fragment found between the years 1906 and 1912 in the village of Räkiṭipe in Unantänna-vasam, Diyatilaka kōrale in the Nuvara Eliya District. The abrupt ending of the inscription and the sun and moon emblems carved above the text indicate that the stone originally formed the top of a square pillar. The rest of the pillar is missing. As the extant fragment features only the first ten lines of the inscription, it is not possible to say what the subject-matter was. However, it seems from the first clause that the inscription recorded a grant of land or some other benefaction in the reign of Līlāvatī, the Queen-dowager of Parakkama-Bāhu I who ruled as sovereign in her own right for three separate periods, first in 1197, then in 1209-10 and finally in 1211-12. On the basis of palaeographic considerations, Wickremasinghe conjectures that this inscription may date to 1211 A.D., when Līlāvatī was installed on the throne for the third time, governing for seven months until deposed by the Pāṇḍyan King Parakkama.

The inscription is engraved on a stone slab, which was discovered between the years 1906 and 1912 in Bōpiṭiya, a village in Hevāvissa Kōrale in the Central Province of Ceylon. The slab was found in two fragments: the first piece was the top portion of the slab and contained six lines of the inscription; the second piece evidently belonged to the lower part of the slab and featured the words hira sanda (‘sun and moon’), which usually occur at the end of a grant. From what remains of the inscription, it is evident that the record was commissioned by queen Kalyāṇavatī, who was married to king Niśśaṅka-Malla (r. 1187-1196 A.D.) and who ruled in her own right between 1202 and 1208 with backing from the powerful military commander Āyasmanta. The present inscription refers to a Tamil insurrection against Kalyāṇavatī’s stronghold. Wickremasinghe suggests that the record may have been made in 1208 or 1209, after the queen had been deposed; he conjectures that she was at this time living in retirement, possibly somewhere near Bopiṭiya, where the inscription was found.

Dimbulagala Hills, Sri Lanka

The inscription is engraved on a smooth raised panel on the roof of a cave in the scarp near the summit of the north-westerly side of Dim̆bulā-gala (referred to in the text as Dum̆bulā-gala), a range of hills about ten miles to the south-east of Poḷonnaruva or sixty miles from Anurādhapura in the same direction. The Archaeological Commissioner, H. C. P. Bell, recorded the inscription during his exploration of the locality in September 1897. The text seems to be complete but its unusual ending raises the possibility that it is in fact continued on other nearby panels. Consisting of seven lines, the inscription records that Sundara-mahādevī, the chief queen of Vikrama-Bāhu I and the mother of Gaja-Bāhu II, caused the construction of a road at Dum̆bulā-gala between Sanda-maha-leṇa (the great Moon-cave) and Hiru-maha-leṇa (the great Sun-cave); that she had it paved with stone and had also cave temples built with statues, dāgabas, and sacred bodhi trees; and that she further testifies to a certain benefaction which she had made to Demaḷǟ-pähä.

The text gives the date of this benefaction as the twenty-seventh year after the coronation of Jaya-Bāhu I. However, as Wickremasinghe points out, Jaya-Bāhu I’s reign is believed to have lasted considerably less than twenty-seven years: he ascended to the throne in 1110 and was deposed the following year by his nephew Vikkrama-Bāhu I. The latter reigned for a number of years before being succeeded in 1132 by his son Gaja-Bāhu II, who in turn ruled until 1153. By this chronology, the twenty-seventh year after Jaya-Bāhu’s coronation would have been around 1137, when his great-nephew Gaja-Bāhu II was on the throne. Wickremasinghe therefore dates the present inscription to Gaja-Bāhu II’s reign. Assuming this interpretation is correct, it is highly curious that the inscription’s date should be given from the coronation of a deposed (and by this point deceased) king.

This inscription is engraved on both sides of a large slab, which stands near the ancient irrigation canal at Poḷonnaruva. The inscription consists of 65 lines in total but the portion on the second side of the slab is now illegible. The text begins with the auspicious word svasti and a Sanskrit verse. It then states that Vijaya, the eldest son of Siṁha-Bāhu of the Kāliṅga-Cakravarti dynasty came over to Ceylon, defeated the Yakṣas, and became king; that a descendant of his was Parākrama-Bāhu, who brought the Island of Laṅkā under one canopy of dominion; and that this king, desiring the continuation of his dynasty, invited his sister’s son (bǟna) over from Siṁhapura, invested him with royal dignity, and in course of time died. The nephew was thereafter duly anointed king Vijaya-Bāhu, but the day after his accession to the throne some treacherous ministers rose against him. A chieftain named Vijayāyān-tän-nāvan, however, protected the king and, quelling the rebellion, restored peace to the country. In recognition of these distinguished services, king Vijaya-Bāhu granted him heritable lands with certain privileges, the details of which were originally recorded on the second side of the slab. The inscription thus corroborates and expands upon the account of Vijaya-Bāhu’s reign in the Mahāvaṁsa. Vijaya-Bāhu only reigned for a short time, ascending to the throne in 1186 and dying one year later at the hands of Mahinda and Dīpanī.

The inscription is engraved on the western slope of a long hummock of granite rock about a mile to the north of Topaväva. It was found by H. C. P. Bell, the Archaeological Commissioner, in September 1901 whilst exploring a collection of ruins discovered the previous year during the construction of a new road from Minneriya to Poḷonnaruva. Covering a smoothed area of rock, the inscription is located to the north of a flight of steps leading up to a ruined building, which has been identified with the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa (‘joy-conferring pavilion’) of king Niśśaṅka-Malla, who ruled between 1187 and 1196. The purpose of the inscription was to commemorate the consecration of the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa as a sanctuary whereby every one entering its premises had the right of asylum. The text begins with a Sanskrit verse in sragdharā metre, before giving an account of king Niśśaṅka-Malla’s birth and parentage, his administrative and charitable acts, the religious edifices and alms-houses he built, his tours in Ceylon, the so-called invasion of Southern India, and finally the erection and consecration of the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa.