IN03013 Vessagiri Rock B Cave 6 Inscription

Author: Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe

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.

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
November 1, 2019
IN03012 Vessagiri Rock B Cave 4 Inscription

Author: Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe

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.

Uploaded on November 6, 2017
November 1, 2019
IN03011 Vessagiri Rock B Cave 3 Inscription

Author: Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe

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.

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
November 1, 2019
IN03010 Vessagiri Rock B Cave 2 Inscription B

Author: Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe

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.

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
November 1, 2019
IN03009 Vessagiri Rock B Cave 2 Inscription A

Author: Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe

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.

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
November 1, 2019
IN03008 Vessagiri Rock B Cave 1 Inscription

Author: Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe

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.

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
November 1, 2019
OB03006 Jētavanārāma Slab

Author: Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
November 1, 2019
IN03007 Jētavanārāma Sanskrit Inscription

Author: Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe

The inscription was discovered in ruins of an ancient monastery belonging to the Jētavanārāma group, north of the Kūṭṭam-pokuṇa in Anurādhapura. It consists of 14 lines of Sanskrit prose engraved on a granite slab. It seems to be the second portion of a text. The first part must have been written on another slab, which has not been found. The inscription records rules for the guidance of monks and laymen living in within the precincts of the vihāra or in its lands. No date is given in the inscription but, according to Wickremasinghe, it is probably from the first half of the 9th century A.D.

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
November 1, 2019
Kondamudi copper plates of Jayavarman

Author: Anon.

Community: Bṛhatphalāyana epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
August 27, 2019
Kondamudi Charter of Jayavarman, year 10

Author: Hultzsch, E.

This set of 8 copper plates were discovered in the village of Kondamudi and were secured together with a ring and seal. The seal is stamped with an image of a trident, a box, a crescent moon and a circular legend which is written in different characters to those found on the copper plates.

The charter records that Mahārāja Jayavarman donated the village of Pāṇṭūra in the district of Kūdūra to 8 Brāhmaṇas. The donated village was split into 24 shares and divided between the Brāhmaṇas as follows:
Śarvaguptārya, a householder of the Gautama gotra – 8 shares
Savigija of the Tānavya gōtra – 3 shares
Goginaja – 3 shares
Bhavannaja of the Kauṇinya gōtra – 2 shares
Rudavennhuja of the Bhāradvāja gōtra – 1 ½ shares
Tśvaradattārya of the Kārshṇāyana gōtra – 1 ½ shares
Rudaghōshārya of the Aupamanyava gōtra – 1 share
Skandarudrārya of the Kauśika gōtra – ½ share
(This division does not total 24 shares however).

The charter was issued from Kūdūra on the 1st day of the 1st fortnight of winter in the 10th year of Jayavarman’s reign. The donated village was made as brahmadēya and Jayavarman is described in the inscription as belonging to the Bṛhatphalāyana gōtra and a worshipper of Mahēśvara, a form of Śiva. The donation was made to increase the donor’s life span and to secure victory in war.

Sircar, Altekar and Majumdar date Jayavarma’s reign to around the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century AD, suggesting he was a contemporary of the early Gupta kings.

Community: Bṛhatphalāyana epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
August 27, 2019