Abhayagiri

This inscription is one of several incised on the steps leading to a ruined shrine near the reconstructed porch known as ‘the Stone Canopy’ or ‘Burrows’ Pavilion’ in the area of the Abhayagiri vihara at Anurādhapura. Eight of these inscriptions remain legible. On the basis of palaeographic evidence, they can be dated to the second half of the sixth century or the first half of the seventh century. They register grants of money by various individuals to the Abhayagiri-vihāra for the maintenance of slaves.

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).

H. C. P. Bell  discovered the present inscription in 1910 in what was then believed to be the Jētavanārāma dāgaba. This dāgaba has since been shown to be part of the Abhayagiri vihara. The record consists of 16 lines of the top side of a slab, which has been reused to form one of the flag-stones of the pavement at the south altar of the dāgaba. Written in the Southern Brāhmī alphabet of the latter part of the 2nd or the first half of the 3rd century A.D., it records donations from the king Maḷu-Tisa to the Utara-maha-ceta, identified with the Abhayuttara-mahā-cētiya of the Abhayagiri-vihāra, as well as water regulations.

The inscription is engraved on a slab found lying what was at the time believed to be the Jētavanārāma area, not far from the ‘stone canoe’ (trough) on the outer circular road in Anurādhapura. This area has since been shown to be the Abhayagiri monastery complex. The slab appears to have been erected very soon after a similar inscribed slab (IN03061) found in the same area. The present inscription consists of 60 lines in the Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th and early 11th centuries A.D. The middle part of the slab is damaged, rending the inscription is largely illegible from line 6 to line 39. The inscription does include a date but, due to the damaged condition of the slab, the year – tentatively read by Wickremasinghe as the eighth of Mahinda’s IV’s reign – is unclear. The text starts with a short account of Mahinda IV and his charitable works. It then deals principally with the regulations instituted by Mahinda IV at the Abhayagiri-vihāra soon after completing the reparation of the dāgaba and other buildings attached to the monastery. The stone statue of Buddha mentioned in line 45 of the inscription may be the same as the one that was seen by the Chinese pilgrim Fâ-hien at the Abhayagiri-vihāra when he visited Ceylon in the 5^th century A.D.

The inscription is engraved on a slab found lying in what was at the time believed to be the Jētavanārāma area, not far from the ‘stone canoe’ (trough) on the outer circular road in Anurādhapura. This area has since been shown to be the Abhayagiri monastery complex. The slab was examined by Bell in 1890. The inscription consists of 55 lines in the Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th and early 11th centuries A.D. The surface of the slab is damaged, rending the inscription is partly illegible from line 19 to the end. The date of the inscription is given in lines 43 and 44 but the name of the king and the number of the regnal year are in great part obliterated. The text gives an account of the Abhayagiri-vihāra and a general survey of the charitable acts of Mahinda IV (called by his title Siri Saňgbo Abā), as well as the religious monuments he erected and repaired.

Abhayagiri vihara, Anuradhapura