IN03032

Dambulla Cave Temple, Sri Lanka

The inscription of king Kīrti Niśśanka Malla is situated in the rock temple of Dam̆bulla, also called in the Mahāvaṁsa Jambukōla vihāra, on the rock to the right, immediately after passing the Muragē. It consists of 25 lines, written in the Sinhalese script of the 12th century A.D., recording the philanthropic and religious acts of the king. No date is given in the inscription. According to Wicremasinghe, the inscription was engraved between 1192 and 1197. The present inscription was previously published in 1836 in the ‘Epitome’ of G. Turnour, and then in 1840 in ‘Eleven years in Ceylon’ of J. Forbes, and in 1883 in E. Müller’s ‘Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon’.