Kaḷama

The inscription is engraved on a flat rock in the village of Koṭṭangē in the Mādurē Kōraḷē of the Vǟuḍavili Hatpattu in the Kuruṇǟgala District. When Senarath Paranavitana visited the site in 1931, the rock lay just within the boundaries of a coconut plantation called the Ōgoḍapola Estate in the Delviṭa Group. It was at that time completely buried under about two feet of earth, soil having washed down the hillside and covered the rock. However, a local villager who had seen the rock some years previously alerted Paranavitana to its existence. Paranavitana was then able to remove the earth and reveal the inscription, which he copied for the Archaeological Department. The existence of an inscription at this place had previously been mentioned in the Return of the Architectural and Archaeological and other Antiquities existing in Ceylon, which was published by the Ceylon Government in 1890, but it is not clear whether the inscription in question was the present record or IN03164, which is engraved on another rock in the same vicinity.

No date is given in the inscription. It opens with a Sanskrit verse, a significant portion of which is no longer legible. The rest of the inscription is written in Sinhalese and records that a mahāthera of the Vilgammuḷa fraternity, whose name is obliterated, granted to the saṅgha the pamuṇu village of Kaḷama and some other lands belonging to him. This mahāthera is said to have been the grandson of a personage who belonged to the Lämäni family but, unfortunately, the name of the latter is not preserved. We may presume that the mahāthera was a grandson of Loke Arakmenā, to whom the village was originally granted by Lokeśvara, as recorded in the other inscription at this site (IN03164). This supposition gains further strength from the fact that, as shown by the title ‘Arakmenā’, general Loke belonged to the Lämäni stock; his connection with the Vilgammuḷa fraternity is also shown by the stipulation in the first inscription that any disputes concerning the lands in question were to be settled by a mahāthera of that religious institution.

The inscription is incised in two panels either side of a natural crevice on the top of a boulder in an area of land known as Puvak-aram̆ba or Koṭṭangē-aram̆ba in the village of Koṭṭangē in the Mādurē Kōraḷē of the Vǟuḍavili Hatpattu in the Kuruṇǟgala District. It was first copied for scholarship by the Archaeological Department in 1931. The existence of an inscription at this place had previously been mentioned in the Return of the Architectural and Archaeological and other Antiquities existing in Ceylon, which was published by the Ceylon Government in 1890, but it is not clear whether the inscription in question was the present record or IN03165, which is engraved on another rock in the same vicinity.

The present inscription registers the grant of a village named Kaḷama to the general Loke Arakmenā, by the king Lokeśvara-bāhu Cakravartti, in recognition of the former’s services in defeating the Coḷas. The name Lokeśvara-bāhu in this record obviously stands for Lokis-sara or Lokeśvara of the chronicles. Two rulers of this name are mentioned in the historical writings of Sri Lanka, both of whom occupied the throne for short periods in troubled times. On palaeographic grounds, Senarath Paranavitana assigned this record to the second of these kings, who reigned for seven months at Poḷonnaruva in 1210 and was preceded and succeeded on the throne by queen Līlāvatī. The encounter, referred to in this record, between the Coḷas and the Sinhalese – presumably on Sri Lankan soil – is not mentioned in the chronicles.