Kalyāṇavatī

Ruwanwelisaya, Anuradhapura

Ruanweli Dagoba, c. 1891. Image from: Ricalton, James, (1891). ‘The City of the Sacred Bo-Tree (Anuradhapura),’ Scribner’s Magazine 10, pp. 319–336, image opposite p. 328.

This inscription is engraved on a large stone slab in the pavement of the Ruvanvälisǟya at Anurādhapura in close proximity to its southern vāhalkaḍa. A short donative records that the slab was incorporated into the paving at this spot in the ninth century. Before that, the slab seems to have served as the landing above a flight of steps in some old building. The inscription consists of twenty-two lines and was evidently never completed, since the last line ends abruptly before coming to a period and the horizontal partitions that separate the lines of writing are only complete up to the fourteenth line. It seems that, for some reason or other, the engraving of the inscription was interrupted before the final touches could be completed, perhaps as a result of the many internal revolutions and foreign invasions that marked the early thirteenth century in Sri Lanka. Although the inscription was apparently in relatively good state of preservation when it was discovered for scholarship in the nineteenth century, it has since suffered considerable damage, largely as a result of carts having been driven over the slab during the restoration of the dāgäba. The language of the inscription is Sinhalese, although it also includes a large proportion of Sanskrit words. The record is dated in the second year of Kalyāṇavatī (r. 1202–1208) and gives an account of the offerings made to the Ruvanvälisǟya by a minister called Vijayānāvan, his wife and his sister’s son. Vijayānāvan is described as having administered the treasuries of kings, including Parākramabāhu.

The inscription is engraved on a stone slab, which was discovered near Batalagoḍa-väva, an ancient irrigation reservoir situated about eight miles from Kuruṇǟgala on the road to Dam̆bulla. The slab has been broken into several fragments, some of which are missing. The remaining pieces have been joined and the gaps filled with cement by an overzealous restorer, who – not content with merely putting together what was left of the record – also guessed at what the missing portions of the text may have said and inscribed his suggestions on the cement. Most of this guesswork is unacceptable and has been omitted from the edition of the text published here.

The Batalogoda reservoir was restored by the Ceylon Government around the turn of the twentieth century. Henry Parker was in charge of the restoration work and gave a detailed description of the tank, including an account of the present inscription, in his Ancient Ceylon (1909: 254, 397–400). He was presumably the one responsible for the repair of the slab.

The inscription is dated in the fifth year of Queen Kalyāṇavatī, who ascended the throne in 1202 A.D. It records the repairs effected to the Batalagoḍa-väva and the benefactions made to a neighbouring shrine by an officer (adhikāri) named Cūḍāmaṇi. The part of the inscription containing the titles of this officer has been lost. The general Lakvijaya Ābo Senevinā is also mentioned, though the nature of his involvement is not clear as the section of inscription where his name occurs is very fragmentary. It may, however, be surmised that it was at his command that Cūḍāmaṇi carried out the works at Batalgoḍa. This general is obviously the same as Lakvijaya Siṅgu Senevi Ābonā, who placed Sāhasmalla on the throne. The same individual is called by the name ‘Āyuṣmat’ in the Sanskrit inscription of Sāhasmalla at Poḷonnaruva (IN03099) and therefore can also be identified with the general called Āyasmanta in the Mahāvaṁsa, who placed Kalyāṇavatī – the monarch of the present inscription – on the throne. Clearly he was a very powerful figure and a veritable king-maker in early thirteenth century Sri Lanka.

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.