OB03107 Kataragama Pillar of Dappula V
IN03131 Kataragama Pillar Inscription of Dappula V
The inscription is engraved on three sides of a quadrangular stone pillar, which originally stood in the forest at Deṭagamuva about a mile to the south of Kataragama. It had fallen down and was broken into two fragments, one of which was removed by the ex-headman of Kataragama to his house to serve as a step. The priest at the Buddhist temple at Kataragama had this fragment removed to the temple in 1916. Later, the lower half of the pillar was brought to the same place and set up in front of the image house. The language of the inscription is highly ornate, especially in the introductory part of the text, which abounds with metaphors within metaphors, making translation into English very difficult. The text is dated in the sixth year of King Dāpuḷu, whom Senarath Paranavitana identified, on palaeographic and other grounds, as that fifth of that name. Dappula V reigned from 940 (or 918 A.D.?) until 952 A.D., suggesting this inscription dates from around 946 A.D. (or 924 A.D.?). The inscription registers a grant of immunities to a religious establishment named Kapugam-pirivena on the southern back of the Kapikandur river in the principality of Rohaṇa by a prince named Lämäni Mihind, son of Udā (Udaya), the heir-apparent. From the inscription, we learn that this prince had conquered the southern and central parts of the island and that, when this grant was issued, he was governing the Rohaṇa country. Udā Mahayā, Lämäni Mihind’s father, was the same prince who, after the death of Dappula V, ascended to the throne as Udaya II. It is also possible that Lämäni Mihind, the donor mentioned in the present inscription, was the future Mahinda IV. Of the places mentioned in the inscription, Mahavehera can be identified with the monastery in Tissamaharama and the river Kapikandur is the Menik Ganga; Kapugam-pirivena was most probably situated at the place where the inscription originally stood.
OB03106 Kataragama Kirivehera Slab of Mahadaḷimahana
Kiri Vehera, Kataragama, Sri Lanka
IN03130 Kataragama Kirivehera Slab Inscription of Mahadaḷimahana
The inscription is engraved on a stone slab, which has been broken into four fragments. Three of the fragments were found lying on the pavement of the Kirivehera stupa in Kataragama; the fourth fragment is missing. The inscription is not dated but it may be dated on palaeographic grounds to the late fifth century A.D. or the sixth century A.D. Due to the fragmentary nature of the slab, the purpose of the inscription are not entirely clear but, from the surviving text, it seems that it was intended to register a grant of land made for defraying the expenses connected with the ritual at the Maṅgala Mahācetiya at Kājaragāma (Kataragama). The Maṅgala Mahācetiya is presumably Kirivehera. The donor of the grant is identified as Mahadaḷi Mahana raja (King Mahādāṭhika Mahānāga) son of Sarataraya (Siridhara Ayya). A king of Sri Lanka named Mahādāṭhika Mahānāga is mentioned in the Mahāvaṁsa but he lived in the first century A.D. and his father was not named Siridhara. The Mahādāṭhika Mahānāga of the present inscription must, therefore, have been a local ruler of Rohaṇa who assumed the title raja. Senarath Paranavitana speculated that this ruler might have flourished in that unsettled period which followed the death of king Mahānāman and was ended by the accession of Dhātusena, when the northern part of the island was under Tamil domination and provincial governors of the south had opportunity to proclaim themselves independent.
OB03105 Kataragama Kirivehera Slab of circa 2nd century A.D.
Kiri Vehera, Kataragama, Sri Lanka
IN03129 Kataragama Kirivehera Slab Inscription of circa 2nd century A.D.
The inscription is engraved on a stone slab, which was discovered among the ruins of the Kirivehera stupa at Kataragama. The discovery was recorded by Edward Müller in his Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon (1883). Writing in the early 1930s, Senarath Paranavitana recorded that the slab was at that time stood upright some 50 feet (15.2 m) to the south of the main entrance to the stupa. The inscription can be dated on the basis of the palaeography to the first or second century A.D. It records that an elder of the Buddhist Church called Nanda enlarged the caitya (i.e. the Kirivehera stupa) and got the monks at Akujuka to construct flights of steps at the four entrances.