Niśśaṅka Malla

This inscription was discovered by the Archaeological Commissioner, Senarath Paranavitana, in 1951 at Paṇḍuvasnuvara, otherwise called Parākramapura, which was the capital of the Principality of Dakkhiṇa-deśa for a time during the medieval period. Paṇḍuvasnuvara is situated in the Girātalana Korale of the Devamädi Hatpattu in the Kurunǟgala District, some twenty-two miles from Chilaw on the Wariyapola road. The inscription is engraved on a stone slab, which was found at an ancient site to the south of the Citadel. Its discovery is mentioned in the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Annual Report for 1951 (p. 6). The record is dated in the fifth year of the Kalinga ruler Niśśaṅka Malla, who is here given the biruda Parākramabāhu. Since this ruler ascended to the throne in 1187 A.D., the date of the inscription is to be placed in the year 1191 A.D. or 1192 A.D. This dating is confirmed by the astronomical data given in the inscription. On the basis of this data, the equivalent date of the record would be either Thursday 7 January 1188 or Thursday 3 January 1191, the second of which does indeed fall in the fifth year of Niśśaṅka Malla. The purpose of the inscription is to record the benevolent deeds of a military general called Matimāṉapañacara alias Kulaṉtey. This general can be identified with Lak Vijayasinha, who is mentioned in the slab inscriptions of Niśśaṅka Malla at Polonnaruva.

The inscription is engraved on a stone pillar, which now stands outside the cave at the ancient site known as Kaṭugaha-galgē (Katugahagalge) or Aturugiri Vihāra, situated about five miles to the north of Buttala in the Kan̆dukara Kōraḷē of the Ūva Province. The cave is situated on the steep side of a huge granite rock on top of which there is a small stupa now renovated. A part of the cave has been walled, in comparatively recent times, to form a shrine and six cells as living quarters for the monks. In front of the cave are remains of ancient structures, the stonework of which is plain and archaic and bespeaks an early date. The pillar, which has been broken into two unequal fragments, was not originally situated here, having been removed to this site from a neighbouring chena sometime in the nineteenth century.

Two other known pillars bear inscriptions identical to this one. One stands in the vicinity of the colossal stupa at Yudaganava, which is about four miles to the south of Katugahagalge, having been brought there from the neighbouring jungle in 1924. The other was found at Väligatta in Hambantoṭa district and now forms part of the  collection at the Colombo Museum. In August 1927, Senarath Paranavitana visited Yadaganava and Katugahagalge and found that the pillars at these two places, as well as the one from Väligatta, were gavu (P. gāvuta) stones set up by Kāliṅga Cakravartti, i.e. Niśśaṁka Malla, who reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. H. W. Codrington subsequently brought to light six more of these gāvuta pillars in the same locality, most of them in a fragmentary condition. Codrington’s paper on these pillars, dealing particularly with the information they yield on the precise length of the yojana and gāvuta (ancient units of measure), was published in the Ceylon Journal of Science (Section G), vol. ii, pp. 129–134. Of all of these pillars so far known, only on the Katugahagelge pillar is the inscription completely preserved. The inscription indicates the pillar marked a gāvunta and it also includes a short homily addressed to the people of Rohaṇa and an account of the achievements and deeds of king Niśśaṁka Malla.

The inscription is engraved on a mutilated pillar-slab, which was discovered near the spill (vān–äla) of the Tōpāväva in Poḷonnaruva. The slab was subsequently moved to the Archaeological Office in Anuradhapura, where it was seen by Senarath Paranavitana sometime before 1933; Paranavitana then published an edition of the text in the third volume of Epigraphia Zeylanica. The upper part of the pillar-slab is missing and the surviving fragment is irregularly shaped. The inscription states that it was issued by ‘the Kālinga Monarch’ – a reference to king Niśśaṁka Malla, who reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. However, unlike other inscriptions of this king, it does not contain any mention of Niśśaṁka Malla’s alleged military achievements, nor does it boast of his greatness. Instead, it is addressed to the officials of the treasury. The opening portion of the inscription is missing but it appears that the text was prefaced with three quatrains containing maxims on political morals. The main part of the inscription records that the king had become suspicious about the integrity of the accountants of the treasury; he exhorts them to inform the authorities before taking anything from the treasury and threatens those who fail to do so with royal disfavour, hinting at dire consequences. It is a sign of the corruption plaguing the kingdom at this time that Niśśaṁka Malla found it necessary to issue an edict of this nature. Although he attempted to introduce salutary reforms, the country was plunged into a period of economic uncertainty and political anarchy after his death. Indeed, his own extravagant expenditure on building projects and displays of power may have contributed to weakening the exchequer.

Diagram of the Kantaläi gal-āsana. Published in:  Wickremasinghe, Don Martino de Zilva. (1912-27). ‘No. 42. (Reg. No. 3.) Kantaläi Gal-Āsana Inscription of Kitti Nissaṅka-Malla (1187–1196 A.D.),’ Epigraphia Zeylanica 2, p. 283.

The inscription is engraved around the four sides of a stone seat (gal–āsana), which was discovered in 1921 in the village of Kantaläi on the Trincomalee Railway and afterwards removed to Anurādhapura. The text identifies the stone seat as the one that king Nissaṅka-Malla, after returning from his Indian campaign, used to occupy whilst witnessing the various diversions such as alms-giving, dancing, singing, etc., in the Pārvatī-satra erected at his request in Caturveda-Brahmapura, ‘the city of the Four-Vedic Brahmans’. By way of an introduction, the inscription also includes a bombastic account of Nissaṅka-Malla’s military achievements and charitable acts. Virtually identical accounts are commonly found in other gal-āsana records of this king. The Kantaläi inscription is not dated but, since it references his tours of inspection and his expedition to India, it was probably composed towards the end of his short but eventful reign, which spanned nine years, beginning in 1187 and terminating in 1196. If Kantaläi was the original site of the seat, then this locality must once have been the town called Caturveda-Brahmapura, which was probably occupied mostly by Brahman families for whose benefit an almshouse called Brāhmaṇa-satra was also established by Nissaṅka-Malla.

The inscription is engraved on the western slope of a long hummock of granite rock about a mile to the north of Topaväva. It was found by H. C. P. Bell, the Archaeological Commissioner, in September 1901 whilst exploring a collection of ruins discovered the previous year during the construction of a new road from Minneriya to Poḷonnaruva. Covering a smoothed area of rock, the inscription is located to the north of a flight of steps leading up to a ruined building, which has been identified with the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa (‘joy-conferring pavilion’) of king Niśśaṅka-Malla, who ruled between 1187 and 1196. The purpose of the inscription was to commemorate the consecration of the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa as a sanctuary whereby every one entering its premises had the right of asylum. The text begins with a Sanskrit verse in sragdharā metre, before giving an account of king Niśśaṅka-Malla’s birth and parentage, his administrative and charitable acts, the religious edifices and alms-houses he built, his tours in Ceylon, the so-called invasion of Southern India, and finally the erection and consecration of the Prīti-dānaka-maṇḍapa.