OB03103

The inscription is engraved on two faces of a rock near the entrance to a cave (Cave No. 3) in the rocky hills situated about a quarter of a mile to the north of the village of Damunumulla in Central Province. These hills are known locally as Gäraṇ̆ḍigala (Garandigala, 7.787220, 80.570908) after the snake-like drip-line cut in the rock over one of the caves, gäraṇ̆ḍiyā being the Sinhalese name for the oriental ratsnake (pytas mucosa). The caves were formally used as the abodes of Buddhist mendicants and contain stone beds. The remains of a stūpa and other monastic structures lie to the north of the cave where the present inscription is located.

The inscription registers the names and extent of certain fields granted to the cave by three donors: Mahinda, the heir-apparent; Buddha Mahāmalla; and another individual whose proper name is not preserved. The inscription is dated to the third year of the reign of king Siri Saṁbo. The biruda Siri Saṁbo was used by a number of Sri Lanka kings. However, elsewhere in the inscription, the king is described as Dambdiv dunu, which Senarath Paranavitana translated as ‘who was born in India’. This description could apply to Aggabodhi V, Kassapa III or Mahinda I but only the second of these is believed to have used the biruda Siri Saṁbo. Hence Paranavitana attributes the inscription to Kassapa III (732–738 A.D.). The inscription’s reference to Mahinda, the heir-apparent, supports this attribution, since Kassapa III’s heir was his younger brother Mahinda (later Mahinda I).

The inscription was known to Edward Müller in 1883 (see his Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon, p. 52, no. 104). It was then was seen by H. C. P. Bell and included as No. 209 in the list of inscriptions forming Appendix F of the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for 1911–12.