OB03134

Rajavesyabhujanga Mandapa, Polonnaruwa. Photographed before (above) and after (below) restoration in 1931 by the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon. Images published in: Kern Institute. (1933). Annual Bibliography of Indian Archaeology for the year 1931. Leyden: E. J. Brill, plate V.

This inscription is engraved on a stone slab discovered in 1931 by the Archaeological Department during the restoration of the ruined maṇḍapa built on a three-tiered platform near the Royal Palace of Parākramabāhu I at Poḷonnaruva. This maṇḍapa was identified by A. M. Hocart with the Rājaveśyā-bhujaṅga-maṇḍapa, mentioned in the Mahāvaṁsa as having been built by Parākramabāhu I. In the course of the Archaeological Department’s restoration work, it was discovered that the builders of this structure had utilised several earlier inscribed stones for the steps, mouldings and coping stones. Evidence was also found that the building had been substantially repaired at a later date, probably during the reign of Parākramabāhu II. It is therefore not certain whether the inscribed stones were used in the initial construction of the building or whether they were introduced as part of the subsequent repairs. The slab bearing the present inscription was used for the coping on the eastern side of the lowest tier of the platform. A large part of the inscription was effaced, perhaps deliberately, when the slab was utilised for this new purpose. Originally, the record must have consisted of around 45 lines but now only the first seven are legible. These lines are not enough to determine the subject matter and purpose of the inscription. The first two lines contain a Pāli stanza eulogising a thera named Ānanda, who is said to have had some connection with the Buddhist Church of Tambaraṭṭha, possibly referring to a place in the Coḷa country in Southern India or to Nakhon Si Thammarat in the Malay Peninsula. The next five lines introduce us to Sundaramahādevī, the queen of Vīkramabāhu I (r. 1111–1132 A.D.), who was the son of Vijayabāhu I (r. 1056–1111 A.D.).