Parakkrama-Bāhu I

The inscription is engraved at the bottom of the rock-cut steps on the south-western side of Devanagala, a rock situated about three miles to the south-east of Māvanälla in the Galboḍa Kōraḷē of the Kǟgalla District. These steps lead to the summit of the rock, upon which are the ruins of a massive stone building called Paraṇa Vihāra, an old dāgäba, and an image house of Kandyan style. The inscription was first noticed by Edward Müller in his Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon (1883: 60, 87, 120, no. 135), although he did not recognise the text’s historical significance, which was subsequently highlighted by H. C. P. Bell in his Report on the Kegalla District of the Province of Sabaragamuwa (1904: 73–76).

The inscription is dated to the twelfth year of Parākramabāhu I. This king ascended to the throne in 1153 A.D., hence the inscription must have been engraved in 1164–1165 A.D. It registers a grant of certain lands by the king to the general Kit Nuvaragal (Kitti Nagaragiri) in recognition of the latter’s services in an expedition against the Rāmañña country in the Pagan kingdom (modern-day Burma/Myanmar). The inscription provides valuable information about this expedition. It indicates that the campaign took place in or shortly before the twelfth year of Parākramabāhu’s reign and enables us to identify the Pagan monarch at the time of the conflict Alaungsithu (r. 1112–1167 A.D.). These details are not mentioned in the account of the expedition in the Mahāvaṁsa. Alaungsithu is referred to in the inscription as ‘Bhuvanāditta’, a title which, although applied to several Pagan kings, was particularly associated with him.

Gal Vihara, Polonnaruwa. Photograph by John & Co. Published in: The Buddhist Annual of Ceylon, vol. 3, no. 2 (1928), p. 89.

The inscription is engraved on the smoothed area of sloping rock to the right of the cave entrance.

The inscription is incised on the sloping granite rockface immediately to the right of the central cave shrine at the rock-cut temple known as Gal-vihāra, which is situated in Polonnaruwa, about one and a half miles north of the Promontory. Famed for its four large rock-relief statues of the Buddha, this temple was originally known as Uttarārāma (North Park). It was built by king Parakkama-Bāhu I, who reigned between 1153 and 1186 A.D. The inscription sets out a code of conduct for the Buddhist clergy. It is divided into two parts, each one terminating in a fish symbol. The first part contains a historical introduction (lines 1–18) and the second part details disciplinary injunctions (lines 18–51).

Potgul Vehera, Polonnaruwa

The inscription is incised on a door-jamb of the ruined maṇḍapa at the so-called ‘Pot-Gul Vehera’, which is the central shrine in a group of ruined buildings erected on raised sites within a quadrangular mound once held up by a brick rampart faced with elephant head decorations. The site is situated about a mile to the south of the ancient city of Poḷonnaruva, not far from the southern end of the Tōpa-väva bund. Little is known about the original use of the shrine but the modern name – ‘Pot-Gul Vehera’ (‘library shrine’) – may be a misnomer, since there is no clear evidence that it was used as a monastic library. The building was excavated in 1906 by H. C. P. Bell.

The inscription records the original construction of the vihāra by king Parakkrama-Bāhu I (r. 1153-86), its rebuilding after his death by his chief-queen Līlāvatī, and the addition of the maṇḍapa by his sub-queen Candavatī. Līlāvatī’s rebuilding is described as having taken place after she had been installed as sovereign in her own right. The rebuilding can therefore have taken place no earlier than 1197, the year in which she first took the throne. She was deposed in 1200 but returned to power on two further occasions, reigning from 1209-1210 and again from 1211-12. It is clear from the inscription that the construction of the maṇḍapa by Candavatī occurred after Līlāvatī’s rebuilding (and thus no earlier than 1197). Since the inscription is written on a door jamb of the maṇḍapa, the text may have been commissioned by Candavatī’s order. Wickremasinghe and Bell identify Candavatī with the queen referred to as Rūpavatī in other sources.