Parākramabāhu I

Nainativu Nagapooshani Amman Temple, Sri Lanka

This inscription is engraved on both sides of a stone slab, which was found lying opposite the entrance to the famous Nākapūṣaṇi-Ammaṉ Temple on the sacred island of Naiṉātīvu in the Jaffna district. Mudaliyar Rasanayagam made an eye-copy of the inscription and published the text as a footnote in his book Ancient Jaffna (1926: 208–209), although his reading was incomplete and contain several errors. Subsequently, the Archaeological Department prepared an estampage of the record in 1949, which Karthigesu Indrapala used to produce a more accurate text and translation in the University of Ceylon Review, 21, no. 1 (1963), pp. 63–70. Large portions of the original inscription have been lost. This is due to the fact that the lower portion of the slab has been broken off and built into the wall of the shrine. Furthermore, the first part of the inscription, written on the obverse of the slab, was obliterated by workmen sharpening their tools on their stone when it lay on the ground outside the temple. Only the text on the reverse side of the slab has survived. Fortunately, the preserved lines contain both the purpose of the edict and the name of the ruler who issued it, although it does not mention the regnal year or date. The record is written in Tamil except for the last two lines, which are in Sanskrit and state that the edict was issued by Deva Parākramabhuja, the emperor of all Siṁhala. The name Parākramabhuja is the Sanskrit equivalent of the Sinhalese Parākramabāhu and may refer to any of the Sinhalese rulers with this name. On palaeographic grounds, the inscription may be assigned to the twelfth or thirteenth century, hence the king question must be either Parākramabāhu I or II, since all the other rulers of that name reigned in significantly later periods. From the contents of the inscription, it can be inferred that the edict was issued by Parākramabāhu I, since the record contains trade regulations concerning wreckages off the port of Ūrāttuṟai (present-day Kayts). The fact that these regulations were proclaimed by the king himself indicates that he was in supreme control of the northernmost parts of the island. Parākramabāhu II did not enjoy such authority over the northern regions, while Parākramabāhu I had control over the entire island. Indeed, there is contemporary and reliable evidence that Ūrāttuṟai was an important naval and commercial centre in his time, plus he was well-known for his organisation of state trading with foreign countries.

This inscription is engraved on a rock by the side of the flight of steps leading to the shrines and monastic buildings at the Galapāta Vihāra, situated about two miles south-west of the Rest House at Bentoṭa in the Valallāviṭi Kōraḷē. Edward Müller published the first scholarly account of the inscription in his Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon (1883, p. 71, no. 165). The record opens with a Sanskrit śloka in the Śārdulavikrīḍita metre, before switching to Sinhalese prose. It states that a dignitary named Mindal (Mahendra), who held the office of Demaḷa-adhikāra and was administering the Pasyodun District, founded the Galapāta Vihāra with the royal assent and with the cooperation of his mother, his nephews Kodānāvan of Miyaṅguṇubim and Vijayānāvan of Degalaturubim, and his kinsman Kaṭuvitnā Sätumba or Devu. It also gives a long list of the lands and serfs granted to the temple by its founders and ends with the signatures of the donors and of the witnesses to the document.

The date of the inscription is a subject of scholarly debate. The record is dated in the thirtieth year of a king called Parākramabāhu. There are three kings of this name who ruled for more than thirty years: Parākramabāhu I (r. 1153–1186), Parākramabāhu II (r. 1236–1271) and Parākramabāhu VI (r. 1412–1467). Since the inscription can be dated on palaeographic grounds to the twelfth or thirteenth century, the last of these kings can be ruled out immediately. However, scholars disagree over whether the inscription should be attributed to Parākramabāhu I or II. Overall, the evidence is not wholly decisive and the record could belong to either monarch.

The inscription is cut into the rock near the ancient Buddhist monastery situated on the low, rocky hill by the Meddeketiya tank at Saṁgamuva, a village about two miles to the north-east of Gokarälla, in the Häḍahaya Kōraḷē of the Kuruṇǟgala District. A series of over one hundred steps, cut into the bare side of the rock, lead up the side of the hill to a plateau, upon which stand the ruins of an old stupa and other monastic buildings. The inscription is engraved at the top of the steps, to the left as one ascends the hill. It was copied for the first time by Senarath Paranavitana in 1931 (see Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Annual Report for 1930–31, p. 5). The text is written in Sinhalese, apart from the last four lines, which consist of a Sanskrit verse in the Vasantatilakā metre, though nearly half of this verse is no longer legible.

The inscription is of exceptional historical importance, since it records an alliance between two princes called Gajabāhu and Parākramabāhu, who can be identified as Gajabāhu II (r. 1131–1153) and the future Parākramabāhu I (r. 1153–1186). The Mahāvaṁsa records how Parākramabāhu, after consolidating his position in the principality of the Dakkhiṇadesa to which he succeeded on the death of his uncle Kittisirimegha, undertook a campaign against his cousin Gajabāhu II with the object of making himself ruler of the island of Sri Lanka. Eventually, the two princes came to a peace settlement, as recorded in the present inscription. The two princes speak in the first person in this inscription. After introducing themselves by name, they come to the matter of the agreement. The first clause states that they will not wage war against each other for the rest of their lives. Although now partly damaged, the second clause seems to declare that, whichever prince dies first, his possessions will pass to the surviving prince. Since Gajabāhu was by some margin the older of the two, this clause essentially amounts to him bequeathing his kingdom to Parākramabāhu. The third clause is now almost completely illegible. By the fourth and final clause of the treaty, the two princes enter into an offensive and defensive alliance, declaring that any king who is an enemy of one of them, is an enemy of both. Paranavitana interpreted this clause as being directed against Mānābharaṇa, the ruler of Rohaṇa, who also had designs on Gajabāhu’s throne. The agreement concludes with imprecations against both princes if they act contrary to its terms. It is not clear why this record was engraved at the Saṁgamu Vihāra. Although it was within the territories under Parākramabāhu’s rule, there is nothing to prove that the place was close to his residence, even temporarily. Paranavitana posited that the treaty may have been brokered by a monk who resided at the vihara but this is only conjecture.