Poḷonnaruva

Kiri-Vehera Dagaba, Polonnaruwa

This text is the inner inscription on the upper surface of a stone slab found lying on the maḷuva or terrace of the so-called ‘Kiri-vehera’ dāgaba in Poḷonnaruva, about eight or ten yards to the south-east of its south altar. The slab has two inscriptions. The first or outer inscription is engraved around all four edges of a large rectangular area, which covers almost the entire surface of slab. The second or inner inscription is engraved around all four edges of a smaller rectangular area, which is set within the first inscription. An ornamental border of swans (haṁsas) and foliage surrounds the outer inscription and a conventional crab and fish pattern frames the inner one.

Both inscriptions date from the reign of king Niśśaṅka-Malla. It is obvious from the contents of the two texts and from the few stumps of pillars still existing round the slab that it was originally situated inside a kūḍama or pavilion structure similar in style to the one at the Rankot-dāgaba (OB03067) and built about the same period, namely, between 1191 and 1196 A.D. The inscribed slab must have been the flagstone of a raised seat within the pavilion, from which the royalty was wont to worship the relics enshrined in the Kiri-vehera-dāgaba opposite.

The text of the first or outer inscription is the same as the Poḷonnaruva Stone Bath Slab Inscription (IN03088), the only exception being the concluding clause which indicates the pavilion (kūḍama), as the one from which His Majesty Kīrti Niśśaṅka-Malla worshipped the (Buddhist) relics.

Shiva Dewalaya No. 1, Polonnaruwa

The inscription is engraved around all four edges of the smoothed upper surface of a quadrangular slab, which once formed the top flagstone of a raised seat (āsana). It was examined by H. C. P. Bell sometime between 1901 and 1905. The slab was then lying inside a ruined shrine referred to by Bell as Śiva-Devālaya No. 1 and situated a little to the south of the main group of Buddhist ruins on the raised quadrangle near Tōpaväva. The stone is badly worn, rendering a considerable portion of the inscription totally illegible. However, what remains readable clearly shows that the text agrees almost word for word with the Poḷonnaruva Stone Bath Slab Inscription (IN03088), the only exception being the concluding sentence which indicates the inscribed seat or āsana as the one which king Niśśaṅka-Malla used to occupy when performing the function of lustral bathing (nānu mē) at the ceremony of propitiating the nine planetary gods (nava-graha-śānti). Niśśaṅka-Malla reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. No specific date is given in the inscription but the text must have been composed after the fourth year of the king’s reign because it refers to his visit to Anurādhapura, which took place in his fourth regnal year.

The inscription is engraved on a fragment of a stone slab found in the Tōpaväva village. The fragment originally formed part of a flagstone in the rectangular bath on the promontory at Tōpaväva. Numerous baths were discovered on the promontory in 1901. The other fragments of the flagstone are missing but Wickremasinghe was able to reconstruct the slab’s inscription after recognising that it was the same as the Rankot-dāgaba pillar inscription (IN03087), except for the concluding sentence which states the purpose for which the cistern was used by king Niśśaṅka-Malla. This king reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. No specific date is given in the inscription but, as Wickremasinghe notes, the text must have been composed after the fourth year of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s reign because it refers to the king’s visit to Anurādhapura, which took place in his fourth regnal year, and to his later tours of inspection.

Rankoth Vehera, Polonnaruwa.

The inscription is repeated on each of the four pillars which once supported the roof of an open pavilion on the southern terrace of the Ruvanväli or Rankot-dāgaba in Poḷonnaruva. According to the inscription, this pavilion was built to provide a place from which king Niśśanka Malla could pay his adorations to the relics enshrined in the dāgaba. Presumably, the pavilion originally contained an āsana (throne) or dias for this purpose. The pillars are square at the top and bottom with an octagonal section in the centre. All four pillars are fallen and two are broken. The inscription gives an account of some of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s acts, before describing the king’s use of the pavilion. Niśśaṅka-Malla reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. No specific date is given in the inscription but, as Wickremasinghe notes, the text must have been composed after the fourth year of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s reign because it refers to the king’s visit to Anurādhapura, which took place in his fourth regnal year, and to his later tours of inspection.

Of the four copies of the inscription on the four pillars, two were first transcribed and translated by Rhys Davids in 1875 for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. The third copy was edited by Müller in Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon (1883). The information below relates to the fourth copy, which was transcribed and translated for the first time by Wickremasinghe in Epigraphia Zeylanica 2 (1912-27). The fourth copy differs from the other three in the number of lines on each side and also in the beginning and end of each line.

Rankoth Vehera, Polonnaruwa.

The inscription is engraved around four sides of the smoothed upper surface of a stone seat (āsana). It was discovered in the jungle some two hundred yards to the east of the ruin known as Ran-kot-vehera in Poḷonnaruva. The inscription consists of six lines and dates from the reign of Niśśaṅka-Malla (1187-1196 A.D.). It gives an account of some of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s acts, before identifying the seat as the one which the king occupied to watch the construction of the Ruvanväli-dāgaba at Poḷonnaruva. Wickremasinghe notes that the stone-seat inscription must be earlier than the Galpota inscription (IN03081) because the latter post-dates the completion of the Ruvanväli-dāgaba. This dāgaba was built to a height of eighty cubits and adorned with a golden pinnacle, from which it gets its present name: Ran-kot-vehera (‘golden-spire-monastery’).