Pot-Gul Vehera

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.