Sēnāsammata Vikrama Bāhu

Aluth Nuwara Dedimunda Devalaya, near Mawanella

This inscription is engraved on one side of a stone slab, which stands at the foot of the flight of steps leading to the main shrine of the dēvāle at Alutnuvara. The slab is situated to the left of the steps as one ascends. Another inscribed slab stands on the other side of the steps and is engraved with two inscriptions (IN03205 and IN03206). The slabs were discovered in the late nineteenth century and their inscriptions were first published by H. C. P. Bell in 1892 (Report on the Kegalla District of the Province of Sabaragamuwa, pp. 80–81).

The present inscription has been almost completely obliterated and only a few lines at the end remain legible. In these surviving lines, we can recognise the words of an imprecation, usually found in medieval Sinhalese records, against persons who cause obstruction to the maintenance of endowments made to religious institutions. Hence we may infer that the subject-matter of the inscription was a grant of land to a religious establishment. The document is attested by an officer named Sanhas Sivatta Nāyanāru, according to the order delivered, presumably by the king, when the latter was staying at the rest-house in a village of which the name is not fully preserved. Sanhas Sivatta Nāyanāru figures as the attestor of other documents issued in the reign of Senāsammata Vikramabāhu (see H. W. Codrington, ‘Some Documents of Vikramabāhu of Kandy’, Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 32 [1931]: 64–75). We may therefore conclude that the present record was also one of that monarch – a conclusion to which the palaeographic evidence presents no objection. Senāsammata Vikramabāhu was in fact an independent ruler of the Hill Country who flourished in the latter half of the fifteenth century, his reign beginning in 1474 or 1475 at the latest.

This inscription is engraved on one side of a stone slab, which stands at the foot of the flight of steps leading to the main shrine of the dēvāle at Alutnuvara. A related inscription is engraved on the other side of the slab (IN03205). The slab is situated to the right of the steps as one ascends. It is badly weatherworn and only the lower part of each face remains legible. Another inscribed slab stands on the other side of the steps but its inscription has been totally obliterated, apart from a few lines at the end (IN03207). The slabs were discovered in the late nineteenth century and their inscriptions were first published by H. C. P. Bell in 1892 (Report on the Kegalla District of the Province of Sabaragamuwa, pp. 80–81).

The present inscription contains a declaration by the ruler of Highlands that neither he nor any other member of the royal family will cause loss of property, limbs or life, to the people of the Satara Kōraḷē. No regnal year or date is found in the preserved portion of the record but it does state that it was set up Vikramabāhu Ǟpā at the command of King Senāsammata Vikramabāhu. Bell took this king to be Vikramabāhu III, who reigned from Gampaḷa in the middle of the fourteenth century, but this supposition was proved to be incorrect when H. W. Codrington proved that Senāsammata Vikramabāhu was in fact an independent ruler of the Hill Country who flourished in the latter half of the fifteenth century, his reign beginning in 1474 or 1475 at the latest. The identity of the individual called Vikramabāhu Ǟpā, who set up the edict on Senāsammata Vikramabāhu’s behalf, is not clear. In the medieval period, the title ǟpā was usually reserved for the heir-apparent. It would therefore appear that Senāsammata Vikramabāhu had an heir who was also called Vikramabāhu, although this would conflict with Codrington’s survey of the documentary evidence, which seems to show that the king’s successor was in fact named Jayavīra. The present inscription appears to be a response to the text engraved on the other side of the slab (IN03205), which contains a declaration of allegiance by the inhabitants of Satara Kōraḷē to the kingdom of the Highlands (Kanda-uḍakaṭṭuva).

Aluth Nuwara Dedimunda Devalaya, near Mawanella

This inscription is engraved on one side of a stone slab, which stands at the foot of the flight of steps leading to the main shrine of the dēvāle at Alutnuvara. A related inscription is engraved on the other side of the slab (IN03206). The slab is situated to the right of the steps as one ascends. It is badly weatherworn and only the lower part of each face remains legible. Another inscribed slab stands on the other side of the steps but its inscription has been totally obliterated, apart from a few lines at the end (IN03207). The slabs were discovered in the late nineteenth century and their inscriptions were first published by H. C. P. Bell in 1892 (Report on the Kegalla District of the Province of Sabaragamuwa, pp. 80–81).

The present inscription contains a declaration of allegiance by the inhabitants of Satara Kōraḷē to the kingdom of the Highlands (Kanda-uḍakaṭṭuva). The inscription on the other side of the slab (IN03206) forms a response to this declaration presumably from the ruler of the Highlands, in which he proclaims that neither he nor any other member of the royal family will cause loss of property, limbs or life to the people of Satara Kōraḷē. It is therefore clear that the two documents were published at the same time. No regnal year or date is found in either inscription. However, the king’s edict (IN03206) states that it was set up Vikramabāhu Ǟpā at the command of King Senāsammata Vikramabāhu. Bell took this king to be Vikramabāhu III, who reigned from Gampaḷa in the middle of the fourteenth century, but this supposition was shown to be incorrect when H. W. Codrington proved that Senāsammata Vikramabāhu was in fact an independent ruler of the Hill Country who flourished in the latter half of the fifteenth century, his reign beginning in 1474 or 1475 at the latest. The identity of the individual called Vikramabāhu Ǟpā, who set up the edict on Senāsammata Vikramabāhu’s behalf, is not clear. In the medieval period, the title ǟpā was usually reserved for the heir-apparent. It would therefore appear that Senāsammata Vikramabāhu had an heir who was also called Vikramabāhu, although this would conflict with Codrington’s survey of the documentary evidence, which seems to show that the king’s successor was in fact named Jayavīra.

Gadaladeniya Vihara, Kandy, Sri Lanka

Sign marking the site of the Gaḍalādeṇiya Rock Inscription of Sēnāsammata Vikrama Bāhu (IN03154).

This inscription is cut into the rock at the Gaḍalādeṇiya Vihārē, immediately below the record of the monk Dharmmakīrtti (IN03166), the founder of the vihara. The Gaḍalādeṇiya Vihārē is situated in Pilimathalawa, near Kandy. The present inscription is dated in the eighth year of Sēnāsammata Vikrama Bāhu cakravartti, who was the founder of Kandy as a capital and reigned from 1469 until 1511 A.D. The text promises that no loss of life shall be inflicted on the people of certain provinces named and declares that the heriot or maḷāraya of those who have fallen in warfare or in the elephant hunt shall, in the absence of an heir, be devoted to the restoration of vihārēs in disrepair.