OB03133 Poḷonnaruva Pillar of Mahinda V

Author: Senarath Paranavitana

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
April 1, 2020
IN03161 Poḷonnaruva Pillar Inscription of Mahinda V

Author: Senarath Paranavitana

This inscription is engraved on all four sides of a quadrangular stone pillar, which was discovered at the eastern porch of the Quadrangle at Poḷonnaruva and afterwards moved to the Archaeological Museum at Anurādhapura. The pillar’s base and capital are both missing and it seems to have been utilised as a lintel, for on one side are two square mortice holds, which were obviously intended for fitting it to the two door-jambs. H. C. P. Bell included the pillar in the list of inscriptions copied between 1901 and 1905 in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for 1905 (p. 40, no. 42). The inscription can be assigned to around the tenth century A.D. on palaeographic grounds. It is dated in the second year of a king styled Sirisaṅgbo, whom Bell identified with Mahinda IV (r. 975–991 A.D.). However, this identification is untenable, since the mother and father of the king in question are named in the inscription as Saṅgā-räjna and Mihind-maha[rad] respectively. In the tenth century, only two kings were sons of a monarch called Mihind (Mahinda). These were Sena V (r. 991–1001) and Mahinda V (r. 1001–1037), the two sons of Mahinda IV. The former used the viruda title Salamevan and cannot therefore be identified with the Sirisaṅgbo referred to here. Instead, the monarch of the present inscription must be Mahinda V, who was entitled to the name of Sirisaṅgbo from his place in the order of succession. The inscription records a grant of immunities to land in the village of Muhund-naru, in the Eastern Quarter, belonging to a pirivena, of which the name is obliterated, in the monastery called Mahamevnā Tisaram.

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
April 1, 2020
OB03113 Kaludiyapokuṇa Cave

Author: Senarath Paranavitana

File:Pagoda at kaludiya pokuna from top view.jpg

Kaludiya Pokuna Archaeological Site, Central Province, Sri Lanka

File:Medieval sinhala at Kaludiya Pokuna Slab inscription.jpg

Detail of Kaludiya Pokuna Cave Inscription

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
March 11, 2020
IN03138 Kaludiyapokuṇa Cave Inscription

Author: Senarath Paranavitana

The inscription is engraved on the rock wall of a cave situated about 400 feet to the south-west of the stupa in the ruined monastery at Kalupokuṇa or Kaludiyapokuṇa, which lies on the slopes of a range of hills known as Eravalagala, about a mile and a half to the south-east of Kum̆bukkan̆danvaḷa, in the Vagapaṇaha Pallēsiya Pattu of the Mātaḷē District. The text contains sixty-seven lines, divided into five columns of unequal dimensions. It is dated on the fifth day of the bright half of the lunar month Poson in the eighth year of King Sirisaṅgbo. This biruda was used by a number of kings and it is not possible to identify definitively which one is intended here. However, on palaeographic grounds, Senarath Paranavitana suggests that the monarch in question may be Sena II (r. 866–901) or Kassapa IV (r. 912–929), more probably the former.

 

The inscription records the gifts made by different individuals for providing food to the inmates of the Dakiṇigiri monastery. The major part of the record is concerned with the gift of a person named Daḷanā, who invested twenty-three kaḷan̆das of gold for the daily supply of two aḍmanā of rice and one aḍmanā of curd and who stipulated that, in the event of dissension among the inmates of the of the monastery, the food intended for them should be thrown to crows and dogs. Evidently, Daḷanā was of opinion that if the members of the saṅgha quarrelled amongst themselves, they were less worthy of the offerings of the pious than such animals.

Community: Sri Lanka epigraphy
Uploaded on November 6, 2017
March 11, 2020