Śrī Jayavīra Mahā Väḍa-vun-täna

Natha Devale, Kandy, Sri Lanka

This inscription is engraved on four stones built into the western wall of the Nātha Dēvālē in Kandy. The wall includes eight inscribed stones in all, referred to here as A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H. Stones A–E are arranged in one row, while stones F–H form part of the row below. One inscription reads straight across stones A and B, is continued on stone C and concludes on stone D. A separate, fragmentary record begins on stone E and continues on stones F–H. The first of these two inscriptions is dealt with here (see IN03157 for the other). The text is dated on the tenth of the dark half of Bak in the Buddhist year 2085 (30 March, 1543) and records the grant of various concessions by the king Śrī Jayavīra Mahā Väḍa-vun-täna to the people of Dumbara, Pansiyapattuva, Mātalē, and Ūva Tunkin̆da, and of the village Alutgama for their services in an attack by the Portuguese on the Hill Country. The king mentioned here can probably be identified with Jayavīra Baṇḍāra, who is thought to have succeeded to the throne of Kandy in 1511 and reigned until 1552. He was the successor of Sēnāsammata Vikrama Bāhu, who is credited with having founded Kandy as a capital and also with having established (or at least rebuilt) the Nātha Dēvālē, although the current building on the site dates from a later period.