Wilpattu

This inscription is engraved on a rock-boulder at Andaragollǟgala to the south of a ruined brick structure which was probably an ancient stupa. Andaragollǟgala is a group of detached rocks about three miles south-east of Maradanmaḍuva and about three-quarters of a mile east of Tim̆biriväva, close to the eastern boundary of the Vilpattu National Park. The inscription was discovered in 1953 by C. W. Nicholas, the head of the Wild Life Department. An estampage was prepared by the Archaeological Department in 1954 and the record was included as number 46 in the List of Inscriptions in the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Annual Report for that year. The inscription records that an individual called Girivela Cada freed his son from slavery. It is dated in the second year of a king named Daḷa-Opatisa (Dāṭhopatissa) but it is not clear from the text whether the monarch in question was the first or second of that name. Both Dāṭhopatissa I and II reigned in the seventh century, the former from 640 until 652 and the latter from 664 until 673. Senarath Paranavitana draws attention to the fact that the king in the present inscription is given the sovereign epithet of mapurumuka. By contrast, the Dakkhiṇa-vihāra inscription, which is also dated in the reign of a king called Dāṭhopatissa, uses the epithet purumaka. This may suggest that two inscriptions belong to different kings. Since there is some reason to suppose that the Dakkhiṇa-vihāra inscription is a record of Dāṭhopatissa I, it may be that the present epigraph belongs to  Dāṭhopatissa II. However, this is only conjecture.

This inscription is engraved on a rock to the north of the ruined stupa at an ancient site in the forest about three miles south of Maradanmaḍuva, lying about half a mile off the route to Ikirigallǟva. Two other inscriptions are engraved on the same rock (IN03224 and IN03225). The extensive ruins at this site were discovered by the Wild Life Department in 1953. At that time, the site had no name but it now referred to as Tim̆biriväva after an abandoned and breached tank in the vicinity. As head of the Wild Life Department, C. W. Nicholas reported the discovery to the Archaeological Department, whose officers were despatched to survey the inscriptions (see Appendix II of the Administration Report for 1954, nos. 41, 42 and 43).

The present inscription registers the gift of seven hundred kahavaṇa coins to the royal monastery of Masala by Budala Aldara, nephew of Vaḷaba Haladara. ‘Masala’ was evidently the ancient name of the monastic established at the site where the epigraph is located. The inscription is dated in the tenth year of a king styled Kasabala Alakapaya, ‘Kasabala’ being the equivalent of the Pali ‘Kassapa’. Senarath Paranavitana identifies this king as Kassapa I, since the second king of that name only reigned for nine years and the inscription’s palaeography suggests that it predates the reign of Kassapa III. Kassapa I ascended to the throne in around 479 A.D. The application of the title ‘Alakapaya’, which is equivalent to the Sanskrit ‘Alakapati’ (Lord of Alakā), to this king is explained by the Cūḷavaṁsa when it says that Kassapa built on the summit of Sīgiri ‘a fine palace worthy to behold, like another Ālakamandā and dwelt there like (the god) Kuvera’.