Indian Antiquary Vol 09

SR No.: 032501
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 398
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 19

JANUARY, 1880.]
CEYLON INSCRIPTIONS.
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ing. The other one, as well as & very fine inscription at Rajângane, three miles from Mahigalkadewala, treat both about the building of dining halls for the priest (danasala) and the offering of water-strainers (palisavana) to them, a practice that is known from Maháwarnso, p. 220. I reserve a full transcript and translation of these for a later occasion. The alphabet in which they are written is very difficult to decipher, and some characters can only be found out by conjecture, as we have nothing like them in any of the Indian alphabets that are given in Prinsep's Essays and Burnell's, South Indian Palæography.
As in the North-Central Province, there are here also no inscriptions between the 5th and 9th centuries, and so we go on at once to the reign of Kassapo V. (937—954.) There is a fine pillar of this king at Ingirimitiya, eight miles from Anamaduwa, discovered by Mr. Parker, the irrigation officer of the district.
The king styles himself, as usual, Siri Sang Bo, and it would be difficult to say which king of this name it is, if not for the name of a minister (Mahale=mahdlekha) Sena, which must be the same mentioned in Mahawanso ch. 52, 33, as the founder of Mahâlekhapabbatawihara. It contains a grant to a temple, the name of which is not clear on the stone. I give the first lines and a part from the middle of the inscription :A.-(1) Swasti
(2) Siri Sanga Bo (3) ma purmuka (4) sawanaga pa(5) ridase hima (6) ta puradisa (7) wak dawas (8). ... ma (9) hâ panan (10) wahange
(11) wadAleyiHail! Siri Sanga Bo, the king in the...th year of his reign, on the 10th day in the bright half of the month Himata....the great sage declared. . .
Sawanaga must serve to indicate the year of the king's reign in which this order was given; generally we find a numeral instead, as pasaļ08wanne in the inscription of Mahakalattewa. C.-(1) ......su
(2) sama me ga (3) m no wad
(4) nå kot i. (5) Bł gæl mi(6) wan wæriya(7) n gam gen(8) no ganna (9) kot isa (10) ataņin nepanna
(11) kot isa. Having ordered that noblemen shall not enter the place, that enemies shall not take the cart buffaloes from the village, and having made them independent.'....
Atanin nepanna I think stands for Pali attand nipphannd-dependent upon themselves.'
Inscriptions of this king and of his successor, Kassapo VI., are to be found at Makala na wih â ra, seven miles from Kurunegala, on a large rock close to the dågoba, and on pillars at Mædag ama and Segele na wihara, nine miles from Kurunegala on the Kandy road, and at Yak dessa Gala, two miles to the east of the road to Puttalam.
Of king Par & krama bahu I., I only found two inscriptions : one on a pillar which stands now before the Assistant Government Agent's house in Puttalam; the other one on a stone tablet at Galas ne Malâ sane, eight miles from Kurunegala, near the road to Anuradhapura. The pillar was formerly at Puliankulam, ten miles from Chilaw, where it was discovered by Mr. Brodie, who gave a very rough and imperfect transcript of it in the Journal of the Ceylon Asiatic Society, 1855, p. 181 ff. The contents seem not to differ greatly from those in his other numerous inscriptions all over the Island.
Last of all, I mention three Tamil inscriptions on two pillars and one large slab at Budumutt å wa wihara near Nikaweratiya. The character is very much the same as the present Tamil, but there are two or three letters which have disappeared now from the alphabet. Unfortunately I am not well enough acquainted with Tamil to be able to give a translation of these inscriptions; they bear the name of the son of a Kalinga king (“Kalinka makan"), and date, without doubt, from the time of the great Tamil invasion of Ceylon, 1013-1153 A.D.
These are the inscriptions I found, partly by inquiring from the natives, partly with the help of the Government archeological returns ; but I am convinced that if a systematic search