________________
332
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
-
[VOL XVIII.
65 years, and passed his 73rd birthday (tirunakshatram).1. It next mentions the building of a shrine for the Tooth Relic of Buddha in the monastery of Uturo!muļa which was a part of the Abhayagiri-vihāra by a General named Dāva, at the command of the king. We are next intro duced to the royal preceptor Vyāriņi Mugalan, who is described to have been well versed in all the sciences and scriptures, and who was a high dignitary of the Buddhist Church in Ceylon at this period. This hierarch, as our inscription informs us, convened a meeting of the chief ministers of the state, and inviting the Vēlaikkara forces to their presence, exhorted them to protect the temple of the Tooth. The Vēļaikkāras, who consisted of the three divisions of the Mahatantra, the Vaļañjiyar, and the Nagarattār, agreed to do so, and re-named the temple as Munru-kai-tiru-Vēlaikkāran-Daladay-perum-palli, and concerted the necessary arrangements for the protection of the shrine. They bound themselves not only to protect the temple, its lands, its serfs, property, etc., but also to keep it in proper repair and to do everything necessary for its proper maintenance. The inscription also gives a list of the various tribes which formed the Vēlaikkāras and ends with an imprecation on those who act against the rules laid down therein.
The account given in this inscription of king $ri-Sanghabodhi Vijayabāhu agrees in every detail with that given in the Mahāvamsa of Vijayabāhu I. So there is no doubt about the identity of the king mentioned in our record. The statement that he had to conquer many enemies before he could establish his authority, is, no doubt, a reference to the long wars that he had to wage against the Chola invaders and the petty chieftains of Ceylon who ruled in the southern part of the island. Perhaps it might not be out of place, in this connection, to give a brief account of the state of the country before the accession of Vijayabāhu to the throne, and a short sketch of his career, as stated in the Mahāvamón (Chapters LVIII to LX). At the beginning of the eleventh century, in the reign of Rājarāja I, the Chōļas invaded Ceylon and annexed the northern part of the island to their dominions, taking Mahinda V, the then king of Ceylon, as a prisoner, to the Chöļa country. From this time, up to the end of the reign of the Chola king Adhiräjëndradēva, Ceylon acknowledged the supremacy of the Chōļas. During this period Ceylon was in a state of utter confusion. The Sinhalese princes, driven to the mountainous districts of the South, were always fighting amongst themselves, when the Chõļas were not at their doors. When the country was in this distracted state, a young scion of the ancient Sinhalese royal family, named Kirti, raised the standard of war, and after a considerable amount of fighting, made himself the master of the Rohana country, the southern part of Ceylon, and assumed the title of Vijayabāhu, when he was only seventeen years of age. After making his position secure in the principality of which he was the chief, he started on a campaign to rid the island of foreign domination. The time chosen by him for this enterprise was an opportune one. The campaign of Vijayabāhu against the Chõļas falls into the period immediately before the accession of Kulöttunga I to the
1 Tirunakshatram means the sacred asterism.' It seems as if the Sinhalese kings of old celebrated a special festival annually, on the day of the constellation under which they were born. I am informed by Mr. K. V. Subhrahmanya Aiyar, Superintendent for Epigraphy, that such a custom still prevails in the royal family of
ravancore, and that the princes of Travancore are named after the constellations under which they are born, Tho Mahavamsa also gives instances in which persons were named after the constellation of their birth, e.g. Tishya and Pushya. [The janma-nama or birth name of a Hindu child is given after the janma-nakshatra or the constellation of nativity.-Ed.]
Inscriptions of Rājarāja I are found in Ceylon, and in one of the records of the Tanjore temple it is stated that the income of several villages in Ceylon was dedicated to that shrine. Rajendra-Chola I also says in his inKeriptions that he conquered the whole island. Rājādhiraja I and Rajendradēvs, the successors of Rajendra. Chola I, both conducted campaigns in Ceylon, in which several princes of the island are said to have perished, An inscription of Adhirājēndra is also found at Polonnaruva No inscription, however, of any Chóla sugeessor of Adhirajendra is found on the island of Ceylon.
