________________
MAY. 3, 1872.]
INSCRIPTION FROM DAMBULA.
139
THE CAVE OF THE GOLDEN ROCK, DAMBULA, CEYLON.
BY T. W. RHYS DAVIDS, C.C.S., ANURADHAPURA, SIR EMERSON TENNENT has eloquently and yet of the original on the point in question. Uphamt very justly described this wonderful hill of stone says: " underneath which the temple has been hol- "He (Wattagamini, in Sinhalese Walagam Bahu) lowed out, which from its antiquity, its magni
afterwards caused to be built the temple Dambooloo, tude, and the richness of its decorations, is by
and a monument 140 cubits high, and five temfar the most renowned in Ceylon." He has
ples : he also caused many hundreds of stone houses
to be built, and did many other things of public given two woodcuts which afford a good idea of
utility." its front and its entrance, but fail altogether to do
The original words aret . . . . næwata justice to the effect created by its enormous
Dambulu wiharaya da karawa, nawata Soma size: and he has all the more strongly, because
nam ek siya hatalis riyan maha weherak karawa, inadvertently, testified to the curious success
næwata pas maha wiharayak da karawa, boho of the paintings within, when he states that
siya ganan gal-lenawal kațâra kotawa, anik udu " the ceiling of this gloomy vault is concealed
boho sâsanopakari wûseka :-which literally with painted cloths," for what seemed, even to
translated is80 educated an observer, to be cloths is, in
" And furthermore having made the Dambula reality, the rock painted in fresco, and this wihara, and also having made the great Dáhgoba is the more remarkable as those paintings 140 cubits high called Soma, and also baving made were undoubtedly executed hundreds of years five large wiháras, and having cut ledges in many ago.
hundred stone caves, he was of great assistance in Sir Emerson Tennent mentions one inscrip
other ways also to the Doctrine.'" tion which was translated for Turnour by Mr.
It is difficult to find the source from which Armour,t but I have discovered eleven others,
Abhayarâja, the author of Rája Ratnákara, deand believe that still more would reward a care
rived the first statement, for nothing is said ful search, and I venture to submit the oldest
either in the Maháwanso or in the Dipawansa and for some reasons the most interesting.
about Dambula Wihara being made by Watta From this inscription it may be considered gamini although in the former 6. the names of proved that the temple was originally founded,
five, and in the latter the names of seven comnot by Walagam Bâhu about 86 B.C., as stated paratively unimportant ones, made by his eight by Tennent, but in the time of Dew&nam- strong men, are given : but nothing is said piya Tissa (B. C. 246)| the ally of Asoka and about it in Rajawaliya, although a compathe friend and patron of Mahinda who intro- ratively large space is devoted to that king's duced Buddhism into Ceylon.
reign. • It is possible that Walagam Bahu repaired The inscription referred to is cut in the face the temple, and it is certain that he built the Soma of the rock, in one line, under the ledge or eaves dagoba, in honour of his queen, in the plain
called 'katara' in Ceylon-formed to cause the to the south of the sacred hill; but the autho
rain to drop off instead of trickling down into the rity adduced by Tennent for his statement that cave. Owing to this position the inscription is that king first endowed it is of littlo value, be
in perfect preservation, and is only difficult to ing merely Upham's translation of the Raja
read from its great height above the ground, Ratnakari, a grossly inaccurate translation of a
the katara being half way up a precipice 200 very useful but late and unreliable work. The
feet high. My copy is therefore only an eye copy ignorance of the translators having been so
taken with an opera glass : but the characters cruelly exposed by Tumour, I quote the words
being Bo simple it may, I think, be relied upon. • Sir E. Tennent, Ceylon, Vol. II. pp. 576-578, 2nd edition.
according to the Sinhalese chronology, by which As'oka is A detailed account of the Dambulla temple is given in
placed 60 years before the date usually assigned to him-ED. Forbes's Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. I. ch. xvi. pp.867-876; This building is mentioned in Mahawanso 206-8, but and by Mr. Knighton, Jour. As. Soc. Ben. vol. XVI. (1847)
it has not been previously know where the dagoba was the pt. i. Pp340-850.- Ed.
Revd. C. Alwis writes to me that it is supposed to contain The engraving in Forbes's Eleven Years in Ceylon,
the left canine tooth of Buddha, and to be somewhere near Frontispiece, Vol. I. is a striking but inaccurate view of one
Trinkomali. of the interior.
. MahiwansO PP. v. seqq. Appendix to Tumour's Epitome, p. 95, and Forbes,
+ Sacred and Historical Books, Vol. II. p. 48. Ceylon, Vol. II. Pp. 327,850.
From the MS. in my possession, verse 50. $Loc cit. p. 578.
8 Page 206, 18. I I have ventured to substitute this data for B. C. 806 Versea 1142 and 1148 of the MS. in my possession.
