________________
322
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1877.
PAli b in the word savanyutopete, as we can perceive and queen Gon. Now the identical two persong here no influence of Simhalese, the latter language are mentioned as the parents of a king Siri having changed the original (Sanskrit) word Sangboy A bahay in the inscription on those sarva (PAli sabba) into scera (ma), contracted sce well-known stone tablets at Mihintala (translated (ma), all.' Lokehi is a good Pali form, but not here in Turnour's Epitome, and the beginning in J. applicable; it is probably a mistake of the en- D'Alwis's Sidathsangardwa, Intr. pp. xxxvi. xxxvii.). graver for lokahi, the regular loc, sing. in Simha- which present such an interesting account of the lese. The words nati and nimi are Simhalese. well-to-do life of the priesthood in a large vihdra.
Leaving it undecided whether the Kirinde in- There the king says that he had been apd befor scription is subsequent to the time when the sacred
being made king, and as the date of the inscription Buddhist canon is supposed to have been committed be gives the 16th year of his reign. to writing, or prior to it,-in which case of course
King Abha Salamewan, the father of Misome of the peculiarities here noticed could be
hindå, has left us an inscription at Ætawiragollawa more easily accounted for,-there still remains
(N.C.P., eleven miles from Madawachchiya), and enough in this passage, I believe, to throw doubt
another one beginning almost with the same on the alleged antiquity of the Pali language in its
words, at Elawewa Pansala (c. eleven miles from present form.
Mihintala towards Trinkâmali). In the latter, howThe remaining inscriptions of this period contain ever, he calls himself Abha Salamewan Dapulu. nothing remarkable, except occasionally interest- Both bear as their date the 10th year of his reign ; ing words. A number of fragments are found on in both he alludes to a victorious campaign of his the rock at Kahagalvihara (between Ranne father, Abhà Siri sang bo, in India against and Wirakatiya); other rock inscriptions at Na
the kingdom of Påndt. Of king Abha Siri Sañgyigalvih&ra, at Mulgirigala, one long one bo a fine pillar inscription is extant in the jungle at W& digala (two miles from Ranne, on the on the foot of Mihintala hill, in which, however, his road to Tangalla), one at Angulu kola vihara
parentage is not mentioned. (He simply begins : (not far from Kirindê), and two at Wigamuwa Abhay Siri sa[ng] boyi ma purmukd nawawan ne (near Ranne). A long inscription engraved on the Himate mas / hi dasa wak dawas: i.e. "[We) king rock at Badagiriya (nine miles from Hamban. Abbay Siri sang boyi, in the 9th year (of our reign]. tota) by its defaced state has resisted my first on the 10th day in the month Himanta[November]"). effort, but may be hoped to be decipherable after a Alphabet as little as language leaves any doubt renewed examination.
about the general period to which these inscriptions III.-Down to the Eleventh Century. belong; it must be the time between the end of I have seen, unfortunately, very few specimens the 9th and the beginning of the 17th century. of inscriptions between the 4th and 9th centuries, In all of them most of the characters used approach although this must have been a time of vigorous the forms of the present alphabet so closely as to development, in the course of which by degrees be legible to any educated native; and as for tbe Simbalese was moulded into its classical shape. language, though widely distant from the present
There is an inscription of about the 6th or 7th conversational, it differs little from that of the incentury on a pillar near Tissamaharà mo (ac- scriptions of the 12th century, if we except the then cording to tradition the post to which the royal new-fangled manner of putting back Simbalese tusker was tied); some lines are pretty well pre- words into their Sansksit originals, and the wholeserved, the greater part is defaced; I have not, sale introduction of Sanskrit words besides. Again, however, as yet come to examine this sufficiently. I as the name Siri saiga bo had come to be used
I will mention here, first of all, an inscription in as a mere title, assumed by many kings (for inthe Hambantota district, because it has been of stance, Vijayabahu I., Parakramabahu I., Nissasika great help to me for fixing the dates of a number of Malla). we have to look upon Mihind & (Mabindo) other inscriptions. The pillar I am referring to as the proper name of the inscriber of Mayilagawas discovered by Mr. J.H. Dawson, the Irrigation stota and Mihintala. Officer at Mayilagastota. It is inscribed After these preliminary remarks, we may look on three sides, but partly effaced. The purport of in the Mahavando for an identification of the three the whole is again, as so often, a grant to a vihdra, kings (father, son, and grandson) to whom we to which is added an enumeration of the privileges owe the inscriptions in question. usually connected with such a donation, viz., that Mahindo III. (997-1013), according to the the land should be exempt from rájakdriya and Mahdvanso (ch. 54), had been made adipddo at the the like.
accession to the throne of Seno III. (994-997). It The donor is Mihind &, apd or viceroy. He is recorded of him (Mahdo. ch. liv. 28) that he put calls himself a son of a king Abhi Salamewanup inscribed stone slabs "to prevent future kings
