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NOVEMBER, 1877.]
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tained the state of omniscience, and forty-five years (after that), on the 4th day, having accomplished by quenching...... .., as a large cloud does by rain, so he, in many hundred thousands of krors of kalpas by the nectar of the law, [having thus accomplished] all the duties of a Buddha, extinguished (his) life by ineans of the sacred ni rupadhisesha nirvana near the city of Kusinagara, in the grove of sál trees of the king of the Mallas [1254+454 years after that time] when, the congregations being broken up, religion was fading away, his majesty king Sri Sanghabodhi Parakramabah u, descended from the unbroken line of Mahâsammata and the others, born of the Solar race, the king over kings, resplendent through the rays of his glory which has penetrated many regions, anointed by the anointment of paramount dominion on Lanka's ground, enjoying the delight of dominion, with the treasure of his merits made patent, he, the very wise
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INSCRIPTIONS IN CEYLON.
Shortly after Parakramabahu's death (1186) Nissaйika Mall a ascended the throne of Ceylon and reigned for nine years (1187-1196)-a king whose vainglory, as exhibited in his inscriptions, appears extraordinary, even making allowance for his being an Oriental prince, and who was anxious, more than any other Simhalese monarch, not to allow the memory of his reign to fall into oblivion. The Mahavamso has nothing to record of him but that he erected dagabes and palaces, and by his zeal for Buddhism heaped up merits from day to day. He himself tells us of an expedition to India, but most of the other memorable actions he speaks of have regard to religion. His numerous inscriptions are amongst the longest in the island, carefully executed, and most of them excellently preserved. He describes his whole life-birth, parentage, his arrival in Ceylon, his dignities there, the solemnity of his installation as king, and the acts of his government. Many of the buildings of Polonnaruwa, still extant in their ruins, indeed owe their origin to his magnificence; it was he, too, who repaired and embellished the splendid cave temple at Dambulla, often referred to in his inscriptions. A fine stone slab on the Ruwanwali Dågaba at Anuradhapura records, besides his other actions, the costly works he executed for the embellishment of this ddgala, and for the restoration of Marichavatți and the other vihd as. Another long inscription of his we find engraven
on the rock at Dambulla close to the cave. The remainder are to be found in his capital, Polonnaruwa.
Going out from the modern village of Tôpawawa or Topâre, we reach first his Audience Hall,
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where we find two series of pillars denoting the order in which the different dignitaries were seated, when Nissañka Malla was on his throne. (the identical lion-seat now kept in the Colombo Museum, and itself covered, I have been told, with an inscription of this king). Near the Daadâmandirâwa (the palace of the tooth-relic)
there is a fine stone slab inscribed on two sides (see text and translation in the Jour. R. As. Soc. 1874). From there we proceed to Thapârâmo and the surrounding buildings, where we find the enormous Galpota (stone book), an inscription in three portions like the pages of a book (each page twenty-four lines), containing the whole of Nissauka Malla's history; a number of broken pieces of stone forming a sort of frieze round the lower walls of a palace, and a stone seat, which both narrate the same events with few variations. At Rankot Dâ gaba we have again a stone seat and four pillars, all four of them covered with the same inscription. At Jetava nârâm o there is a third stone seat of larger size than the two before mentioned, containing two inscriptions, one of which is the identical one seen on the four pillars at Rankot Dâgaba. The walls of a Hindu temple not far from Thûpârâmo are covered with a Tamil inscription, of which, however, a great portion is effaced; as Niśśañka Malla mentions a Hindu temple built by him at Polonnaruwa, it is not unlikely that he is the author also of this inscription; but my want of acquaintance with ancient Tamil language and palæography prevent me from being able to assert here anything with
confidence.
The principal events of Nissanka Malla's life, as gathered from his inscriptions, are these:Nissanka Malla was born 1700 A.B. (i. e. 1157 A.D.) at Simhapura as the son of king Sri Jayagopa of Kalinga and his queen Pârvati. Having come to Ceylon, to which he claims to have had an hereditary right, he first obtained the dignity of apá, and afterwards was made king. As such he calls himself Siri Sangabo Kalinga Parakramabahu Viraraja Nissanka Malla Apratimalla. His general character is thus described in the Galpota: -
Galpota I.
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Udi-gal mundun pa
1st hiruhu so saturandaru durulå bahujanayâmuwa-piyum pubudu kota anat raja-sirin Chakradevendrayâ sê somi-gunen pun sandahu sê
dhira
tayen Meruwa sê gemburu-bewin sigaraya sê kshântigunen maha polowa sê lo-wæssan pinin upan kap-rukak sê woede site.
