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August. 1879.) INSCRIPTIONS IN THE HAMBANTOTA DISTRICT, CEYLON.
225
Translation. ...... The king born from the Kalinga race, who went since two years round Ceylon, who saw towns and villages and several fortresses, strongholds in water, in marsh, and in forest, Adam's Peak and other fortified mountains like a ripe neli-fruit in his hand, in ten directions, who established different white canopies in the three kingdoms, who gave gold and silver ornaments to many poor people......... together with his queen's 5 people raising the balance, giving yearly 5 times his own weight, making, unhappy people happy, happy people ......raising..... in the three kingdoms, uniting the tree nikâyas into one and made still more ...... made the women of the harem salute the Ruwanwaeli Dagoba ............ Having pleased the working people, having made the kingdom of Pihiţi like a lotus, having built the Ruwanwaeli Då goba, having made the women of the harem salute the relic, having given to the people of Lapkâ that were unhappy through the taxes of former kings, gold and silver ornaments and much wealth, he gave orders to fix the tax for the first amunam at 1 amunam 3 paelas 6 mandaras, for the middle one at 1 amunam 2 paelas 4 mandaras, for the last at 1 amunam.........paelas 3 mandaras.'
The same passage concerning the tax occurs also in the inscription at Dambulla, 1. 2, and in the so-called Galpota at Polonnaruwa A 17. The derivation of utta is not clear; maenda is Sanskrit madhya, Pali majjha; paessa is = pascima.
There is another inscription of the same king at Rambha Wihara twelve miles from the Ambalantota rest-house; it consists of seven fragments, of which only two are tolerably well preserved. The content is almost to the word the same as in his other numerous inscriptions that are scattered all over the Island, and of which three have been published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society N. S., vol. VII. pp. 152 ff.
The last inscription before we reach Hambantota is one of king Någa Ma h â sen & (A.D. 275-302, Mah. chap. xxxvii.) at Karambagala, nine miles to the north of Ambalantota rest-house, not far from the Walawe river,
where there is hardly anything legible except the name of the king. This, however, is interesting as he is only called Mahasena in the Mahawanso, whereas we find his other name besides in an inscription of his son and successor Még ha warna, at the Ruwanwaeli Dagoba, Anuradhapura. I may mention here also the rock inscription at Badagiriya, nine miles from Hambantota, two miles off the old road to Badulla, which belongs to the same king M&h & sen &, and of which I took a photograph.
Unfortunately many letters are either missing or partly effaced, so that I cannot attempt a translation. There are however some interesting words which I may mention. In the fourth line we find a word nayariyanagarika (modern nuwaru), in the same line the form wajeriyi 'he declared' derived from PAli avadháreti. The modern verb is a corrupted tatsama wadaranawa, the noun waedaêruma (Sid. Sang.) In this old form wajeriyi the e seems to represent the sound , which at that time (2nd or 3rd century) had not yet its proper character. In the same fourth line we find apayaha' batiya our brother and in the fifth apayaha pute our son,' with which may be compared apayahu pali'our sire' (Goldschmidt's Report, I. A. 4.8. p. 322) in the Tissama hârâm a inscription.
There was another very much effaced inscription on a pillar about half a mile north from the rock, which has been removed to the Colombo Museum.
We now go on at once to Tissamaharama. Although I had heard that there were extensive ruins at this place, I only succeeded in finding two ootagonal inscribed pillars, of which one was photographed. It is called Aetaba en. duwa, the pillar to which the king's elephant was tied. The inscription, belonging to the sixth or seventh century, is almost totally effaced. The other pillar at Sandagiri wihara bears the name of Rohiņika Gåmiņi, son of king Gaja bahu, grandson of king (Wankanâsika) Tisa. There is also mentioned a queen Sila. devi, which I was not able to identify; and the tanks of Dûra and Tissa, which according to the 35th chapter of the Mahawanso were enlarged by king Ila någa.
Mr. Childers in his Notes on the Simhalese Lan. guage, Jour. R. As. Soc. N.S. vol. VIII. p. 136, gave up the attempt to explain this word. I believe that it can easily
be derived from the pronomical stem asma, like bhappa= bhasnan, bhippa for bhishma in Maharashtri (Hemac. II. 51, 54).
