________________
NOVEMBER, 1880.]
CEYLON INSCRIPTIONS.
269
Siddham. Patama tera Warasi ametaha jita the 4 ganas of the chief thera Majiba are given Amaryawa ameti Ababa cha duti bati .......1 to the chaitya in the Chakadharaka vibâra, and ........... Wadbachetabata ja bikaragata to the congregation of the priests. To the ja dina.
Chakadharaka vihara they are given.' Hail! Amaryawa, the daughter of the
For puwadara we find puwayasa at Habarane chief thera minister Warasi (P), and the second and puridasa at Inginimitiya; the meaning of brother of the minister Abhaya gave ...... it is doubtful. Sawanaka is evidently the con............... to the Wadhachaitya
trary of awanalot in the Habarane inscription. and to the priesthood.'
Tusa occurs also in the name of the village In the name Amarya wa we have a com
Thusavattika, Mah. I., 243. Majjhima was the bination of ry analogous to that of ny in the
name of one of the theras who accompanied inscription at Kirinde, see Goldschmidt's Report
Mahinda to Ceylon (Mah. I., 71, 74). It also (Ind. Ant. vol. VI, p. 321). Wadhachetahata
occurs in an inscription at Pidaruwagala and bikusagata are the oldest instances I met
near Sigiri, which runs thus : with of the Sinhalese dative composed from the Kolagâ mas&waputa Majimayasa jitaya Tisadegenitive in ha = sya + ata=artháya. Sagata wiya lene sagasa already represents the more modern form, where “The cave of Tisâ dewi, daughter of Majthe h of the genitive is dropped ; ja is the jhima, son of Kolag & mas a wa, is given intermediate form between the old cha and the to the priesthood.' modern da, d or t, which is now used in Sinhalese. The name of the king in this inscription
(2.) Binpokuna, five miles from Galga- Gâmiņi Abhaya may either point to muwa :
Gaja bahu Gâmiņi (116-119 A.D.) or to Siddham. Datanaka ametaha
Meghawenna Abhaya (302-320 A.D.), (2) chetahata do kariha ka kubare råja Daruka- but to judge from the form of the character it chetaha wawiye cha nithala chadawawihi
is more probable that it belongs to the latter (3) ka.
of the two. Hail! Two karishas and four paddy fields (4.) Kottarakimbiy Awa, four miles [shall be the property] of the minister D Ath A- from Hiripitiya, not far from the road to Ananåga, and the same number the property of radhapura :the chaitya of king Dhara ka, at the Chandra Payati theraha lene savayiths.... sadhamasa tank.'
(2) sagahathaya Wesawasikagamawawi me lenahi The character rendered by ka in the transcript
nawanikate. line 2, 8, is the numeral which expresses 4 in
This was called the cave of the thera old inscriptions, see Burnell's South Indian
Payati. The tank of the village WesaPaloengraphy, Pl. xxiii. The numeraldo' for
wasika at this cave has been restored for the two occurs also in the inscription at Haba
priesthood of the true religion.' rane, line 4, 10, where however it was misun
The language of this inscription resembles derstood by Goldschmidt. Nithala is most
very closely that of the Aboka inscriptions, probably a mistake fornithila' = nitfhita.
although I do not believe that it can be so old. (3.) Periya ka du vihara, four miles from
We find here the aspirates th in thera, savayitha Dehelgomuwa on the road from Kurunegala to
sagahathayı, and dh in sadhama, where other Dambula :
inscriptions have the unaspirated , d. As far Gamaņi Aba rajaha wa
as I know, only Meghawarna Abhaya's (2) ba........ puwadara sawanaka wasa
inscription at Mihintale (see my Report) par(3) ka....... [pa) rama tera Tusaha ka
ticipates in the same peculiarity, as it writes mahawawi
pathama, athaya, sadhame, eto. Savayitha is a (4) (para]ma tera Majiba ka gagaya Chaka (P)
form quite analogous to kamayitha of the Yogi darika wehe
Må rå cave inscription (800 Canningham's (5) rabi chetahata cha bikusaguhata
Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. I, p. 105). (6) dine Chakadaraka wehera [hi] dine.
It corresponds to Sanskrit aérávayishta. Nikate From king GA mini Abhaya [an order): is Sanskrit nishkrita : in PAli it would be nik. In the year Pawadarn Sawanaka ...... khata, but the word does not occur in the texts the four great tanks of the chief thera Tusa and which are known at present. Wesswasika may
