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purpose down to the present day, the inside was doubtless whitewashed, or even plastered, and a brick or mud wall was built so as to form a protected or enclosed room under the shelter of the rock. At two of the caves a deep cut, termed a katara, was also made along the rock, above the front of the cave, and for a short distance below this the face of the stone was cut away, as is usual in nearly all such cases, in order to prevent the rain-water that trickled down the front of the upper part of the rock from entering the room. The cave inscriptions are almost always found in this dressed face of the rock, and two of these are also cut in it, each in a single line.

Two copies are cut over caves or recesses at the north side (No. 2) and south side (No. 3) of the same rock, a large block standing on the top of the Naval Nirāvi hill. Fragments of bricks found at them are of three sizes, 3.10 inches, 2.55 inches, and 2-10 inches thick, indicating the use of the caves and the repair of the brickwork from some pre-Christian date down to the tenth or twelfth century A.D. The third copy (No. 1) is in a similar position at a cave to the north of the last. Fragments of brick 3 inches thick lie in this cave, which was therefore also occupied in pre-Christian times.

The inscription which I have numbered (1) was discovered on a visit that I paid to the hills in 1886 with Mr. G. M. Fowler, who was then the Assistant Government Agent of the district; the other two were found by him on a second examination which he made of the hill in 1887. The hills had been explored some years before our visit by Mr. S. Haughton of the Civil Service, who first drew my attention to the fact that inscriptions were cut at them. He copied a few himself, but was not so fortunate as to discover these earliest ones. I am indebted to him and to Mr. Fowler for copies of all the inscriptions found by them. I have not acknowledged each one separately as I recopied all but one short one myself on subsequent visits.

All the copies of the first inscription made by us were incomplete, owing in two cases to the flaking of the rock. which had destroyed the latter portion of the inscriptions (1)

and (3), this last being cut in the natural face of the rock; and in the other case to the rather faint characters, which were at some height from the ground. At a later date, in 1901, I succeeded in copying these by using a rough ladder in order to reach them.

I give facsimiles of all three from my hand copies, arranged one under the other. The inscription No. 1 is twelve feet long to the point where the stone has given way, and the letters are three inches high. No 2 is fifteen feet long, with letters from two to three inches high, cut about a quarter of an inch deep. No. 3 is fourteen feet long as far as portions of the letters remain, and its full length has been about fifteen feet; the letters in it are four inches high and are a quarter of an inch deep.

(The e of loke is accidentally missing in the copy.) The complete inscription is as follows 1:

1

Raja Naga jita Raja Uti jaya Abi Anuradi ca Raja Uti ca karapitase ima leņa catu disasa sagaya agatagata na Pasu wiharaye aparim (i)ta loke ditu yasa tana.

Abhi Anuradhi, the wife (of) King Uttiya (and) daughter (of) King Naga, and King Uttiya have caused this cave to be made for the Community of the four quarters, present or future, at the Pāsu wihāra, an illustrious famous place in the boundless world.

In addition to its age, there are several points of interest in connection with this inscription, the date of which belongs to about the middle of the second half of the third century B.C. In the first place, it confirms the statement of the early annals that King Mahā-Nāga ruled over southern Ceylon with the

In this and other transliterations and names the letter c is pronounced like ch, as in 'church'; the vowels a, i, and e have the continental sound; u is pronounced as in 'gun'; ae represents the sound given to this diphthong in the New Historical Dictionary; t. d, n are hard as in 'dot' and 'ton'; is like in 'full'; g is always hard as in 'gun'; t and d are distinctly dental; is very soft, approaching h; the other letters are pronounced as in English.

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and (8), this last being cut in the natural face of the rock; and in the other case to the rather faint characters, which were at some height from the ground. At a later date, in 1901, I succeeded in copying these by using a rough ladder in order to reach them.

I give facsimiles of all three from my hand copies, arranged one under the other. The inscription No. 1 is twelve feet long to the point where the stone has given way, and the letters are three inches high. No 2 is fifteen feet long, with letters from two to three inches high, cut about a quarter of an inch deep. No. 3 is fourteen feet long as far as portions of the letters remain, and its full length has been about fifteen feet; the letters in it are four inches high and are a quarter of an inch deep.

(The e of loke is accidentally missing in the copy.) The complete inscription is as follows 1:

Raja Naga jita Raja Uti jaya Abi Anuradi ca Raja Uti ca karapitase ima leņa catu disasa sagaya agatagata na Pasu wiharaye aparim (i) ta loke ditu yasa tana.

Abhi Anuradhi, the wife (of) King Uttiya (and) daughter (of) King Nāga, and King Uttiya have caused this cave to be made for the Community of the four quarters, present or future, at the Pāsu wihāra, an illustrious famous place in the boundless world.

In addition to its age, there are several points of interest in connection with this inscription, the date of which belongs to about the middle of the second half of the third century B.C. In the first place, it confirms the statement of the early annals that King Mahā-Nāga ruled over southern Ceylon with the

In this and other transliterations and names the letter c is pronounced like ch, as in 'church'; the vowels a, i, and e have the continental sound; u is pronounced as in 'gun'; ae represents the sound given to this diphthong in the New Historical Dictionary; t. d. n are hard as in 'dot' and 'ton'; is like in 'full'; g is always hard as in 'gun'; t and d are distinctly dental; is very soft, approaching h; the other letters are pronounced as in English.

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