REMARKS.

Mahamata = Skt. mahāmātre, Pāli mahāmatto, a title which occurs repeatedly in Buddhaghosa's commentaries1 and in the edicts of Aśoka. It is analogous to mahāmātya (P. mahāmacco) and was used by Aśoka as a general term for all officers of high rank entrusted with administrative powers in civil, judicial, political, and even religious matters, e. g. dhamma-mahāmāta.

Bama-data = Brahma-datta. In Sanchi-stúpa votive inscriptions, No. 30, Bahadata; Pkt. Bambhadatta and Bamha; Sinh. Bamba-dat.

Purumaka same as parumaka. See above, pp. 17, 26 n. 1.

Balike. Cf. Bahiya in Alv. xxxiii. 59.

Karitekārite.

Arița-maha-gama = P. Ariṭṭha-maha-gama, the crude form gama being used for the nominative ".

TH

No. 11. KIRIBAT-VEHERA PILLAR-INSCRIPTION.

HIS inscription was discovered by the Archaeological Commissioner (Mr. H. C. P. Bell), in 1891, in the jungle close by the ruined da dagaba known as Kiribat-Vehera, about 3 miles to the north of the town of Anuradhapura. The site has since been thoroughly excavated®.

1 See passage from Sumangala-viläsini quoted in Alwis' Pali Grammar, p. 99, and the story of Abhaya-rājakumāra in the Dhammapadaṭṭhakathā, p. 426 of the Colombo edition of 1886.

› Ep. Ind. vol. ii. p. 100.

3 Cf. Bühler's remarks in Ep. Ind. vol. i. p. 375.

The location of this inscription is given according to the information supplied by the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon.

* This ancient dagaba is in present appearance a small hill covered with grass (through which brick débris shows up freely), shaded heavily by trees. In height it rises to about 30 ft., and the tape run round the bottom of the slope gave a circumference of over 200 yards.

'The jungle round was explored, but beyond a solitary pillar bearing an inscription of the tenth century, the only other relic of the past discovered was a pilima-ge (image-house) on four tall squared pillars, which once supported a roof over a large standing figure of the Buddha, now fallen on its face.

The trunk of the image is cracked, and the lower limbs and one arm are gone, but the head is apparently intact. What remains of the figure measures from crown of head to waist 9 ft. 1 in.' (4. S. C. Report for 1891, p. 2).

For a detailed report of the excavations conducted by the Archaeological Commissioner and myself, and of the ruins unearthed, see A. S. C. Reports for 1892, p. 5, and 1893, p. 4.

VOL. 1.

Y

The inscription is in a fairly good state of preservation, as may be judged from the accompanying facsimile (pl. 20). It is engraved from top to bottom on the four sides of a quadrangular pillar of stone, about 5 ft. long by 10 in. squarc.

The letters are from one to two inches in size. They exhibit the type of the Sinhalese alphabet of the tenth century A. D., and vary but little from the form of script in the slab-inscriptions of Dappula V and Kassapa V, described above at pp. 23 and 41. The akşaras that look more antique are a, i, ba, ma, and ra. As they resemble those in Kassapa's record more than those in the later inscription of Dappula V. I would place this record in a period immediately preceding Kassapa's reign.

The inscription itself is dated in the fourteenth year of a king called Siri Sangbo (Skt. Śrī Sanghabōdhi). It was set up by royal order in the presence of three officials named (1) Sabā-vaḍunnā Salayem', the body-guard' of the Pandyan king Dāpuļa, (2) (Ro)țu Pullayem'. and (3) Kiling Agbo (P. Kalinga Aggabodhi). It proclaims certain privileges or immunities attached to the dispensary (behed-ge) at Bamuņ-kumbara.

The name of Siri Saňgbo is an epithet adopted by many kings. In the present instance it refers most probably to Kassapa IV, the younger brother and successor of Udaya I. and the predecessor of Kassapa V. The only other king who reigned more than fourteen years in the tenth century, and who was also called Siri Saňgbo, was Sēna II, the father of Kassapa V; but the following facts show that Kassapa IV was the king in question :—

I. The advanced form of the alphabet, as discussed above.

2. The striking similarity of the phraseology of this record with that of the Mahakalattawa inscription of the fifteenth year of Siri Sangbo, which treats of an endowment to a nunnery built by the chief scribe Sēna in honour of his mother Nālā 7. This scribe was evidently the one who, according to the

1 These seem to be corrupt forms of South Indian names. For another official of the name of Saba-vaḍunnā. see Vessagiri slab-inscription of Mahinda IV. l. 33 (p. 32, above).

3

Mekappara Tamil mey-käppar. See above, p. 38, note 2.

* Possibly these two were also body-guards of Dāpuļa, and the word mikäppara refers to all three. • See Moragoda pillar in A. S. C. Seventh Progress Report, 1891, p. 61. • See above, pp. 23 and 42. A. I. C. No. IIO.

Nala was the daughter of Mahinda, lord of Ruhuņa, by Dēvä the daughter of Dappula II (Mr. xlix. 10-13). She eloped with Udaya, the brother of Sena I, and governor of the southern country (Mr. 1. 8-9). Their issue was the chief scribe Mahālēkhaka Sēna (Sinh. Mahali Sen), who must, therefore, have lived in the reign of Kassapa IV.

Mahāramsa', also built a noble house, called Mahālēkhaka-pabbata, for the use of the monks of the Mahāvihāra' in the reign of Kassapa IV.

3. The subject-matter of the record, which is a benefaction to a lispensary. It is distinctly stated in the Mahāvaṁsa2 that Kassapa IV built hospitals at Anuradhapura and in the city of Pulatthi 'for the prevention of pestilential diseases. And to these buildings he granted fruitful lands and gardens with keepers, and furnished them also with means for the support of images. In divers places in the city he built dispensaries for malicine, and caused rice and cloth to be given to the Paṁsukslika monks.'

Touching the date of Kassapa IV, I have, at p. 123 above, proved that the first coronation of Parākrama-Bāhu I took place about the middle of 1153 A. D., or 1696 A. B. expired. Calculating from this date backwards, and subtracting from it 107, the total of the regnal years of the six kings that preceded him, we get 1046 A. D., or 1589 A. B. expired, as the date of the accession of Parakrama Pāṇḍya (No. 121 of Wijesiņha's table). Now with the aid of the dates of the Tanjore and the Manimangalam inscriptions of South India. as computed by Professors Hultzsch and Kielhorn, I have shown, at p. 80 above, that the eleven kings, from Udaya III down to Parakrama Pāṇḍya (Nos. 111 to 121 of Wijesinha's table), must have reigned between 1015 and 1046 a. D. Here is, therefore, a striking agreement of dates derived from two absolutely independent sources. It is true that the former reckoning makes 1046 A. D. the year of the accession of Parakrama Pāṇḍya, whilst, according to the latter calculation, he was defeated by the Cōla king, Rājādhirāja I, in or before 1046 A. D. But this slight difference is of no real consequence, considering that at this period Ceylon was in a state of complete anarchy, and the compiler of this portion of the Mahāvaṁsa must very naturally have found it difficult, at a later period, to fix the precise length of the nominal reigns of the successive rulers who held sway in the south of the island. Of Parakrama Pāṇḍya, the Mahāvaṁsa says that he reigned for two years, and was slain in battle by the Colians. The Pūjāvaliya, on the other hand, credits him with only one year's reign, the Rājāvaliya with six, and the Rājaratnākara merely states that during his reign the Tamils made a disastrous invasion of Ceylon.

• P. bhësajja-gēham = Sinh. behed-ge, 'medicine-house.' This is the actual word used in the present inscription.

2

In view of these discrepant statements it may be safer to rely on the dates deduced from contemporary epigraphical records, and to place the accession of Parakrama Pāṇḍya, and probably his death too, in 1046 A. D. And are accordingly enabled to fix the dates of accession of the following kings:No. III

Udaya III

1015 A. D. =

1496 A. B. expired

I 200

Kirti Niśśanka Malla

= 1589 A. B. expired

=

= 1696 A B.1 expired

= 1743 A. B. expired

.. 135 Sahasa Malla Counting further backwards from Udaya III, it will be seen from the Mahavamsa that Kassapa IV (the Siri Sangbo of the present inscription) came to the throne fifty-one years and seven months before that monarch, i.e. in 963 A..; and, according to the Pūjāvaliya forty-seven years and seven months before him, i. e. in 967 A.D. As the present record was set up in the fourteenth year of Kassapa's reign, its date must be either 977 or 981 A.D.

It will perhaps not be out of place to record here an important discovery which I believe I have made in connexion with the much discussed date of the death of the Buddha.

From the above computation it is apparent that, as far back as the time of Parakrama Pāṇḍya (1589 A.D. expired = 1046 A.D.) the traditional date in Ceylon of the death of the Buddha was, as it is now, 544 B.. But, previous to this period, the Buddhist era seems to have been different. And this can be proved from the Mahavamsa itself. According to this chronicle, a period of ninety-three years and eight days intervened between the accession of Udaya III and that of Parakrama Paṇḍya in 1590 A. B. current. The former, therefore, came to the throne in the vear 1497 A. D. (i.e. 1590 minus 96). The date of his accession, according to my calculation, shown above, is in 1015 A.D). It is thus clear that 1497 A. B. is nearly equivalent to 1015 A.D., and that the difference between these two dates, namely 482, is the number of years that must have elapsed between the death of the Buddha and the beginning of the Christian era. In other

1 Galvihará Inscription (A. I. C. No. 137), and Nikayasangraha, pp. 20 and 22. See also above, pp. 123-3. Sahasa Malla Inscription (A. 1. C. 156). See also above, p. 123, note 5.