TRANSLATION.

Whereas on the upōsatha day of the full moon of [the lunar month of] Väp [Sept.-Oct.], in the fourteenth year [of his reign], His Majesty Siri Sañgbo declared [the following immunity], we, the three persons, Sabāvaḍunnā Salayem, body-guard of the Pāṇḍyan king Dāpuļa, (Roțu-)Pullayem and Kiling Agbo1 [do hereby notify] that [the garden called] Upper Megiri-vatta which... the virtuous great king has granted to the dispensary at Bamun-kumbara shall be bounded on the east by Veher-vatta 3, on the south by the Mi tree*, on the west by the cart-road, and on the north by the Sambaḍä jungle; that the garden within these four boundaries shall not be entered by skilled servants ' of the royal family; that no allotments shall be taken; that no officials of the royal house holding two appointments shall enter [the garden]. Should any person enter after committing an offence, he shall be arrested only outside the precincts after the officials of the dispensary have been informed and [the offender] has been made to turn back, but no arrest shall be made by trespassing within the precincts.

[To this effect] this edictal pillar of immunity was proclaimed.

1 Skt. Kalinga Agrabōdhi.

• Utur-me-giri-vatta may also be rendered 'this Giri-vatta (hill-garden) on the north side.'

• Veher-vatta = literally 'temple-garden.'

• Mi-gasa,' wild sapota tree, Bassia longifolia (Sapotaceae).' See Clough's Sinhalese Dictionary.

' Rad-kol väri kusalayan. I am not sure of the meaning of this phrase. The above is offered tentatively. Regarding väri, see above, p. 53, note 7. The reading rad-kol pora kusalayan ='champion fighters of the royal family.'

• Käbäli, see above, p. 37, note 5.

"Deruvanä dekamtän. The meaning of this expression is not clear to me. It occurs in the Padaviya pillar-inscription (A. S. C. A'pura, Seventh Progress Report, p. 61). dekamtän vässan in the Vessagiri slab, above, p. 37, note 7.

Compare also deruvänä

Attāņi Skt. ästhāni,

=

• Attāņi-kaņu pärähär. Cf. vävastha-pahana, above, p. 36, note 1. Tamil attāni, in the sense of the Presence,' i. e. the king in council. Pärähär = P. parihāra. Cf. Nasik, No. 14 (A. S. W., vol. iv, p. 106).

VOL. I

Ν

No. 12. IRIPINNIYÄVA PILLAR-INSCRIPTION

RIPINNIYAVA is a deserted village with a fairly large pokuna (pond) situated about one and a half miles east of Tittagōnäva in Kuñcuṭṭu Kōrale, North-Central Province.

The inscribed pillar was discovered by me on August 17, 1892. It was then lying prone in the dense thicket to the north-east of the pokuna. Some 300 feet west, a mound, 42 ft. x 36 ft., marks the site of a ruined Vihāra built facing east. Eight of its pillars, measuring 7 ft. x 1 ft. x 1 ft. 4 in. each, appear above ground. About 110 feet north of these stands the dagaba of the monastery, which is also in ruins. It has for its eastern mal-āsana or altar a quadrangular slab of stone, 111⁄2 ft. × 4 ft. 3 in., smoothed and edged with the usual moulding, while another flag with the conventional Buddha's footprint carved on it serves as its southern altar.

The inscribed pillar is 9 ft. 10 in. long, the pot or kalasa shaped capital being I ft. in length, the quadrangular shaft 6 ft. 10 in. x 9 in. sq., and the part let into the ground 2 ft. The first side of the shaft contains twenty-six lines of writing, the second twenty-nine, the third twenty-seven, and the fourth thirty-four.

The letters, one to two inches in size, are fairly well preserved1. They represent the alphabet of the tenth century A.D. Their type, however, is older than that of the Kiribat-vehera pillar-inscription of about 977 A.D. A comparison of the akṣaras &i, & ka, & ya, and Ira, as well as the medial vowel-sign inku in our inscription, with their later forms 3 i, ka, w j'a, ▲ ra, and aku in the other, will suffice to make this fact apparent.

As regards peculiarities of writing and spelling, attention may be drawn to the use of the cerebral in radāṇan (side A, 1. 14), and to the method of writing conjoint consonants one above the other, in some cases with the virāma sign on the first, and the vowel sign on the second, e. g. tṭhā, &nva, & sva, & sti. In the words samaṇan-vara (D, ll. 20-21) and dunnu

VOL. I.

See accompanying Plate 21.

2 See above, p. 156, and compare Plate 20.

A a

(1. 33), the akṣaras ma and va of the former, and nu of the latter, are engraved below the line, evidently either for want of space, or as corrections.

The language of the inscription, with the exception of one or two clauses and the names of the lands dealt with, is identical, word for word, with that of the Rambava pillar1 of the same year, and of the same king Abhaya Salamevan Mapurumukā, agreeing as it does generally with the style and phraseology of other records of the tenth century A. D.

3

The contents tell us that the Generalissimo named Kuṭṭhā built the Sen-Senevirad-pirivena*, and that subsequently Mekāppar Guligamu Araļeyim and Mekāppar Keļālāsendeyim, [both] belonging to this general's family, and Kuṇḍasalā Sangdețim of the family of the Chief Secretary' VarägSená-Rak-samaņa, came together by Order of His Majesty Abhaya Salamevan, in the month of Undväp (Nov.-Dec.) of the first year of his reign, and granted certain immunities (pärähära) to Posonavulla, in Sulinnarugama, already dedicated to the pirivena.

Now, on palaeographic and linguistic grounds we have placed the date of this inscription in the tenth century A. D. And on looking through the narrative of events of this period in the Mahāvamsa, we happily find a full corroboration of the grant, for it is related at ch. li. 88 that Kuṭṭhaka 3, the valiant chief captain (sēnāpati) of king Sēna II, 'built the parivēņa SēnaSēnāpati, and endowed it with great possessions.' This Generalissimo is also mentioned in the Rambava and the Polonnaruva 10 inscriptions, and is most

1 See below, p. 172.

2 Cf. A.I.C. Nos. 110 to 115 and 119. See also Mr. Bell's remarks on No. 119 in A. S.C. Seventh Progress Report, p. 59, note 2. This inscription is undoubtedly another proclamation of the king Abhaya Salamevan of the Iripinniyāva and the Raṁbāva pillars.

'Senevirad P. Sēnāpati-rāja; Kuttha P. Kutthaka.

• P. Sēna-Sēnāpati-rāja-parivēņa.

" Mekäppar for mey-käppar, 'body-guard,' a Tamil title. See above, p. 38, note 2.

Skt. sangha-jyēṣṭha-svāmi.

"Maha-le=Skt. mahā-lēkhaka, and Varag-Sena=prob. P. Vajiragga-Sēna.

• Wrongly Tutthaka in the printed Pāli and Sinhalese recensions, and also in many manuscripts. As Mr. Bell points out (A. S. C. Seventh Progress Report, p. 59, note 2), 'the resemblance between the Sinhalese k and in MSS. is doubtless responsible for the error.' The correct reading Kutthaka is, however, to be found in the MS. copy of the Mahāvamsa in the Indian Institute, Oxford, bearing the press-mark 'Cupb. B, No. 24 (ii).' See fol. 76, 1. 7. Kuṭṭhā is obviously the Sinhalese form of P. Kutthaka.

• See below, p. 172.

10 A. I. C. No. 119.