No. 14. THE SLAB-INSCRIPTION MARKED OF QUEEN LILĀVATĪ HIS inscribed slab is one of a number now lying at the premises of THIS the Archaeological Commissioner's Office at Anuradhapura. Nobody seems to know for certain its original home; but as it is placed together with those from Puliyaṇ-kuļam 1, a small village about two and a half miles north-east of the present town of Anuradhapura, it also is supposed to have come from the same locality. The ruins at Puliyan-kulam consist of a dagaba and three Vihāras within a raised site, about 300 ft. square, banked up by a moulded revetment of large stone slabs and surrounded by about forty buildings, mostly monks' residences, within an outer quadrangle, 330 by 360 yards. To these may be added a pokuṇa (pond) near the northern outer gate, a piļima-gē (image-house) for a colossal figure of the Buddha, and one or two other buildings 2. In the course of excavation Mr. Bell discovered several inscribed slabs at the pilima-ge and in the stone revetment of the stylobate of the dagaba. Three of them are marked respectively,, and . The slab dealt with here is marked. It bears an inscription in twenty-nine lines, boldly carved on a surface, 4 ft. by 2 ft., smoothed and ruled for the purpose. The letters, of which the average size is about 1 inches, represent the type of the alphabet of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They agree in every detail with those of the Dambulla inscription of king Kīrti Niśśańka Malla (1187–1196 A. D.) 3. Their difference from the earlier alphabet employed in the inscriptions of Mahinda IV is specially noticeable in the akşaras a, ja, ma, ra, la, and lu. The language too, bristling as it does with Sanskrit tatsamas, is in keeping with the style of other inscriptions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The contents tell us that Her Majesty Abha Salamevan Lilavati ruled So called probably from a Saiva temple or shrine that may have existed in the village, for the Tamil name 4 Puliyan-kulam signifies the tank of Puliyan, 'he who [wears the skin of] a tiger,' i.e. either Śiva (чCCшn Pulittöluḍäiyōn) or a Śaiva ascetic. For a full account of this important group of ruins, see the Archaeological Commissioner's Reports for 1891 (p. 3), 1896 (p. 3), 1897 (pp. 4-6), and 1898 (pp. 3-4), as well as the Sixth Progress Report, 1891 (pp. 1–2). At p. 123, above, I stated that the date of this king's accession might be placed in the first half of 1188 A. D. But on further calculation I find that this event could very well have taken place six months earlier, i. e. in the latter half of 1187 a. D. Cf. Plates 14–16. the island with the aid of a Council of Ministers. At Anuradhapura she built a dāna-śālā (almshouse), and close to it a masisaya1 (probably a platform), endowing them with land, slaves, and cattle for the perpetual maintenance of charity. No date of any kind is given in the inscription. Lilavati's intermittent rule can, however, be fixed from other sources. We know from the Sinhalese chronicles that Parakkama Bāhu I had two queens, namely Līlāvati and Rūpavati, daughters of his uncles, Sirivallabha and Kittisirimēgha respectively. Soon after Parakkama Bāhu's death in 1186 A. D., there were perpetual intrigues, among the Kalinga and Sinhalese princes and officers of state, for political ascendancy 2. In consequence, very few of the succeeding sovereigns were able to rule long. They were either murdered or deposed. Lilavati was the seventh sovereign to hold the sceptre after the death of her husband, Parakkama Bāhu I, eleven years previously. She was placed on the throne by the powerful Chief of the Army, Kitti, who may be identified with the Lag Vijayasiňgu Kit mentioned in the Abhayaväva pillar as her agrāmātya or prime minister. Both in this inscription and in that under discussion, she adopts the biruda Abhā Salamevan, so common in tenth-century records ". From subsequent events it is apparent that Kitti's rule through Lilāvati was not altogether popular. He himself perhaps was not satisfied with her. His co-ministers preferred a prince of the Kalinga dynasty to reign over them. He, therefore, deposed Līlāvatī after she had reigned about three years (1197-1200 A. D.). He then invited Sahasa Malla, half-brother of king Kirti Niśśanka Malla', over from India, and installed him on the throne on Wednesday, August 23, 1200 A.D.8 As to the fate of this monarch nothing is known. The chronicles merely 1 See below, p. 181, note 11. 'See my remarks on p. 125 above. Though both the parties were related to one another by intermarriage, yet the Kalingas considered themselves as members of a race distinct from and superior to the Sinhalese, and their leaders as rightful heirs to the throne of Ceylon. This is well illustrated by the objections raised by queen Ratanāvali, mother of Parakkama Bāhu I, to the marriage of her daughter Mittā to Mānābharaṇa, son of her brother-in-law, Sirivallabha (Mʊ. lxiii. 6–16). Mv. lxxx. 30-31. • A. I. C. No. 157 (pp. 69, 104-105, and 137). Dr. Müller's remarks, as well as his translation of the text, need some modification. The Mahāvamsa does not say that General Kitti ever married Līlāvati, nor does the text connote the idea that Abhā Salamevan was Līlāvati's consort. 'See above, p. 165. Dr. Müller wrongly took the title to be the name of a king, and fell into the error of regarding him as her royal consort. • The reasons for taking this step are given in Sahasa Malla's inscription at Polonnaruva (A. I. C. No. 156). See above, p. 124, note 1. See above, p. 123, note 4. state that he ruled for two years, and that thereafter a general called Ayasmanta1 reigned at Polonnaruva, the then capital of Ceylon, for seven years, that is to say, six years through Kalyāṇavati, the dowagerqueen of Kirti Niśśanka Malla, and one year by placing on the throne a three-months-old prince named Dhammāsōka. Then a governor named Anikanga, with a large army from the Cōla country, invaded the island, put both Ayasmanta and his protégé to death, and took up the reins of government. But after seventeen days one of his own generals, called Camūnakka, killed him in turn, and installed the old queen Līlāvatī again on the throne. Through her he ruled the country for one year, when Lōkissara came from the opposite coast with a Tamil army, and took possession of the throne for nine months. Thereafter Parakkama of the Kālanāgara race, the chief of the army, anointed the queen Lilavati for the third time, and administered the government through her for seven months until they were deposed by the Pāṇḍiyan king Parakkama. The dates of these events may be fixed with the aid of the calculations on p. 123, above. According to them Līlāvati was on the throne first from 1197 to 1200 A. D., secondly in 1209, and lastly in 1211. The present grant was most probably made during the first period, when the government was administered by Kitti Sēnāpati, called also in Sinhalese Lag Vijayasiňgu Kit Senevi, if we may trust a similar inscription at Abhayavävaa dated the third year of his administration as Lilavati's prime minister. In conclusion, it may perhaps be of interest to mention that in spite of the unsettled state of the country a good number of scholars flourished about this period both at Polonnaruva and elsewhere in the island. They have left us some of the best productions in Pāli and Sinhalese literature. Under the patronage of Kitti Sēnāpati the Sinhalese poem Sasadāvata and probably Muva-dev-dāvata also were composed between 1197 and 1200 A, D., while under that of the minister Parakkama, Dhammakitti Thēra composed the Pāli poem Dāṭhāvaṁsa in 1211 A.D. 1 So stated in Mv. lxxx. 33. But in the Pūjāvaliya and in the Rājāvaliya this general is called Abō Seneviraja (°rada). In the Sahasa Malla's inscription (A. I. C. No. 156) both the titles Ayuşmat and Abōna are applied to Lag Vijayasiňgu Kit (Pali, Kitti). Hence the person referred to by Ãyasmanta (the Pali form of the nominative plural of Skt. Ayuṣmat) in the Mahāvaṁsa may have been no other than this old general who first installed Līlāvati on the throne. 2 A. I. C. No. 157. * See Catalogue of the Sinhalese MSS. in the British Museum, Introd. pp. xiv-xvii. See J. R. A. S. for 1896, p. 200. VOL. 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