Yasa-koṭasa may also mean 'share bestowed by royal favour.'
Patisavaņu, Skt. pratiśravaṇa, 'assenting to.'

Paharavaya. I take this to be a gerund equivalent to modern paharavā, having caused to strike,' from the causative of paharaṇavā, P. paharati, Skt. praharati. This meaning is now obsolete. See Clough's Sinhalese

Dictionary, s.v.

OF

No. 7. THE TWO TABLETS OF MAHINDA IV
AT MIHINTALE

F all the countless lithic records of Ceylon, none, I believe, has attracted so much attention as these tablets. This is due partly to the interesting account which they give of the administration and inner life of a well-endowed Buddhist monastery; but more especially to the striking position which the tablets occupy on the sacred hill so frequently visited by pilgrims and sightseers.

There have been many accounts, topographical and other, of Mihintale. The most recent are those found in books by Messrs. S. M. Burrows and H. W. Cave 1.

Mihintalā Kanda rises abruptly to the height of about a thousand feet from the low plain, at a distance of eight miles east of Anuradhapura. It is traditionally identified with Missaka-pabbata, called afterwards Cētiya-pabbata' (Sinh. Seygiri or Sägiri), on the Ambatthala summit of which the missionary prince Mahinda is stated to have made his permanent residence during his life-time in Ceylon (circa 253-205 B. C.). Although no inscription has yet come to light which distinctly confirms this identification, the tradition can be accepted as true, especially as this is the only hill within easy reach of Anuradhapura, the ancient capital to which Mahinda repaired daily to preach the Buddhist doctrine.

1 For other accounts, more or less accurate, see Geiger's Ceylon: Reiseerinnerungen, p. 204; Forbes' Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. i. pp. 382-7; Pridham's Ceylon, vol. ii. pp. 535–7. In his article on the inscription of Parakrama Bahu I (J. R. A. S. vii. 8), Prof. Rhys Davids speaks of a book called Mihintale Varnnanāva, which gives a history of the principal buildings on the mountain. I do not know this work, and it is not mentioned in any of the existing catalogues.

• Thapësi dhātuyō sabbā thērō tatth'ēva pabbatē | Missakaṁ pabbatam tasmā āhu Cētiyapabbataṁ || (Mv. xvii. 23.) The thera deposited all these relics there, on that mountain; from that circumstance the "Missaka" mountain obtained the name of the "Cētiya "' (Turnour).

• See Mv. xiii. 20.

• Apa budun pirinivi de-siya-sa-tis-vana Dharmāsōka raja-hața aṭalos-vana havurudu Devanapatissa raja-hața paļamu-vana havurudu Poson pura pasaļos-vaka Mihintalāvaṭa väḍa chāyā-sampanna miamba-gasak mula vū Ambatalā nam galatala sat-denā-vahansē piļivelin väḍa hunsēka (Pūjāvaliya, ch. xxxiv). '[Mahinda and other thēras] alighted on Mihintalāva—in the 236th year of the Buddhist era, which corresponded with the eighteenth year of king Dharmāsōka's accession to the throne and with the first year of Devanapé Tissa's reign-on the 15th day of the bright fortnight of Poson (May-June). All the seven rested in order on the summit of the rock Ambatalā, which is at the foot of a fragrant umbrageous mango tree' (Mudaliyar Guņasēkara's translation). Asōka ascended the throne in 272 B.C., but was crowned only in 269. The Buddhist missionaries were dispatched before the year 256 B.C. See V. A. Smith's Early History of India, pp. 137 and 164.

VOL. I.

M

There is, of course, no doubt that Mihintală and Sägiri are Sinhalese synonyms for Missaka-pabbata or Cētiya-pabbata, for we find them so used by Mayūrapāda Thēra1 early in the fourteenth century &.D. Besides, the word Mihintală itself is most probably a derivative of Mahinda thala just as Amba-tala is of Ambatthala. The question we have to settle is the identity of Mihintalā or Seygiri with the hill now known by this name. The manner of reference to Seygiri-vehera in the present record seems to point to the contrary, unless, of course, there were more than one vihara on the hill. That this was really the case we shall see when we come to discuss the history of the buildings.

The ascent to the mountain is by an ancient stairway' said to consist of 1840 steps, formed of long granite slabs to a width of about twenty feet, and is arranged in four flights one above the other on the western slope, which is the least steep. To the left of the third set of steps, up the hill, are two granite slabs, each measuring seven feet high by four wide and two thick, and standing upright near a ruined site, the so-called Bhōjana-sālā, or refectory.

These slabs bear on their faces the inscription of Mahinda IV in two equal sections, each having fifty-eight lines. The average length of each line is 3 ft. 7 in. and the size of each letter is about of an inch. The characters represent generally the type of the Sinhalese alphabet of the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. In their roundness and regularity, they approach very closely, as Goldschmidt has already noticed, the forms of the modern Sinhalese alphabet. The letters a and r, however, differ from the type found in the Vessagiri inscription3 of Mahinda IV. They resemble that employed in the inscriptions of his predecessors Kassapa V (A.D. 929–39) and Dappula V (A. D. 940–52)3.

Regarding the orthography and the language Goldschmidt says, 'it will be observed that the language employed in these (tenth-century) inscriptions, though by no means devoid of adopted Samskṛt and Pāli words (tatsamas), still puts them into a Simhalese shape. It is curious even to notice here the difference between the Samskṛt words used in the inscription of the apâ

1 See above, p. 75, note 4.

• Cf., however, Mahinda-taṭa-vāpi (Sinh. Mihin-tala-väva), so called from the statue of Mahinda Thēra on the bund of the tank (Mv. xlii. 29).

'Supposed to be the work of king Mahādāṭhika Mahānāga (circa A.D. 9 to 21), though no statement to that effect is to be found in the Sinhalese chronicles.

• See his report in Ceylon Sessional Papers, xi, 1876.
⚫ Cf. plates 8, 9, and 12, above.

Ceylon Sess. Papers, xi, 1876, p. 10.

Mihinda at Mayilagastota and in the inscription at Mihintala of the same person as king Siri Sangboy Abahay. In the Mayilagastota inscription we find still rad (Skt. rájan), rædna (Skt. râjñî'); in short, the sounds foreign to the Simhalese of those days are changed into genuine Simhalese sounds. In the Mihintala inscription these words already approach the Samskṛt form closer, and the tendency of transporting back, as it were, genuine Simhalese words into their Samskṛt originals is already growing into fashion; thus, Samskṛt and Pāli jana ("person") is constantly used for Simhalese dena; raj, rajna have supplanted rad, rædna; and there are such uncouth words as samajaya (“born") for Samskṛt and Pāli samjâta, sasændæ (“having united") from Pāli samsandeti, and the like. King Mahindo was also fond of words redolent of antiquity, as sey (“as"), Sey-giri (Caitya-giri, Mihintala), the younger forms of which, se and Sagiri, occur already in inscriptions undoubtedly more ancient.' Müller also says that 'the language employed in the inscription is older than that which was spoken at the time of king Mahindo 1.'

An examination of the records of the period does not altogether bear out these remarks. It is true that some old forms, such as abahay (1. 1), sey (1. 3), sey-giri (1. 4), karay (1. 5), nimavay (l. 10), have crept into the inscription; but this is not surprising because of the fact that the regulations embodied in it were, as stated in slab A, line 6, founded on earlier monastic laws. Besides, these forms could not have been obsolete at the time, for they occur in other tenth-century inscriptions, often side by side with their younger equivalents. Rad and rädna are forms younger than raj and räjna3, just as vadan and ted are younger than vajan and tej; and the occurrence of these, I venture to think, is not due to the Sanskritising tendencies then prevailing, as Goldschmidt

1 See Journal C. B. R. A. S. 1880, p. 6.

In the Padaviya pillar-inscription of Kassapa IV (circa 912-29 A.D.), abhay and abhā, raj, bo, vajāleyin, and vadāleyin. (See A. S. C. Report vii, p. 61.) On the Nāmbākaḍa pillar of Kassapa V (929-39 A.D.), abhahay and abhā, raj, räjnä, bo (ibid. p. 67). In a slab-inscription of this king, near the Stone-canopy at Anuradhapura (above, p. 43), abahay, raj, räjnä, sey, se, boy, bo, jā, karay, pujay, aray, abhidham, djara, nakay, bad, baj, varaj, varad, bud, buj. On the Vessagiri slab (above, p. 24) of Dappula V (940–52 A.D.), abahay, raj, räjna, se, boy, dā, arā. On the Älleväva pillar of this king

(A. S. C. Report vii, p. 45), abhā, rad, bo. On the Mayilagastota pillar of Mahinda IV (A. I. C. 120), which was set up before he became king (A.D. 975–91), abhä, rad, rädna, dā, nakā. On the Vessagiri slab (above, p. 31) of the ninth year of this king's reign, abhā, raj, rad, nakā. In the present inscription of the sixteenth year of his reign, abahay, raj, räjna, sey, se, boy, bo, karay, bad, jeļu, janā, jivel, varaja, nakā.

' See Geiger's Litt. und Spr. der Singhalesen, § 23 (2–3).

• See above, pp. 24 and 43.

seems to suppose. These facts, as well as grammatical forms, such as the ablative in keren, the instrumental in visin, the passive verb with labanu, show that the language of the present inscription is on the whole in keeping with the style of similar records of the period. It has, moreover, many points of agreement with the language of the Dampiya-aṭuvā-gäṭapada attributed to Kassapa V. In this work is found a complex variety of old and young forms of words used indiscriminately. That the written language of the tenth century differed more or less in style and phraseology from that spoken, there is not the slightest doubt. We get glimpses of this fact from inscriptions and even from Kassapa's work; and we know that it is so at the present day.

It is unnecessary to dwell upon the misstatements regarding the date and the author of this inscription made at a time when the study of Ceylon epigraphy was still in its infancy. The first trained epigraphist, Dr. P. Goldschmidt, appointed in 1874 to make a systematic examination of the lithic records of the island, was soon able on palaeographic grounds to fix its correct age and, furthermore, to identify its author, Siri Saňgboy Abahay, with Mahinda IV1 (A.D. 975-91, W.; 997-1013, T.). This he did with the aid of the partly-effaced pillar-inscription at Mayilagastoṭa2, by identifying the names Abha Salamevan maharad and Gon biso rädna, the parents of äpa Mihinda, with the names Abahay Salamevan maharaj and Dev-Gon bisev räjna given in the present tablets as those of the parents of Siri Sangboy Abahay maharaj. Goldschmidt's identification rests on

(1) The absolute similarity of the names of the parents.

(2) The fact that Mihinda was an äpā, and that Siri Saňgboy Abahay too was an āpā before he became king.

(3) The fact that the language and the form of characters employed in the two inscriptions belong to the tenth and beginning of the eleventh century A.D.

(4) The statement in the Mahāvaṁsa (ch. liv. 1) that Mahinda IV, who reigned about the close of this period, was at first an äpā (ādipāda), and that he set up inscribed slabs for the protection of temple property (ibid. 28).

1 Sce Ceylon Sessional Papers, xi, 1876, pp. 7-10.

A village in the Hambantota District, South Ceylon. The inscription was discovered by Mr. J. H. Dawson, the irrigation officer of the place. The text given in A.I.C. (No. 120) is not at all satisfactory.