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Mawaragala Aranya Senasanaya |
Mawaragala Aranya Senasanaya (Sinhala: මාවරගල ආරණ්ය සේනාසනය) is a Buddhist cave temple established around the forest-covered Mawaragala mountain [385 m (1263.12 ft. amsl)] situated in the village of Dambana in Badulla District, Sri Lanka. The site is located about 15 km from Mahiyanganaya town.
History
The history of this temple runs back to the pre-Christian era. The temple consists of a number of rock caves prepared as dwellings for Buddhist monks and some of them are drip-ledged and contain Early Brahmi Inscriptions inscribed just below the drip ledges (Priyadarshani & Gunasena, 2017). Six such early Brahmi inscriptions recorded by the eminent archaeologist, Senarath Paranavitana are in the book "Inscriptions of Ceylon: Volume I" (Paranavitana, 1970).
Mavaragala Cave Inscription of Tissa (I) and Anuradhi (II)
Period: 2nd century B.C. - 1st century A.D.
Script: Early Brahmi
Language: Old Sinhala
Transcript I: Parumaka Tabatisha puta Parumaka Tisaha lene shagasha
Translation I: The cave of chief Tissa, the son of chief Tamba-Tissa, (is given) to the Sanga.
Transcript II: Aciriya-Kanadatasha [jha]ya upashika-Anuradhiya lene shagasha
Translation II: The cave of female lay-devotee Anuradhi, wife of teacher Kanhadatta, [is given] to the Sangha
Reference: Paranavitana, 1970. p.57.
A Protected Site
The drip-ledges caves of Mawaragala Aranya Senasanaya sitauted in Mahiyanganaya Divisional Secretary’s Division are archaeological protected monuments, declared by a gazette notification published on 22 November 2002.
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References
Books, Government Gazette Notifications
1) Paranavitana, S., 1970. Inscription of Ceylon: Volume I: Early Brahmi inscription. Department of Archaeology Ceylon. pp.56-57.
2) Priyadarshani, S.A.N.; Gunasena, I.P.P., 2017. Pauranika Sthana Ha Smaraka: Badulla Distrikkaya (In Sinhala). Department of Archaeology.
ISBN: 955-9159-48-8. pp.16-18.
3) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, no: 1264, 22 November 2002.
Location Map
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Attribution
To Whom
1) Mavaragala by L Manju is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
2) LankaPradeepa.com extends its gratitude to Malsha M. Ranasinghe for providing the necessary photographs required for this article. All the photos are published here with the permission of the author.
