Mawaragala Aranya Senasanaya

Mawaragala Aranya Senasanaya (Sinhala: මාවරගල ආරණ්‍ය සේනාසනය) is a Buddhist temple situated in the village of Dambana in Badulla District, Sri Lanka. The site is located about 15 km far from Mahiyanganaya town.

The temple is a forest hermitage consisting of a number of rock caves prepared as dwellings for Buddhist monks. Few of them are drip-ledged caves and some contain Brahmi inscriptions inscribed just below the drip ledges (Priyadarshani & Gunasena, 2017).

Mavaragala cave inscriptions (left)

Period: 2nd century B.C. - 1st century A.D.

Transcript: Parumaka Tabatisha puta Parumaka Tisaha lene shagasha

Translation: The cave of chief Tissa, the son of chief Tamba-Tissa, (is given) to the Sanga.

Reference: Paranavitana, 1970

A protected site

The drip-ledges caves of Mawaragala Aranya Senasanaya are archaeological protected monuments, declared by a Gazette notification published on 22 November 2002.

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Attribution

1) Mavaragala by L Manju is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

References

1) Paranavitana, S., 1970. Inscription of Ceylon: Volume I: Early Brahmi inscription. Department of Archaeology Ceylon. p. 67.
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

This page was last updated on 11 March 2023