Mawaragala Aranya Senasanaya (Dambana)

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.

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 have been recorded by Senarath Paranavitana in his book "Inscriptions of Ceylon: Volume I" published in 1970 (Paranavitana, 1970).

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.