The Petigmmana Pillar Inscription of King Vikramabahu III is presently on the display at the Inscription Gallery of Colombo National Museum, Sri Lanka.
The pillar
The pillar was discovered half-buried in a garden near the foot of the Petigammana-kanda near Gampola in Kegalle District (Bell, 1904). It was later brought to the present location for conservation.
The inscription has been engraved on two opposite sides of the pillar (5 feet 7 inches by 2 feet 7 inches by 6.5 inches) and each side contains 15 lines of writing (Bell, 1904; Ranawella, 2005). The figures of the sun and a Pun-kalasa are found above the writing of the first side while the second side contains a figure of the moon above the writing and a figure of a crow at the bottom of the pillar (Ranawella, 2005).
Content
The script and the language of the inscription are Sinhala of the 14th century A.D. (Ranawella, 2005). It has been erected in the reign of a king styled Sri Vikramabahu Cakravarty who, according to scholars, is King Vikramabahu III [(1357-1374 A.D.) Ranawella, 2005]. The purport of the record was to register a grant of some estates in a village named Petigammana to a monastery called Semora-radagama Vihara by a prince named Milana Kumara (Ranawella, 2005).
References
1) Bell, H.C.P., 1904. Report on the Kegalle District of the Province of Sabaragamuwa. Archaeological Survey of Ceylon: XIX-1892. Government Press, Sri Lanka. pp.79-80.
2) Ranawella, S. (Ed.), 2005. Sinhala inscriptions in the Colombo National Museum: Spolia Zeylanica. Vol 42. (2005). Department of National Museums, Sri Lanka. pp.100-101.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 31January 2022
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