Bambaragala Raja Maha Viharaya (Kandy)

No.814, from Bambaragala, introduces us to a personage named Pocani-rajha Nagaya (Naga-aya), whose wife Data was the daughter of a Brahmana named Kojhara. 'Pocani' in this inscription appears to be a variant form of  'Pacina' in Nos. 831-833, from Ambulambe. From these records, we gather that Pacina-rajha had two sons, one named Tisaya (Tisa-aya) and the other, possibly the elder, Rajha Abaya, whose son was Tisa-aya. The wife of Tisa-aya, the son of the Pacina-rajha, was Upasika Raki. 'Pacina' or 'Pocani' was not a personal name, because in No. 814 we get the expression Pocani-rajha Nagaya. When we take it as a title, the meaning that suggests itself to us first of all is 'eastern', but the districts in which these records have been found are not 'eastern' when taken as parts of the Island, or in relation to Anuradhapura, the centre of political life in Ceylon at that time. Skt. pracina, of which pacina is the equivalent, also means 'former', 'ancient'. 'Pacina-raja' would then mean 'the former king' or 'ancient king', i.e. a member of the former royal house that ruled Ceylon before its sovereignty was acquired by the dynasty then ruling. Compare the title Muttaraiyar, 'ancient kings', of a family of local rulers who were descended from the ancient line of Cola kings, and who flourished in the Cola country, after the sovereignty had passed to a different dynasty. We have seen above that Gamani Tissa, a son of Amanda-Gamani, had established himself in an area not far from modern Kandy. Shortly after Amanda Gamani, the sovereignty was wrested from the direct descendants of the first dynasty of Sinhalese kings, but Gamani Tissa appears to have maintained himself in the Malaya country. Vasabha, the founder of the Lambakanna dynasty, appears to have allowed Gamani Tissa, or his descendants, to maintain some authority in the position due to their ancient lineage. Perhaps, Pocanirajha was a son of Gamani Tisa, and a grandson of Amanda Gamani. If these speculations are justified, the ancient form of the Brahmi script appears to have been in use in the Malaya regions to about the end of the first century after Christ, long after the more developed form of the script had been adopted for general use. The Pacina king no doubt considered it incumbent on him to maintain and preserve ancient traditions and institutions, of which the use of the Brahmi script in its earliest form was one.

Citation: Paranavitana, 1970. pp.lxiii-lxiv.