Veherakema Buddhist Ruins, Panama
Photo credit: rafael pedro, Google Street View Veherakema Archaeological Site (Sinhala: වෙහෙරකෙම බෞද්ධ නටඹුන්) is situated in Panama in Ampara District, Sri Lanka. The site can be reached by travelling along the Panama- Kudumbigala Viharaya road about 8.3 km from Panama town. History As reveals by a 7th-century Sinhala inscription in-situ, this was a Buddhist temple known as Macala Vehera in ancient times (Nicholas, 1963; Paranavitana, 1934). The inscription which is engraved on the rock near the ruins of an ancient Stupa at this site records that a king named Vahaka Maharaja caused a Stupa to be built at the Macaḷa-vehera (Nicholas, 1963; Paranavitana, 1934). The name of this ruler is not mentioned in the chronicles and according to the view of scholars such as S. Paranavitana, Vahaka could be a prince who, in the unsettled political conditions which prevailed in Anuradhapura during the greater part of the seventh century, set himself up as an independent sovereign of Rohaṇa, within wh…
