Niyadawane Raja Maha Viharaya

Niyadawane Raja Maha Viharaya (Sinhala: නියදවනේ රජමහා විහාරය) is a Buddhist temple situated in Niyadawane village in Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka.

History
It can be identified that this temple had been developed from the Anuradhapura Period to the Kandyan Period (Mendis et al., 2019). There are two Len Viharas (cave temples) on the temple premises and they preserve a valuable collection of paintings and sculptures of the Kandyan art tradition (Mendis et al., 2019). As mentioned on one of the walls in the first cave, the paintings in that cave have been done in 2449 B.E. [(1905 A.D.) Mendis et al., 2019].
Text: ශ්‍රී බුද්ධ වර්ෂයෙන් දෙදාසැ හරසිය හතලිස් නවයේදී ය. ගල්කන්දේගොම විසී ජයසිංහ පටබැන්දා විසින් නිම කලායග
Translation: It is in 2449 Buddhist year. Completed by Galkandegoma Visi Jayasinha Patabenda.
Also, as revealed by a note in the second cave, the three sculptures in that cave have been done in 2464 B.E. (1920 A.D.) by a Buddhist monk named Saranankara with getting the help of villagers and two named persons (Mendis et al., 2019).
Text: ශ්‍රී බුද්ධ වර්ෂ 2464 ක් වූ වෙශක් මස පුර තෙලෙස්වක නම්ලත් ගුරු දිනමෙම පිළිම තුංනම අසල් ගම්වැසි දායක පිරිසගේ උදව් ඇතිව කම්බුවන මෙම විහාරවාසී සරනංකර යතින්ද්‍රයන් වන මම විසින් හාරිස්පත්තුවේ අලගොඩ වලව්වේ ශ්‍රී වික්කම රාජසිංහ බණ්ඩාරනායක සී.බී. බන්ඩාරේ ලවා එම අයගේත් උදව් ඇතුව නිම කලා. සාදු. සාදු. සාදු.
The dilapidated mound of an ancient Stupa has been identified on the top of the temple rock (Mendis et al., 2019).

A protected site
The three drip-ledged rock cave Viharas and the ancient Chaitya belonging to the Niyadawane Raja Maha Vihara situated in the Grama Niladhari Division No. 358 - Niyadawane in the Divisional Secretary’s Division of Polpitigama are archaeological protected monuments, declared by two government Gazette notifications published on 23 January 2009 and 24 July 2009.

References
1) Mendis, D.T.; Wijepala, W.M.T.B.; Harshajith, D.M.N., 2019. දැදුරු ඔය සහ මී ඔය අතර කලාපයේ පුරාවිද්‍යාත්මක ස්ථාන පිළිබඳ මූලික විමර්ශනයක්. මධ්‍ය දැදුරු ඔය හා මී ඔය නිම්නයේ ජනාවාස පුරාවිද්‍යාව. Research and Publication Fund, Rajarata University Of Sri Lanka. ISBN: 978-955-0189-14-1.pp.33-103.
2) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. No: 1586. 23 January 2009. p.106.
3) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. No: 1612. 24 July 2009. p.1024.
 
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This page was last updated on 1 January 2023

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