Yapahuwa Raja Maha Viharaya

Yapahuwa Raja Maha Viharaya (Sinhala: යාපහුව රජ මහා විහාරය) is a Buddhist temple situated in the shade of the Yapahuwa rock in Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka.

History

As is evidenced by the Brahmi Inscriptions in situ, the Buddhist monastery at Yapahuwa has been established in the early Christian centuries long before the construction of the Yapahuwa Fortress by Subha (Nicholas, 1963). Large-sized bricks containing the earliest type of Brahmi letters as mason's mark have been found on the top part of the rock and also a few early Brahmi inscriptions of the 1st century A.D. have been found on a rock near a cave with drip-ledges at the foot of the rock (Paranavitana, 2001). They reveal the donation of tanks to the Buddhist monks who were living in the monastery at Yapahuwa (Dias, 1991; Paranavitana, 2001). 

 

Period: 1st century A.D.                      Script: Early Brahmi                      Language: Old Sinhala

Transcript: (1) Bamaha-nakaraka-vavi sagike (2) Coribevire-vavi sagike

Translation: (1) The tank of Bamaha town (was given) to Sangha. (2) The tank Corabevire (was given) to Sangha.

Notes: This inscription represents the end of the period of cave inscriptions when tanks were donated to individual monasteries.

Citation: Dias, 1991. p.3.

 

Of these inscriptions, one has the name "Yapawa" which according to scholars, could be the earliest form of the present name Yapahuwa (Paranavitana, 2001). Also, the name of this site is found in the ancient Buddhist text Bodhivamsa (Anuradha & Kumari, 2015).

Also, the Len Viharaya (cave temple) of Yapahuwa temple preserves a collection of paintings and sculptures belonging to the Kandyan Period.