The Inscription
The inscription consists of 33 lines of writing and covers an area of 12 ft. by 11 ft. 8 in. (Paranavitana, 1960). The first ten lines have been damaged due to the ignorant deeds of treasure seekers and therefore, the name of the king which was in the fourth line has been lost (Paranavitana, 1960). However, scholars have correctly identified this record as a work belonging to the reign of King Parakramabahu V (1344-1359 A.D.) of the Gampola Period (Paranavitana, 1960; Ranawella, 2014).
The script and the language of the inscription are Sinhala of the middle of the 14th century A.D.
Content
The inscription refers to the building of Lankatilaka Viharaya at Kandy but does not give many details about its founding as does the inscription engraved by the side of that temple (Paranavitana, 1960). It, however, gives more details about the opening up of fields under the Batalagoda Wewa and enumerates the lands donated from that area to the temple in greater detail (Paranavitana, 1960). Although the inscriptions at Lankatilaka Viharaya mention the fields granted to the temple from four villages named Badalagoda, Old and New, Kasambiliyagoda and Naramgoda were of a total extent of 14 yalas, the Alawala inscription mentions it as 90 yalas (Paranavitana, 1960). Therefore, the inscription at Alawala is supposed to have been inscribed some years after the engraving of the inscriptions at Lankatilaka Viharaya (Paranavitana, 1960).
A Protected Monument
References
1) Paranavitana, S., 1960. Lankatilaka inscriptions. University of Ceylon Review. Vol. XVIII, Nos. 1 & 2. pp.1-45.
2) Ranawella, S., 2014. Archaeological Survey of Ceylon: Inscriptions of Ceylon: Vol. VII. Department of Archaeology. ISBN: 978-955-9159-62-9. pp.51-54.
3) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. No: 1505. 6 July 2007. p.547.
Attribution
1) LankaPradeepa.com would like to thank Mohan Lakshitha for providing the necessary photographs required for this article. All the photos are published here with the permission of the author.
