Habessa Archaeological Site

This rock inscription is found engraved on one of the three caves at the southern extremity of the rock that contains a colossal recumbent Buddha image of brick and stucco. Comprising five lines of writing, the script and language of the inscription are Sinhala of the second century A.D. (Paranavitana, 1983). The purport of the record was to register the grant of an irrigation channel named Ulibikala and three tanks Mataviya, Abaviya and Gavidaviya to the great monastery of Ulibikala-Naka by the Uparaja Naka (Naga) who is said to have been a grandson of the great king Vahaba (Vasabha), and son of the great king Utara [(Uttara) Paranavitana, 1983].

The Maharaja named Uttara mentioned here is a son of King Vasabha and probably the same as Uttara-rajaputta mentioned in the Samantapasadika (Paranavitana, 1983).

The site consists of the remains of a colossal reclining Buddha (Nirvana Buddha) in a rock shelter at the foot of a flat rock hill and a trace of a Stupa and several structures with stone pillars (Okamura, 2021). The rock shelter opens to the west-southwest direction and it has been converted into a Patimaghara (image house) by partitioning the central part with brick walls. The reclining Buddha inside the shelter is 10.5 m long and some fragments of paintings are found on the patches of plasters on the cave surface (Okamura, 2021).