Pananwela Ganegoda Viharaya Ganegoda Purana Viharaya (Sinhala: පනන්වෙල ගණේගොඩ පුරාණ විහාරය) is a Buddhist temple situated in Pananwela village in Matara District, Sri Lanka. History Pananwela, the present name of the village is thought to have come into usage after the 14th century (Vanarathana, 1994). According to locals, this name evolved from the Panamata-gath-wela which means the paddyland bought for one Fanam (Vanarathana, 1994). Locals lonk the history of this temple to the reign of King Saddhatissa (137-119 B.C.) of Anuradhapura (Ranaweera, 2015). It is said that a minister of that king established a Buddhist temple at this site (Ranaweera, 2015). The ruins of an ancient Buddhist temple have been discovered on the Viharaya premises (Ranaweera, 2015; Vanarathana, 1994). The present Stupa at the site is said to have been erected over the dilapidated Stupa mound of the ancient temple (Vanarathana, 1994). Several artefacts such as Buddha statues and stone caskets were recovered from the dome of that dilapidated …
