158 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



succeeded, after an .interval, as Archaeological Commissioner by 

 jVIr. H. C. P. Bell, C.C.S., under whose direction the work of 

 excavation, discovery, and transcription has been continued from 

 1890 to the present time. 



The great slabs to be found here are of interest on account of their 

 antiquity and the characters employed. One propped up lengthwise 

 on the ground is the oldest inscription that has been discovered at 

 Anuradhapura , from the Ruwanweli Dagaba.* It relates to the 

 restoration of certain temples during the reign of King Gaja Bahu 

 (113-125 A.D.). 



An upright slab, known as the Tissamaharama Slab, from Tissa- 

 maharama, near Hambantota, in the Southern Province. It is 

 almost completely preserved, and according to Dr. Miiller " is the 

 finest specimen we have of gin inscription of the fourth century A.D."t 



Adjoining this slab is a narrow flattened stone with an inscription 

 on both faces. The inscription is headed on the obverse side by a 

 symbol of the sun and on the reverse by a crescent representing the 

 moon, the sun and moon being the usual royal signs. It is a grant 

 of land to a temple, and concludes (on the reverse side) with a life- 

 size figure of a crow in sunk relief. This is the Petigammana Pillar, 

 found half buried in a garden within a few miles of Gampola. J (See 

 Plate VI.) 



Many of these inscribed pillars dating from the tenth century bear, 

 at the top, engravings of the sun and moon as symbols of royalty 

 [Rhys Davids] or eternity, and, at the bottom, the dog and crow as 

 symbols of instability [Miiller] or meanness ; any one violating the 

 property of the priesthood renders himself liable to the penalty 

 of being re -born in the low condition of one of these animals 

 [Goldschmidt]. The translation of the Petigammana inscription, 

 according to Mr. Bell, ends with the usual curse : " Any one who 

 disputes this [grant will be born] a crow." 



In the middle of the outer side of the verandah there is a large 

 slab, the Dondra Slab,§ recording the grant of land to the Temple 

 of Vishnu at Dondra Head in the fourteenth century. This slab 

 and the Dondra Pillar] | at the front outer corner of the verandah 

 are of particular interest on account of their association with Dondra 

 Head, near Matara, in the Southern Province, the most southerly 

 point of Ceylon. " Like Cape Comorin on the Continent of India," 

 says Professor Rhys Davids (Indian Antiquary, I., 1872, p. 329), 

 " Dondra Head has always been a place of pilgrimage, and seems 

 to have derived its sanctity from its being the extreme southerly 

 point of land, where the known and firm earth ceases, and man looks 

 out upon the ocean — the ever-moving, the impassable, the infinite." 



Opposite to the Dondra Slab is the Mahakalattewa Pillar, from 

 the bund of a tank of that name six miles from Anuradhapura on 

 the road to Galkulam. It is remarkable for its perfect preservation, 

 not a single letter missing ; the inscription is on all four sides. ^ 



Occasionally other symbols besides those mentioned above are 

 engraved upon the pillars, such as a cobra or a priest's fan. The 



* Miiller'a Inscriptions, No. 6, p. 27, and Plate 5. 

 t Miiller's Inscriptions, No. 67, p. 43, and Plate 67. 



t H. C. P. Bell, Report on the Kegalla District, 1892, p. 79, with Plate. 

 § Mtiller's Inscriptions, No. 163, p. 71. First translated by Rhys Davids, 

 Journ. Ceylon R. Asiat. Soc, vol. V., 1870-1871, p. 25. 



'I Miiller's Inscriptions, No. 159, p. 09. Rhys Davids, loc. cit., 1872, p. 67. 

 ^ Miiller's Inscriptions, No. llO, p. 55, with Platfs 110 A-110 D. 



