No. 34. — 1887.] WEHERAGODA DEVALE. 



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AN ACCOUNT OF THE WEHERAGODA DEYALE. 

 By Arthur Jayawardana, Esq., Mudaliyar. 



N the village Weheragoda, or, as it is incorrectly but 

 popularly termed, Weragoda, in the Wellaboda Pattu 

 of Galle, there exist traces of the site of a temple 

 called Weheragoda Devale. This site (on which, it is said, 

 stood also a weliera or vihare, put up in the days of the 

 King Dhutugemunu, 164 B.C.) is within sight of and a few 

 yards from the minor road at Weragoda — a village which 

 seems to have derived its name from the existence of the 

 temple. But no book now extant contains any allusion to 

 this vihare, much less to the devale. The fragments of a 

 clay lamp, two lamp-holders, and tiles, — unique in their kind, 

 and fashioned in a manner quite unfamiliar to the oldest 

 inhabitants of the place, — and a coin found during excavation, 

 support the current tradition as to the existence of the devale. 



This devale seems to have been built and occupied by a 

 Malabar man called Dewol Deviyo, a native of " Malayalam- 

 desa," in India. The date of his visit, however, is not known. 

 There are some Sinhalese verses and a " raft " of granite stones 

 at Smigama, within the Totagamuwa division, also in the 

 Galle Wellaboda Pattu, having reference to this Deviyo's 

 landing at that village, and his subsequent sojourn, &c, at 

 Weheragoda. But none of these verses give the date either 

 of his visit or of the building of the temple. The fact of 

 his having taken up his residence, however, at Weheragoda 

 in preference to any other place is a striking circumstance, 

 both as pointing to the existence at the time of the vihare 

 and to the reason why that place, above others, was resorted 

 to by him. 



A person professing to be a god (deviyo), and intending 

 to earn a living by the offerings which such a public 



