46 



JOUKNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. X. 



A YEAR'S WORK AT POLONNARUWA. 

 By S. M. Burrows, Esq., c.c.s. 



HE Report which I have been directed to submit to 

 Government on the results of recent excavations at 

 Polonnaruwa contains a detailed statement of the 

 various works undertaken there, and leaves me very little to 

 say in this Paper. I will content myself with forwarding 

 the text and translations of the twelve inscriptions which 

 have been discovered during the last year, with my notes 

 upon them ; and will only dwell on one or two points which 

 would have been out of place in my Report. 



T wish first of all to say a word as to the celebrated " Gal- 

 Ijota " of King Nissanka Malla. The inscription has been 

 dealt with both by Professor Rhys Davids and by Dr. Miiller, 

 and both have come to the same conclusion, that the received 

 notion of the block of stone having been brought from 

 Mihintale is absurd and impossible, and that the word 

 " Segiri " at the end of the sannas is a mistake for Sigiri. 

 To quote Dr. Miiller's words : — * 



In the margin of the stone, on the left hand, we read that this stone 

 was brought by the strong men of Niccanka from Ssegiri (Mihintale). 

 This curious passage has found its way into all the books on Ceylon 

 (Forbes, I., 420 ; Pridham, II., 558 ; Emerson Tennent, II., 589), 

 but evidently there is a mistake in it, and it can easily be corrected. 

 As already Forbes remarked, it is a matter of surprise that this weighty 

 mass should have been thought worthy of being removed from 

 Mihintale, which is about 50 miles distant in a direct line ; but if 

 instead of " Ssegiri" we read "Sigiri," it is quite natural : Sigiri is only 

 10 miles distant from Topawsewa, and it is easily understood that the 

 engraver, who knew Saegiri to be a celebrated place of Buddhist 

 worship, put this on the stone instead of Sigiri. 



It is perhaps a little presumptuous to take up the cudgels 

 against two such authorities : but I confess I find it very 



* Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon, page 6Q. 



