No. 34.— 1887.] polonnaruwa. 69 



His Majesty, the overlord Lankeswara Parakrama Bahu 

 Chakrawarti, because he was fitted for warfare, when the 

 kings of Soli, Pandi, &c, were arrayed for battle, His 



Excellency the General Lak Wijaya Sinha and the 



queens, elephants, horses 



having accomplished and given, this is the Nissanka* 



Hall of the Flower-scroll in which he rested. 



(Notes.) 



Considering how this inscription has been knocked about, 

 we are very lucky to have got the two fragments which 

 give us the name of the king and of the building. We 

 Tiave so many inscriptions of Nisganka Malla, and this 

 one appears to have been so very like several of the others, 

 that perhaps we may bear with equanimity the loss of the 

 body of its contents ; but it was evidently the most highly 

 decorated of all, and it is a pity that more of the scroll and 

 flower pattern is not left, as such as there is of it is admirably 

 executed. 



The building in which it stands is extremely curious, for it 

 appears to be an attempt at reviving in its original form the 

 old Buddhist architectural peculiarities — the stone " post 

 and rail." The best known (and, according to Fergusson, the 

 only) built example of this stone fence is at the Sanchi 

 Tope : but there it is on a very much larger scale, and 

 moreover the posts there supported a plain architrave, which 

 is not the case at Polonnaruwa. This building is referred 

 to in many of Nissarika's inscriptions. Although it has been 

 terribly broken, two of the posts with their rails still remain 

 standing. It is noticeable that neither posts nor rails bear 

 any kind of ornament. In India, after the design became 

 purely ornamental, it was decorated with displayed lotuses 

 in increasing profusion. 



The external measurements of the building are 29 ft. 4 in. 

 from north to south by 35 ft. from east to west. The posts 

 measure 5 ft. 5 in. in height (including the slight capital) 

 by 8 in. by 8| in. The rails are 3 ft. 2 in. long by 1\ in. 



