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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XI. 



The gods, it would appear, were rather dilatory in passing 

 sentence responsive to the appeal made to them, for it was 

 not till King Panduwasdeva, a lineal descendant of Vijaya, 

 had assumed the reigns of Government that the vengeance 

 of the deities was wreaked, and the divi dosa visited on the 

 representative of the peccant sovereign, in conformity, 

 perhaps, with the denunciation that the sins of the fathers 

 shall be visited on the children.* 



Yakdessd-gala is approached from its eastern flank from 

 Seruwewa, a village three miles north-east of Wellowa, and 

 about nine from Kurunegala on the Anuradhapura road. 

 At this village, perched high on the rock, is an old temple, to 

 which 200 steps lead, built during the time of the Muda 

 Kondapola rulers. It realises the poet's description of — 



"A hollowed gloomy cave with moss o'ergrown, 

 Where antique images by priests are kept, 

 And wooden deities securely slept ; 

 The temple join'd of nature's pumice stone." 



A dedicatory writing for the temple and its premises was 

 granted by King Kirtti Sri in favour of Kanumulla Nayaka 

 Unnanse, the then incumbent. The inscriptions are on the 

 rock forming the cave temple, and are quoted by Dr. Miiller 

 as belonging to the first four centuries. f 



The residence of the priests is to the right as the visitor 

 enters the premises. A few yards away from it is a spring, 

 which derives its source from the hill above, and the water 

 is collected in a dismal cave under a ledge of rock. The 

 dislodgment and descent of the overhanging rock is said to 

 have covered nearly a half of the space originally occupied 

 by the reservoir. 



A large bo-tree, grown from a twig said to have been 

 brought from Anuradhapura by Millewana Nayaka Unnanse, 

 one of the incumbents, grows on a rock on the left of the path 

 to the temple, and its long and twining roots creeping over 



* For further particulars, see under " Anda-gala." 

 f "Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon." 1883, p. 63. 



