No> 6.— 1853.] ROCK INSCRIPTION AT GURUGODA. 



59 



ROCK INSCRIPTION AT GURUGODA VIHARE 

 IN THE MAGULfKO'RALE, SEVEN-KORALES. 



By A. 0. Brodie, Esq. 



On a late official tour through my District and through a 

 part of Seven-korales, in company with the Government Agent 

 of this Province, we visited the vihare of Gurugoda at Giri- 

 bawa in Magul-k6ral£, about twenty-five miles south of 

 Anuradhapura. This is one of the so-called rock temples, 

 which are abundantly scattered over the country. The dwell- 

 ing for the priests is as usual considerably elevated, being 

 built on a projecting knoll, and is in the form of a square 

 enclosing asmallopen and sunken court, in which on each suc- 

 cessive morning the village women stand, while one of the 

 priests, concealed behind a curtain, reads aloud portions of the 

 sacred books. The temple itself is on a higher platform, and 

 is formed by running up a wall at the front part of a wide 

 shallow cave formed by a huge over-hanging ledge of rock. 

 The internal walls are ornamented in the customary manner 

 with crude, vividly coloured paintings, which pourtray the 

 tortures to be endured in a future state of existence by the 

 wicked. A few mutilated but very neatly carved Buddhas lying 

 near the doorway, and a half-ruined Dagoba, complete the 

 resemblance between this and the hundred structures of a 

 similar character to be met with here. 



A flight of stairs rudely cut out of the solid rock leads to 

 the summit of the peak, from whence one obtains an extensive 

 view over a country flat and fertile in its general character, but 

 diversified by numerous isolated granitic groups. On a pre- 

 cipitous face of rock opposite the bana-maduwa, I found that a 

 space about four feet square had been brought to a smooth sur- 

 face and then covered with a long inscription, partly in Sin- 

 halese and partly in Pali. Not having time to copy the whole 



