No. 63—1910.] I^ANTRl-MALAl. 
73 
TANTRI-MALAI 2 
Some Archaeological Observations and Deductions. 
By John Still.* 
Tantri-malai is the name now given to a wilderness of 
rocks situated about two miles west of the Malwatu-oya and 
about twenty miles due north-west of Anuradhapura. For 
many centuries the place has been abandoned, and although 
it was at one time an important monastery, with perhaps 
an adjacent town, at the present day its very name is lost 
Despite its situation in quite uninhabited country, and on 
the edge of one of the largest stretches of wild forest in the 
northern half of the Island, Tantri-malai has been frequently 
visited. A notice of it appears in Mr. Parker's recent book, 
*' Ancient Ceylon" (pp. 244-5), and a fuller account in the 
Archaeological Commissioner's Annual Report for 1896.1 
Mr. Bell, on his visit in October, 1896, encountered the 
stormy rainy weather which usually ushers in the north-east 
monsoon in that part of the country ; and of the other visitors , 
most, if not all, made but short stay at the rock. It, 
therefore, happens that I am able to record a certain amount 
that is new, for I spent a week there, living in a cave and 
devoting my whole time to exploration of the rocks. 
The rocks of Tantri-malai differ from those tumbled 
labyrinths the ancient Sinhalese most usually chose for their 
early monasteries. They are less a collection of boulders than 
a huge series of frozen waves of stone, separated one from 
another by narrow gullies full of jungle and tangle and thorns. 
Owing to this formation there are fewer caves than usual, 
and in consequence fewer inscriptions ; for the earliest inscrip- 
tions were generally cut on the brows of caves. 
Broadly speaking the rocks divide into two groups, with a 
sinuous stretch of grass land between them, which at its 
* Mr. Still served as Assistant to the Archaeological Commissioner 
from January 1, 1902, to December 31, 1907.— B., Ed. Sec. 
t A footnote to page 7 of this Report gives a list of other accounts of 
Tantri-malai in diaries of Civil Servants. See Appendix B. — B. , Ed. Sec. 
