No. 63.—1910.1 
TANTRI-MALAI. 
Inscription (2). 
A ti a ji ri ya ha ti ya ma ta u pa si ka na ga ya^ 
With regard to this inscription Mr. Still says : — " The earlier part 
of it is beyond me , but from the latter half it is plain that the cave 
was once the abode of a lady named Naga, who had devoted herself 
to religion." 
This interpretation cannot be maintained, as the term " updsikd^'' 
is not applied to a devotee living in a cave or a forest. Such a 
person is called " tapasy 
I would read the inscription as: a gift of the Upasika Naga, 
the mother of Bati (Bhati), the master of elephants." 
Inscription (3). 
" Ba ta su ma na ha ta la cha da," 
Of this, Mr. Still says : — " Bata Sumana may be taken equally to 
mean ' Brother Sumana,' or to be a single name ; but what his 
talachada may have been I am not able to explain ; tala could 
possibly be read tale, which means the blade of any sharp 
instrument, and the record may be simply that Bata Sumana cut 
his name." 
This explanation seems rather far fetched. The inscription, in 
my opinion, simply means : " the shelter of Batasumana." 
Tala means "place" and chada (iromchad) "shelter," *' cover," 
"shade," &c. 
March 8, 1910. Simon de Silva. 
CIn order to render Mr. Still's Paper as full and interesting as 
possible, Mr. H. C. P. Bell, Archa3ological Commissioner, has 
furnished copies of entries recorded by successive Government 
officials in their Diaries after visiting Tantri-malai.* 
Supplementary notes made by Mr. Bell,t with illustrations 
from photographs taken by himself in 1896, and drawings of the 
*' Pot-gula " and Cave Shrine, are also added.] 
APPENDIX C. 
Accounts of Tantri-malai. 
I. 
The rocks, or rather series of bare granite hills, at Tantri-malai 
are well worth inspection. The naked granite lies in a black mass 
of undulating hills of solid rock , with plots of shallow grass in the 
depressions of the undulations, the whole rock mass covering 
about a square mile. 
* Appendix C. 
t Appendix D. 
