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There are two well known inscriptions called Thonigala. The most well known and visited inscription lies at Anamaduwa which is popular for the inscriptions with 1 foot high letters found on the rock and the folklore surrounding the rock and Kuweni (කුවේණි), the local queen of Vijaya.
The Thonigala Inscription in Vavuniya district lies in the jungles about 10 kms on the Vavuniya – Horowpathana road, on the northern side of the road on the of North and North Western boarder in the area known as Thilakkulama (also known as Naradagala).
Lying on a rocky plain in the animal infested jungles, Vavuniya Thonigala inscriptions consist of 3 separate inscriptions. Only the main inscription has been read so far. The second is a duplicate of the first but incomplete. It may be that this might have been the first inscription but stopped halfway due to some mistake and redone again in the second location. The third inscription is one single line written few centuries earlier to the other 2. This has not been read so far.
The main inscription has been made during the period of the King Sirimeghavanna (Kithsiri Mevan) (303-311) and considered as one of the most important inscriptions found in the country. The inscription read and documented by Mr Paranawithana in 1933 has been first recorded by HCP Bell in 1866.
The Sinhala translation of the inscription is as follows ;
“මංගලයක්‌ වේවා. පෘතුවීශ්වර (පෙර සිටි) මහසෙන මහ රජුගේ පුත්‍ර වූ සිරි මේඝවණ්‌ණ අභය මහරජතුමා සේසත් එස වූ තුන්වැනි වර්ෂයේ දී නගරයෙහි උතුරු දිශාවේ ‘කලහුමනක’ නම් වෙළඳ සභාවේ (බැංකුවේ) තමා විසින් පරිත්‍යාග කරන ලද වස්‌තුව අඩුවීමක්‌ හෝ හීනවීමක්‌ නොවන ලෙස කඩුබලගම වාසය කරන අමාත්‍යය පර්ෂදයේ සිවගේ පුත්‍රයා වන දේව විසින් යහිස පර්වතයෙහි අභිනව විහාරයට දෙන ලද අරියවංශ වෘත්තිය පැවැත්වීම සඳහා වී සකට (කරත්ත) දෙකක්‌ හා දස අමුණක වී ද අමුණු හයක උඳු ද මුං ඇට අමුණු දහයක්‌ ද දෙන ලදි. මෙම දස අමුණක වී වල මහකන්නයේ පොළිය ද යළකන්නයේ පොළිය ද මැදකන්නයේ පොළිය ද වශයෙන් අමුණු විසිපහක වී ද උඳු හය අමුණක පොළිය ද උඳු එක අමුණු පෙකඩ දෙකක්‌ ද මුං දස අමුණක පොළිය අමුණු දෙකයි පෙකඩ දෙකක්‌ද වේ. මේ ඉහත කී තැන්පතුවේ මූල ධනය වෙනස්‌ නොකොට පොළිය ගෙන බත් සඳහා ද අතුරුපස කෑමට ගන්නා ආහාර මී කිරි, මී පැණි, කැවිලි, තල, දුන් තෙල්, ලුණු, පළා වර්ග සහ කහ සඳහා ද විහාරස්‌ථානයේ භෝජන ශාලාවේ ආහාර පිසින කටයුතු ගෙවීම සඳහා ද දිය යුතුය. මෙකීතාක්‌ වස්‌තුව එහි පොළියෙන් ගෙන පැමිණෙන පැමිණෙන වස්‌කාලයක්‌ තුළ නිකිණි මස ශුක්‌ල පක්‍ෂයෙහි දොළොස්‌ වන දිනයෙහි අරියවංශ ප්‍රතිපදාව කරන මහා භික්‍ෂු සංඝයාට නියම කොට යහිස පර්වතයෙහි අභිනව විහාරයට දෙන ලදි.”
The inscription consist of 17 lines of text with a 3 inch high letters. The author of this inscription is called “Deva”, son of minister Siva, who has been residing in the “Yahisa Parwatha Viharaya”. It describes how the interest from the grain bank at the “Kalahumanaka” commercial center has been donated to the priests carrying out the “Ariyavansha Puja” at the temple. The inscription has been made on the 3rd year after the consecration of the King Sirimeghavanna, son of king Mahasen.
Further analysis of the inscription provides a detailed insight in to the political, economical, commercial and religious activities of the 4th century Sri Lanka.
Political Background
King Sirimeghavanna came to the throne at an interesting juncture of the country. His father, who took reservoir building to new heights by building 16 gigantic tanks also had destroyed temples such as Maha Viharaya of Anuradhapura and discriminated against Theravada bikkus. This made reign of King Sirimeghavanna spending more time resorting the faith of Theravada bikkus and the trust of the people. It is also during this time the most venerated item of Buddhist world, the Tooth Relic of Buddha was brought to the island.
Including the name of the father of king Sirimeghavanna in this inscription is thought to be to establish the right to the throne and to enhance the image of king Sirimeghavanna. This also shows that king Mahasen had re-established the trust of people after reconciliation of the Maha Vihara Bikkus.
This area has been probably under the control of the Minister Siva and the son Deva seems to had active participation of managing this area.
Economic Background
It can be induced from the inscription that the inscription that there were 2 types of economies in operation at the turn of the 4th century;
- Agricultural Economy
- Commercial Economy
Sri Lanka has had a strong agriculture based economy at the time, and the inscription states three cultivation seasons; yala season, maha season and meda (middle) season. The spread of large reservoirs through out the country has made it possible to obtain a 3rd harvest in a year at this time.
It also can be seen that that there was chena cultivation along with the paddy since it mentions grains such as sesame and green gram which should be donated to the temple.
In addition to cultivation, these societies also did animal husbandry to fulfil their dairy needs. The inscription also mentions some dairy products which should be supplied to the temple.
Prof Paranawithana states that the closest description for “Niyamathana” is village council and he explains that this council has operated in form of a bank. The capital of the bank has been in form of various grains. “Deva” has setup the grain bank with 50 amunu (a unit of measurement) of paddy, 6 amunu of Undu, and 10 amunu of green gram.
Anybody from the village could draw out grain from the bank and had to pay it back in grains with interest. The annual interest rate for paddy has been around 50% and for other grains around 25%.
The inscription also emphasizes that the bank should operated without loss to its capital.
Religious Background
The purpose of the whole grain bank seems to be to support the continuous “Ariyavansha Puja” of the temple. Though what this is unknown today, “Ariyavansha Puja” would have been an very important religious activity in this society. Mention of the same “Ariyavansha Puja” have been discovered at Nelumpokuna inscription in Batticaloa district and also in a inscription at Angamuwa.
Location
Lying in the middle of the jungle, rarely visited by anybody there is no path to this site. Even very few villagers would be knowledgeable about this place. To reach this site travel 9.5 km on the Horowpathana road until you reach a small clearing on the left with a new Pahan Ge with a Buddha statue has been built. Just the frame of a typical archaeological “Kalu” board can be seen hidden among the mana trees just by this statue. To reach the Thonigala Rock you need to walk 350 km in to the jungle from this clearing. Since this whole area is elephant country, you may consider obtaining services of a villager as a guide.
The inscriptions have been protected from damages caused by elephants and nature by a small brick tank filled with sand. Therefore you will not see the inscriptions today.
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Also See
Map of Thonigala Inscription at Vavuniya
The map above also shows other places of interest within a approximately 20 km radius of the current site. Click on any of the markers and the info box to take you to information of these sites
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Travel Directions to Thonigala Inscription at Vavuniya
| Route from Vavuniya up to Thonigala Inscription |
| Distance : 1o km Travel time : 1 hour (with the hike) Driving directions : see on google map |
