Gileemale Rankoth Vehera and Slab Inscription

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Gileemale Rankoth Vehera Slab Inscription

Rankoth Vehera in Gileemale (Gilimale) is an ancient temple situated along the historic route to Sri Pada. It is located 2.4 km along Raththurugala Road, which connects to the Malwala-Siripagama road.

The temple’s most significant artifact is a slab inscription from the reign of King Vijayabahu I (1070–1110), who defeated the Indian Chola invaders in Polonnaruwa and unified the island. After ascending the throne, he visited Sri Pada, the sacred footprint, made donations, and recorded these contributions in stone inscriptions, such as in the Ambagamuwa Inscription.

Around 200 years ago, the chief prelate of Gileemale (Gilimale) Rankoth Vehera, Gunarathane Thero, discovered a buried slab inscription among the temple’s ancient ruins. Over time, the inscription had deteriorated, but it was cleaned and displayed alongside other relics. In addition to the inscription, the temple contains an ancient stupa. stone pillars, moonstones, steps. toilet stones, grinding stoncs used for the preparation of medicine , and various other stone artifacts. Among these is a broken carved stone figure resembling a lion. However, traces of a person riding the creature make it difficult to determine its exact depiction (Gnanawimala Thero, 1942, pp. 28–29, Abeywardana, 2002, p. 20).

Gnanawimala Thero (1942, pp. 28–29) also describes an intricately carved stone pillar inside the temple’s devalaya. This pillar, approximately 80 cm in height and diameter, tapers gradually and ends in a lotus-shaped design. At the time, the chief prelate believed a treasure might be hidden beneath it, leading to the devalaya being constructed around the pillar.

The current image house of the Gileemale Rankot Viharaya is a more recent addition, built in the Buddhist year 2456 (1912 AD). It houses several Buddha statues along with figures of deities and is adorned with vibrant Buddhist murals (Abeywardana, 2002, p. 20).

Gileemale Slab Inscription

The inscription contains 52 lines of writing, which is 1.74 meters in height and 1.16 meters wide. The surface of the rock is engraved within ruled lines, 6.35 cm (2½ inches) apart, 2 lines of writing within
two ruled lines. The writing is completely weather worn. Therefore it is impossible to decipher the inscription, except for a few words here and there. (Ranawella, 2007, p. 11)

The script of the inscription is very similar to the Ambagamuwa inscription, so much that some scholars believe that this inscription is a copy of the Ambagamuwa inscription. Ranawella (2007, p. 11) states based on the few words which has been deciphered it seems that that this is a copy of the Ambagamiwa Rock Instription but not a exact replica.

Gileemale Slab Inscription refers to the granting of Gileemale by King Vijayabahu I for the benefit of the pilgrims who went to worship the Sacred Foot Print of the Buddha on the Sri Pada.

The ancient text Culavamsa, the lesser chronicle writes in chapter 60 verses 63-67 ; “the Sovereign restored and granted villages to every single one of them. With the wish that all the people who trod the difficult road to worship the footprint of the Sage on the Samantakuta mountain might not become weary, he granted for the dispensing of gifts, the village called Gilimalaya where there were rice fields and the like, and had rest-houses built on the road past Kadaligiima and on the path from the province, the province of Huva hither, granting villages to each of these (for providing maintenance) and after having the words “In future kings shall not take possession of these engraved on a stone pillar the moarch set this up.” (Geiger & Rickmers, 1929)

There is no doubt that this is the stone inscription, which is referred to in the Chronicle, said to have been set up by King Vijayabahu I. It is evident from the fact that name of this village Gilimalaya occurs in line 35 of this record. (Ranawella, 2007, p. 11)

References

Abeywardana, H. a. P. (2002). Heritage of Sabaragamuwa: Major Natural, Cultural, and Historic Sites (1st ed.). Sabaragamuwa Development Bank in association with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Gnanawimala Thero, K. (1942). සපරගමුවේ පැරණි ලියවිලි. Ginalankara Press.
Ranawella, G. S. (2007). Inscriptions of Ceylon : Volume Vi: Containing Pillar Inscriptions, Slab Inscriptions and Rock Inscriptions of the Polonnaruva Period. Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka.
Geiger, W., & Rickmers, C. M. (1929). Culavamsa: Being The More Recent Part Of The Mahavamsa: Vol. Part I–II. Pali Text Society.

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