AUGUST, 1879.] INSCRIPTIONS IN THE HAMBANTOTA DISTEIOT, CEYLON. 225

Translation.

* ...... The king born from the K&linga

race, who went since two jears ronnd Ceylon,
who saw towns and villages and several for-
tresses, strongholds in water, in marsh, and in
forest, Adam's Peak and other fortified moun-
tains like a ripe neli-fruit in his hand, in ten
directions, who established different white cano-
pies in the three kingdoms, who gave gold and
silver ornaments to many poor people .........

together with his queen's 5 people raising the
balance, giving yearly 5 times his own weight,
miking unhappy people happy, happy people
...... raising...., in the three kingdoms, uniting

the tree nik&yas into one and made still more
...... made the women of the harem salute the

Rnwanwaeli D&gob'a ............ Having

pleased the working people, having made the
kingdom of Pihiti like a lotus, having built
the Rnwanwaeli D a go ba, having made
the women of the harem salute the relic, having
given to the people of Laraka that were un-
happy through &e taxes of former kings, gold
and silver ornaments and much wealth, he gave
orders to fix the tax for the first amumm at
1 oflucnaflt S padcu 6 mandcurai, for the middle
one at 1 amunam Zpadas 4 mandaras, for the
last at 1 carwnam ........ .paelas 3 mandaras.9

The same passage concerning the tax occurs
also in the inscription at DaxnbuUa, Z» 2, and
in the so-called Galpota at Polonnamwa
A 17. The derivation of utta is not clear;
maenda is Sanskrit wacZfya, Pali majjha ; paeasa

There is another inscription of the same king
stRambha Wihara twelve miles from the

A m naJftjirngft. rest-llOUBe £ it OODSlSts 01 S6V6n

fragments, of which only two are tolerably weH
preserved. The content is almost to the word
the same as in his other numerous inscriptions
that are scattered all over the Island, and of
which three have been published in th<B Journal
of the SayaA Asiatic Society N. S.9 vol. YE. pp.
152ff.

The last inscription before we reach H am-
bantota isoneof king JST&ga Mah&s&na
(I.D. 275— 302,Mah. chap. xxxvii.) at Karam-
bagala, nine mites to the north of Ambalan-
tofaa rest-house, not far from the Walawe river,

* Mr. ChiMa* in fais Notes on the Simkale** ftnw
fwaf^ JoKf,B,^s.Soc,N.S.ToL VUL p. 136, gate up the
attempt to exphm this word. I bsliere that it

where there is hardly anything legible except
the name of the king. This, however, is in-
teresting as he is only called Mah as&na in
the Mahdwaihso, whereas we find his other name
besides in "an inscription of his son and suc-
cessor M&ghawarna, at the Ruwanwaeli
Dagoba, Anur&dhapura. I may mention here
also the rock inscription atBadagiriya, nine
miles from Hambantota, two miles off the old
road to Badulla, which belongs to the same
king MahasSna,andofwhicnltooka photo-
graph.

Unfortunately many letters are either missing
or partly effaced, so that I cannot attempt a
translation. There are however some interest-
ing words which I may mention. lu the fourth
line we find a word nayariya=ndgarika (modern
nuwaru), in the same line the form icajeriyi
(he declared* derived from Pali avadhdreti. The
modern verb is a corrupted tatsama wadfoa-
nawd, the noun waedaerwna (Sid.-Sang.) In
this old form wajeriyi the e seems to represent
the sound ce, which at that time (2nd or 3rd
century) had not yet its proper character. In
the same fourth line we find apayaha? batiya
'our brother' and in the fifth ayayaha pute
* our son,4 with which may be compared apayaJia
pdi *our sire' (Groldschmidt's Report, I.A.u. s.
p. 322)intheTissamahar^mainscription.

There was another very much effaced inscrip-
tion on a pillar about half a mile north from
the rock; which has been removed to the
Colombo Museum.

We now go on at once to Tissamaharama*
Although I had heard that there were extensive
rains at this place, I only succeeded in finding
two octagonal inscribed pillars, of which one
was photographed. It is called Aetabaen-
du w a, the pillar to which the king's elephant
was tied. The inscription, belonging to the
sixth or seventh century, is almosttotally effaced.
The other pillar at Sandagiri wihara bears
the name of Rohinika G&mini, son of king
G a j a b &hu, grandson of king (Wankanfisdka)
Tisa, There is also mentioned a queen S Hi-
de vi, which I was not able to identify; and
the tanks of Dura and Tissa, which according
to the 35th chapter of the Mahdwateo were
enlarged by king Ila nag a.

T^derivcd from the proiuraiical stem <wmo,like
b^umak b?iif>pa for VMthma, in

II. 51; 5»).