ON METHODS OF TAKING IMPRESSIONS OF INSCRIPTIONS.

Communicated by T. W. Davids, Esq,

Here are some ancient writings engraven upon rocks which poseth all that see them. — Knox, in
Philalethes, p. 228

It is well-known that Ceylon is exceedingly rich in old inscriptions, many of

which are probably of great value, and would, if deciphered, throw as great a flood
of light on Ceylon History as the Asoka inscriptions on that of India.
Their decipherment is not hopeless. It is true they are graven in old and
forgotten alphabets, but the sounds hidden beneath the veil of these strange forms,
are the sounds of a language of which a great deal is already known, and of which
we are learning daily more and more. And as to the forms themselves we are not
hopelessly in the dark: we know they are to be read from left to right, we know on
what principle the vowels are expressed, we know what are the consonants to
which the vowels give life. Several of the more modern inscriptions have already
been translated, and inscriptions in cognate characters have been deciphered in
India.
Nothing however, can be done without the opportunity of large comparison: and
for this purpose the small number of inscriptions in the Society’s Museum are
almost useless, we therefore earnestly hope that those of our readers who feel
interest in these matters—and we hope that means all our readers—will make and
send us copies of the inscriptions in their neighbourhood.
An eye copy must be very carefully made to be of much use, and it is often very
laborious to make one at all: but a friend to the good cause in London has been
kind enough to send us the following paper, of which we hope that many will take
advantage.
TO TAKE FAC-SIMILES OF INSCRIPTIONS, DECORATIVE CARVINGS, ETC.
FIRST METHOD.
If sufficient time be allowed to dry perfectly a few sheets of paper. Take a sheet
of any sort (a thick bibulous paper is the best) and lay it, previously damped, upon
the inscription; it should then be pressed with the hand till it enters into all the
engraved letters; a good clothes brush with a handle, struck hard upon the paper
will complete the operation; the paper should not be taken off till it is quite dry,
when it should be carefully rolled up. For greater safety, I have frequently laid a
sheet of paper pasted on the face, close down upon the preceding sheet, while still
damp, before it is removed from the inscription, and beaten it down with the brush;
if two or three pasted sheets be thus laid down, you will have a thick impression,
which may, with care, be removed at once; and when this is quite dry, it may be
rolled up, and put away with perfect safety. I have had some impressions taken in
this way, which I have kept for several years, they will bear any amount of rough
usage without damage.
SECOND METHOD.
Or a sheet of paper may be laid on the inscription, and rubbed on the back with a
piece of heel-ball, such as shoemakers use; or upon the first sheet, slightly damped,
a second sheet smeared over with lamp-black, may be laid, and rubbed on the clean
side with a smooth stone, piece of smooth wood, or a billiard ball, or anything not
so rough as to tear the paper; two or three impressions may be taken off at once if
the inscription be at all deeply cut (as the Uniyastic inscriptions usually are), by
laying down first a clean, and then a blackened sheet, with face downward, then
another clean sheet, with another blackened sheet, &c. &c. I have taken six or eight
impressions at once this way. If you have not any lamp-black, you can make
enough for the purpose in a few minutes, by holding a dry and cold plate over the
flame of a lamp or candle.
This plan may be varied, according to circumstances, and will be generally easy
to an unpracticed person.

INSCRIPTION AT WÆLIGAMA WIHARE : TEXT, TRANSLATION, AND

NOTES.
By T. W. Rhys Davids, C. C. S.

There are two Wihares at Wæligama, the half-way village between Galle and
Mátara, one called Agra Bhodi—a fine wihare on the top of a hill, whose founder
is unknown, and which has a Gal-sannas of very modern date: the other is called
Wæligama Gane Wihare, and is on the plain. There is a very ancient Bó tree and
large Dagoba at this place, but for a Wihare only a small building of modern date.
This would correspond exactly to the wording of the sannas now enclosed, which
speaks not of a wiháre but only of a Sakmana or covered corridor for Priests to
walk in—corresponding to the colonnades of more ancient times, and the crypts
and cloisters in mediæval buildings.
This Sakmana is further proved to have been a place of importance, for the name
of the village Hakmana is derived from it, and the following inscription is on a
stone built into the wall round the dagoba.
 TEXT.
Sri siri Sangabo siri Bhuwanaika báhu chakrawartti swâmîn wahanseṭa. sawana
hawurudu, kalu Parákrama nam mantriswarayánan mehekarawunṭa kulí dí kerew
me sánghíka sakmaná pirimasa wæḍasiṭina de-namakaṭa nirantarawa siwu pasayak
dì, satara digin waḍana sanghayá wahanseṭat dawasak pasaya dena lesaṭa, ranaṭa
gena lu kumbura mul bijuwaṭa das amune da pala-dá-pol-wattat wahal-dasa-denat
sarakyálat waṭa-pandan kotalá pán-wœṭa dolikúnan telisan koṭṭa máwulá paṭa-
hanà-œtirili manikáya-maḍulu me ádiwa me sànghika pirikarat lawá, má œtikala
Bhuwanaika Báhu raj juruwan wahanseṭa pinpinisa karawu me Sakmana nohot rája
kula waḍana wiháreya pawatina tek, kal idiriye œti wena sat purusayan wisin
nirawul kara pawatwá swargga moksha sampat sœdiya yutuyi.
TRANSLATION.
In the sixth year of the revered Lord Emperor Siri Sangabo Siri Bhuwanaika
Báhu, the minister named Kalu Barákarama having given wages to the workmen,
and having given in perpetuation the four gifts to the two priests who reside
economizing in this (cloister) common to the priesthood; and also—in order that
the gifts might be given for a day to the reverend priesthood coming from the four
directions—(having given) ten amunas sowing extent of paddy field which he had
bought and a fruit-bearing cocoanut garden, and ten slaves, and a yoke of oxen,
and round torches and goblets with spouts, and a row of lamp stands (for
illumination) and palankeens, and leather, and cushions, and mattresses, and cloths
woven with silk and hemp to spread over (seats for guests), and tubs and iron
basins, together with other things of this kind proper for the priesthood—————
it is proper for all good men who in the future shall be, to maintain without dispute
this cloister or wihare improved by the king’s family, which (cloister) has been
made to add merit to the revered King Bhuwanaika Báhu who brought me up, and
(thus) to obtain the bliss of release in heaven.
NOTES.
1. Siri Sangabo Siri Bhmuanaika Báhu. It is not known which Bhuwanaika Báhu
this was: but judging from the form of the letters it must be either the sixth, who
came to the throne, according to Turnour in 1464, but according to
Budugunálankara (quoted in Alwis’s Sidat Sangaráwa, p. 92 and 200) in 1469: or
the seventh who came to the throne in 1534, and was shot by accident by a
Portuguese sportsman.
2. Chakrawartti, “He, the wheels of whose chariot roll unhindered over the
known world” means in Sinhalese simply overlord, in contra-distinction to the
semi-independent rulers of provinces to whom the title rajjuruwo could be applied.
 3. Kalu Parákrama is not mentioned in any of the books.
4. Siwu pasayak, viz: clothing, food, medicine, and residence, see note 1 on the
Dewanagala Inscription, in the Friend, for May 1870, p. 59.
5. Waḍaná must be for wadiná. Can any other instance of this be quoted,
waḍana being used below in a different sense? The whole expression means of
course “to all priests on their journeys wherever they come from.” Mr. J. Alwis
says “According to usage the finite verb takes i and its other forms a.”
Mr. de Soyza, the Chief Translator, says that waḍana is the classical form of
wadiná, and is always used in books.
6. Ranata the effort of self-denial in not taking the field for nothing, is doubtless
of the essence of the merit which the minister so diplomatically transfers below, to
his master, hoping—who can doubt it—to retain it also for himself. Such a touch
of life makes one wish to know the further history of Kalu Parákrama Bahu, or, to
give the name an English dress, of the “black strong i’-th’arm.”
7. Wahal Tamil or Sinhalese?
8. Wata paṇḍan the exact article meant is not certain.
9. Kotalá Clough gives only the form kotale, the plural of which would be
kotala; the vessel seems to be like a small round teapot.
10. Doli-Kúnan the Sanskrit form is dolá, though doli is mentioned in Sabda
kalpa druma, and the Anglo-Indian word “dooley” agrees with this; Clough gives
dóláwa as the more usual form. Kúnama is the royal palankeen with crooked
bambu, the use of which was so zealously guarded. Pybus feelingly complains (at
page 72 of his “Mission to the King of Kandy” in 1762) of being forced to use a
“dooley.”—See also p. 89.
11. Telesan means probably the leather called patkaḍa on which the priests
prostrate themselves. Mr. de Soyza, Chief Translator to Government, has favoured
me with the derivation of this word—from talanawa, to beat, and san, skin.
12. Má-ula, the word ulá is obsolete, and not given in the Dictionaries; What is
its derivation ?
13. Paṭa-haná. Where were these clothes made; they cannot have been of native
manufacture ?
14. Maḍulu. I am not sure what this means. It is well known that priests used
signet rings, but maḍulla is not the right word for them. Maḍulla, according to
Clough, means a circle, a ring, an arc, circumference in general. Probably the word
is a mistake for maudu, a bason. Can any passage be quoted in which madulla is
intentionally used for maudu ?
 15. Swarga-moksha sounds more Hindu than Buddhist. Nirvána has no deep,
reality for the Sinhalese mind. See the concluding paragraph in my article on
Sinhalese Burials,” in the Ceylon Friend for Sept. 1870.
Galle, August 9th, 1870

DONDRA INSCRIPTION, NO. 1, TEXT, TRANSLATION AND NOTES.

By T. W. Rhys Davids, CCS.

This inscription was formed on an upright slab of granite very much resembling
a gravestone, and standing under the cocoanut palms on the sea shore at Dondra in
a private land, which was fast yielding to the encroachments of the sea. On some
rocks in the surf the villagers said there were more letters, but I was not able to
discover any—especially as my time was limited, and I was obliged to be satisfied
with preserving the stone itself—which by the kind permission of the owner of the
land I was enabled to remove to a place of safety.
Probably the stone has not been noticed by any European before, for of the two
stones mentioned by Forbes1 one is in my possession2 and the other has been
completely defaced by the ignorant priests, who seemed to have considered that the
stone was placed there opportunely by Vishnu, for them to heap jungle round to
burn.
The translation of the inscription will explain itself, but who shall explain its
curiously abrupt termination? for it ends in the middle of a line, in the middle of
the sentence, and almost at the top of the second side of the stone, the whole of the
side having evidently been smoothed for inscription !
It is also extremely strange—and worthy of all the greater attention, that this is
not the only instance in which such a discrepancy occurs—that in the year 1432 of
Saka, which is l510 of our era, the reigning Cakrawarti or overlord (as given in
Turnout’s list)3 was not Saugo Bo Wijaya Báhu who carne to the throne in 1527,
but his brother Dharma Parakrama Báhu, in whose reign Europeans first landed in
Ceylon.

1
Eleven Years in Ceylon, I., 178.
2
After many hours of fruitless labour more than half of the inscription on this
stone, which is in very bad preservation, has become clear. It is not, as stated by
Forbes, by Parákrama Bahu the Great, but dates from about 1400.
3
Appendix to Maháwansa, p. 67.
 It can scarcely be disputed that unless this discrepancy can be satisfactorily
explained away, our present dates must yield to the authority of this undoubtedly
contemporaneous record.
TEXT.
SUN. MOON.
1. Swasti sri suddha saka warusha
2. Ek dahas sára siya de
3. Tîs wannehi raja pœmini
4. Swasti srí mahá sammata
5. Paramparánuyata suriya
6. Wanshábhijáta sri lankádhipa
7. ti srimat siri Sanga-Bo
8. śri Wijaya-báhu cakrawatti
9. Swámin wahanseṭa sata
10. rawannen matu awurudu
11. Posona awawiseniya
12. Dewinuwarehi Nagarîsa-nìla
13. Kowilaṭa palamu pœna pœwœt
14. ten Parawásara kumburu
15. Mul bijuwaṭa wisi amunak
16. Há Nawadunne Pátegama
17. Na Kumburu bijuwaṭa pas amuna
18. khá ata pattu árácca
19. wen sarasa koṭœ ? petumálun
20. Batgama pasada salasmen
21. Agayaṭa œragana dœn Parawásara,
22. Œtuluwu tan dewiyanṭa pujá
23. Puna sakára akhandhawa pawat
24. Wana lesaṭa salaswá rája rája-
25. Mahámátyádînṭa śá náyaka
 26. Tœn dammakata tœn ætulu—
27. Wange . . . . . . . . . . .

TRANSLATION.
THE ROYAL SIGNS ; SUN AND MOON.
In the year 1432, of the auspicious, revered and correct Saka in the fourth year
of the auspicious Lord of Ceylon, the fortunate Siri Sangabo sri Wijaya Báhu, born
in the family of the Sun, descended from the line of the Royal auspicious and
fortunate Mahá Sammata, in the fifth day of the dark half of the month Poson,
granting to the Nagarisa Níla (Vishnu) temple in Dondra twenty amunas sowing
extent of the fields in Náwadunne and Pategama, and the produce of Batgama,
where the Atupatto Arachchi made the dam, having granted (all this) so that it
should remain forever in the same manner as the places bought for money and now
included in Parawásara, were offered to the god.—Let all Kings and Chiefs and
other ministers and Chief Priests and Priests and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
NOTES
1. Parawásara is now called Parawehera; Náwadunne is called ná ottunne;
Batgama and Pátegama have retained their old names.
2. Yuperumálun is what the letters appear to be, but the whole line is very
difficult to read, and this word has quite baffled discovery. Sarasa occurs in Sœla
Lihini Sandese (v. 32 of Mr. Macready’s edition) for tank, but it is spelt Sarasa.
The word could also mean “ornamented.”
3. Puna (line 23) is quite clear, but must surely be a mistake of the mason for
wuna.
4. Arácca, line 18, is quite clear, and seems also to be a mistake for A’raccé.