Badulla Pillar Inscription ( si, බදුලු ටැම් ලිපිය) is an archaeological stone inscription, which is currently located at the
Senarath Paranavithana
Senarath Paranavitana ( Sinhala:සෙනරත් පරණවිතාන) (26 December 1896 – 4 October 1972) was a pioneering archeologist and epigraphist of Sri Lanka. His works dominated Sri Lankan archaeology and history in the middl ...
Memorial Library of
Badulla
Badulla ( si, බදුල්ල, ta, பதுளை) is the capital and the largest city of Uva Province situated in the lower central hills of Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of Uva Province and the Badulla District.
Geography
Badulla is ...
,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. The inscription is engraved on a rock surface, with the height of and . It contains 203 lines and about 2,000 mediaeval Sinhala scripts. The Badulla inscript is considered to be the largest pillar inscription, with the smallest letters, found in the country.
Content
The pillar inscription was created during the reign of King
Udaya IV.
It was recorded that the trade had been practiced in the market town of Hopitigama. According to the inscription, the traders and the householders of Hopitigama had submitted a petition outlining corruption and bribes done by village chief, to King Udaya when he visited the Mahiyangana pagoda. After a probe the stone pillar was erected on the orders of the king, which published the rules prohibiting these illegal activities.
Additionally the inscription reveals that in those days the scales had been used to measure grain and bulls had been used for the transportation of goods.
Location
The Badulla Pillar Inscription was found in 1857 by Jone Belli, the British
deputy agent for Badulla. It was discovered about to the north-east of the
Mahiyangana pagoda and close to the
Sorabora Wewa area.
Initially it was placed at the
Kachcheri
A kachcheri or district secretariat is the principal government department that administrates a district in Sri Lanka. Each of the 25 districts has a kachcheri.
The main tasks of the District Secretariat involve coordinating communications and ac ...
in Badulla, but due to concerns about its conservation the pillar inscription was relocated to its current position at the Badulla public library.
See also
*
Stone inscriptions in Sri Lanka
References
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Sri Lanka inscriptions
Anuradhapura period
Archaeological protected monuments in Badulla District
Sinhala Inscriptions