Analyzing Styles, Spellings of Documents Demonstrating Religious Patronage of a Cluster of Buddhist Viharas.

Abstract

The 19th century opens by making Sri Lankans a part of the British Rule. The upward mobility of certain families in the Southern and Western maritime regions also gave impetus take over the patronage of establishing new fraternities of the Amarapura Nikaya and sponsoring the building of monasteries and temples to revive study of the Tripitakaya, Sinhala and Pali education. On one hand, a new kind of literacy and activism among lay Buddhists was the result. On the other hand, the temples however maintained its role as epicenters, for teaching, learning, publishing canonical texts and reviving ritual practices. A new elite Sinhala society emerged at the conclusion of the 19th century even in regions further than Colombo, the commercial hub and the aforesaid Southern and Western Maritime Region. The author has published research on the cluster of six „Soldara Viharayas‟ the artistic traditions and architectural features have been focused (Dissanayake 2016 and 2017). The donor inscriptions in the „Soldara Viharayas‟ at Gallengolla, Atthanagoda and Mahalolouwa are the focus of this research paper. Although they are imposing two story constructions, they have been missed in published research. Situated left to the Colombo Kandy Road on approaching Kandy from Colombo. Gallengolla and Atthanagoda are located today to the Sabaragamuwa Province and bordering them, Mahalolouwa is located in the Western Province. In the ongoing research to locate the Tampita Viharas, the trade and pilgrim routes of the Kelani Valley from Matara and Sri Pada have been mapped. Discovering former footpaths connecting Middeniya, Ambilipitiya and the Old Kandy Road (from Avissawella via Bulathkohupitiya to Aluth Nuwara) the HETC research team has been able to locate new centers of Buddhist Revival Movement based on Donor Inscriptions. At the Atthanoagoda inscription, the name of “Kurukuttal” appears as the name of the artist. The sanctum has many cartouches with descriptions of Buddha Charita painted on the wall. The style of writing, spellings and how words are divided in a sentence are most unusual. At the ICLSL Conference 2017 the research hypothesis would be, if these abnormalities result from a non native speaker writing captions of the walls.