A cave temple on a rock above the road from Anuradhapura to the hill country, founded in the first century BCE and enriched by later kings.
The English Wikipedia says Nissanka Malla had fifty Buddha statues gilded here, an act that matches his claim to be the protector of Buddhism.
Who holds it
- Name
- not named in any source we reached
- Title
- The monks of the Dambulla cave temple
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
The crown
What it holds
- Cave shrines
- Estates and gifts
Allies and rivals
The crown
How things stand that morning
A royal-patronised cave monastery on the road to the hills.
Wealth
Estates and gifts.
Military
No armed force is recorded for the house.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The shrine or community is real, but what it held and who ran it in 1200 is inferred from general or later accounts; no page we read dates anything about it to 1200.
On the map: Drawn as a small disc round the shrine; the real estates were scattered villages.
Primary sources for Lanka (Polonnaruwa)
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Lesser Chronicle (the continuation of the Mahavamsa), Dhammakitti and later monks of the Mahavihara tradition (the first continuation about the 13th century (chapters 37 to 79), carried on in stages to the 18th century). The only narrative source for Lanka in 1200. Read online
- Epigraphia Zeylanica: lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon, Various (the Polonnaruwa kings' chanceries), edited by D. M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, H. W. Codrington and S. Paranavitana (inscriptions of the 3rd century BC to the 18th century; the series ran from 1904). Prints with translation the stone records of the Polonnaruwa kings who held or lost the throne around 1200. Read online
- South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
- The Book of Roger (the Pleasure of Him who Longs to Cross the Horizons), Muhammad al-Idrisi (completed 1154 at Palermo). The nearest Arabic geography in time to 1200 for the Indian Ocean. Read online
- A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
- Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.