Polonnaruwa Vatadage
Interesting facts
- Only ten vatadages survive in Sri Lanka, and the one at Polonnaruwa is widely regarded as the finest and most fully developed of them.
- The word vatadage means circular relic house; older texts also call such buildings thupaghara, stupa-house, or cetiyaghara, cetiya-house.
- The earliest known vatadage, at Thuparama in Anuradhapura, was raised by King Vasabha in the first century AD, roughly a thousand years before this one.
- When excavation began in 1903 under the archaeologist H. C. P. Bell, the whole building lay hidden beneath what looked like a simple mound of earth.
- The central dagoba is of the bubble-shaped type and was given only two basal rings, or pesavas, instead of the customary three.
- The brick stupa at the centre measures only about 27 feet 8 inches across its base, small compared with the 120-foot lower platform around it.
- Stone panels on the lower part of the enclosing wall carry carved flower designs, and traces suggest the inner walls were once painted.
- Scholars still debate the lost roof: the part over the stupa may have been a dome, with sloping sections carried on the stone columns around it.
Why it is worth it
The vatadage of Polonnaruwa is a round relic house, a form particular to ancient Sri Lanka: a small stupa set on a raised circular terrace and once sheltered by a roof carried on rings of stone pillars. The roof has long gone, and what remains reads like a stone drawing of the idea. Three concentric rows of columns still stand around the brick dagoba, sixteen in the innermost ring, twenty in the middle and thirty-two on the outside, each with a lotus carved at its foot. The outer pillars are about eight feet tall, enough to show how the vanished timber canopy would have hung over the shrine.
The building rises in two steps. A lower circular platform about 120 feet across has a single entrance on the north; from it four stairways, one at each cardinal point, climb to an upper terrace some 80 feet wide, enclosed by a brick wall. Each stair ends facing a seated Buddha in meditation, about five feet high; two of the four are still fairly complete. The northern approach is the one to linger over: its moonstone, the semicircular threshold slab called sandakada pahana, and the pair of guardstones flanking the steps are counted among the finest of the Polonnaruwa period, and they reward a slow look at the carving.
Who built it is still argued. One view credits Parakramabahu I in the twelfth century; another credits Nissanka Malla, while the archaeologist A. M. Hocart concluded that Nissanka Malla only renovated a structure already standing. It may have held the Tooth Relic of the Buddha, or his alms bowl. The vatadage stands in the Dalada Maluva, the walled sacred quadrangle at the heart of the old royal city, which was abandoned after an invasion in 1215 and excavated from 1903. It forms part of the Sacred City of Polonnaruwa World Heritage Site, and in a quadrangle crowded with shrines it is the one that holds the eye longest.
Getting there
The vatadage is in the archaeological park of Polonnaruwa, in Sri Lanka's North Central Province; the town of Dambulla lies about 40 km to the west. The nearest airport by distance is China Bay (TRR) near Trincomalee, about 68 km away, but most visitors arrive through Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) near Colombo, roughly 200 km and around three hours by road. Trains from Colombo Fort run to Polonnaruwa station, and buses connect the town with Colombo via Dambulla or Habarana.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Gal Vihara 2.1 km · sculpture
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Polonnaruwa Vatadage is an ancient structure dating back to the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa of Sri Lanka. It is believed to have been built during the reign of Parakramabahu I to hold the Relic of the tooth of the Buddha or during the reign of Nissanka Malla of Polonnaruwa to hold the alms bowl used by the Buddha. Both these venerated relics would have given the structure a great significance and importance at the time. Located within the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, it is the best preserved example of a vatadage in the country, and has been described as the "ultimate development" of this type of architecture. Abandoned for several centuries, excavation work at the Polonnaruwa Vatadage began in 1903.
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