Susantha Goonatilake Phd The Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) and its members pioneered in the 19th and 20th centuries the study of Sri Lankan society, culture, history and archaeology. Through interaction between its Sri Lankan and Western members, the RASSL provided a platform for East-West discourse. Most of these pioneers read like a Who’s Who in these matters.

Epigraphy of the Sigiriya-Dambulla Region Raj Somadeva Introduction Scattered in the 446.6 squre miles which from the study area (Bandaranayake 1990 : 14) lie nearly 300 lithic records. The evidence from these inscriptions gives an insight in to the development of the society which created them and so they cannot be ignored in a study of the Settlement Archaeology of the area. These inscriptions have served as vehicles of mass media at the time of their creation. Since these inscriptions containing information on edicts, ideas, prasastis, donations, etc. remain unchanged, they are a ready and reliable source of information for the present archaeologists to reconstruct the social history of a people of the past.

Raj Somadeva Sri Lanka was one of prime attractions of the Indian Ocean sailors since the early first millennium BCE. This was due to several reasons and notable among them is Sri Lanka’s strategic geographical positioning in this mighty Sea. Sri Lanka was almost in the mid point of the sea routes which linked the South China Sea in the east with the Red Sea in the west at that time .

Prof. Raj Somadewa Sri lanka has a great tradition of written sources of historical information extending from about 250 BC until end of the kandyan regime in the second half of the 19 century AD. This significant tradition of literacy can be divided in two main parts.The most archaic part of this tradition represented by the inscriptions carved on mighty rock boulders and drip-ledges of the natural cave shelters which were used by the ascetic monks right after the advent of Buddhism in the latter half of the first millennium BC (Paranavithana 1970).