Portal Tomb & Hidden Inscriptions at Padavigampola

Little I knew about the mysterious mountain, which is quite close to my friend’s organic farm. Once he described about the caves with inscriptions, I was skeptical. All sorts of thoughts were running inside my head….. Would it be a new discovery? What kind of history would it unveil? Or are they simple inscriptions done by villagers? etc. I was eager to visit, but it kept on postponing for several months due to various reasons.

I’ve almost spent two months without an expedition. Lack of workouts due to a back injury and post election crisis were driving me crazy. On a Saturday night, I was wondering whether to contact my friend and see if he’s going to the farm anytime soon. Strangely, he sent a massage, requesting to visit the farm on the following day. This sounded like the perfect getaway.

Around 5.20am on the following day, we left Narahenpita. We had breakfast soon after passing Warakapola and reached Padavigampola via Polgahawela-Deliwala around 8.00am.

How to get there

You can easily reach Padavigampola from Rambukkana. Take the bus which goes to Walgama from Rambukkana and get down near the President’s College. It’s around 1KM from the college to Padavigampola Grama Niladhari Office. Temple with the portal tomb (Maliyadeva Guharamaya) is right next to the office.

Click Map to Enlarge

What is a Portal Tomb / Dolmen?

A dolmen, also known as a portal tomb, portal grave or quoit, is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table), although there are also more complex variants. Most of them date from the early Neolithic period (4000 to 3000 BC).

Exact reason for erecting these monuments is unknown, though it is believed that they were used as tombs or as worshipping sites.

Maliyadeva Guharamaya is the only known dolmen in Sri Lanka.

Maliyadeva Guharamaya / Dolmen

A Polish couch surfing group was already present by the time we arrived at the farm. They had spent two nights already, and were packing to leave. We were expecting some more, and thought of waiting till they arrive.

A Chinese photographer straight from India came after about an hour but was too tired to travel. So we kept waiting till Monica arrives.

Finally, she came around 2 pm, and we sent off Polish group to Hatton.

The mountain

There are two treks you can select. Both of them cover more or less the same set of rock shelters.

One trek starts few meters before the shop, if you are coming from Walgama. The temple (with the Dolmen) is just after the shop, and the other trek starts soon after you pass the temple.

We decided to take the one before the shop. Sachintha had done the trek near the temple previously

Two kids volunteered to guide us. It was around 2.50 PM

Off we go

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The trail becomes steep after several meters from the trail head, and expect 50% of the trek to be steep. After about 15 minutes, I was panting heavily, as if it’s my 1st ever hike. I’ve realized that my back injury and lack of exercises made me weak. We’ve paused for several minutes and resumed again. However, I wasn’t getting better as I struggled to hike at least for 5 more minutes.

All sorts of thoughts were running in my head. How can I hike Roopkund in May, if I cannot do a simple hike like this? Will I ever be able to lift weights because of the back injury? etc

After another 10-15 mins, we were getting close to the 1st rock shelter.

Kataaram

Kataaram

Villagers believe that the cave was offered by King Valagamba to the monks. When inquiring about the presence of archaeology department, the villagers said that it was them who translated this and mentioned about King Valagamba. However, the plaques you see at archaeology sites with the translations are not installed here (or at any of the caves in the mountain).

1st Inscription

After that, we passed several rock formations before reaching the next destination.

Rock formations

Rock formations

We came across a meditation house, which is probably modern than the inscriptions.  Another meditation house can be seen soon after. We were told that a monk used to meditate here. However, authorities (archaeology/wildlife/forest department?) had requested him to move out.

1st Meditation house

2nd Meditation house

The 2nd meditation house is much larger and seems to have several rooms and a living area. Only the remains/foundation of the living area is present. Though I don’t have a picture to capture all of this, you can check the same from my video. 2nd meditation house is vandalized pretty badly. I wonder when will our countrymen learn to respect the ancient heritage.

After trekking for few minutes, we witnessed the largest rock face on the mountain.

At the base of the cave shelter, a foundation is laid. A large number of monks can flock here. In here, the inscriptions are seen at least 30-40ft higher from the foundation. The tree in 2nd pic below is at least 50 ft in height, and we couldn’t believe the technology they used to make kataram /inscriptions so high.

Top most kataram is at least 50 ft high from the ground

Top most kataram is at least 50 ft high from the ground

A closer look at the inscriptions on the 2nd rock shelter

We spent some time here, listening to wonderful stories of treasure hunters getting in to trouble. They kids shared some more experiences, which I do not intend to reveal in this report.

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Next, the kids showed us a buried tunnel entrance, which they claimed that they’ve crawled inside years ago

Buried tunnel entrance

Then we proceeded towards a flat rock surface. It’s a nice place to rest, and was the ending point of our journey. However, there are many more caves in the mountain. We simply didn’t have time as it was 3.50 pm by then. We had to get back soon, in order to reach Colombo before midnight. It took another 45 mins for the descent.

While descending, I was thinking how lucky I am, to do the exploration without a backpack. It would have been a disaster with my physical condition. I got carried away and slipped at one place. I was hit hard on the ribs by the tree I tried to hold on to. It was a “ali madiwata koti” situation as I thought it damaged my rib cage. Luckily, no damage had been done.

On the descent, closer to the starting point, there’s a small fountain on the right side (left side if you are ascending). You have to detour few meters to get there. The kids say that it never dries. Apparently, the village pump water from it.

By 4.50 pm, we were at the small shop. They were kind enough to offer us tea. After spending some time there, we headed back to the farm and started packing up.

You can view the video from below link. Apologies for the bad quality. J Did not want to upload the raw 800mb video file to YouTube.