Sankapala Raja Maha Viharaya-සංඛපාල රජමහා විහාරය

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Sankapala Raja Maha Viharaya is an ancient temple situated in Pallebedda in Rathnapura district.

The history of this temple expands to Anuradhapura era. During the period of king Dutugamunu this temple has been built by the giant Pussadeva. The giant Pussadeva is one of the great ten giants (Dasamahayodayo), who was awarded a Gamvara by the king after the war. That was the Pallebedda Gamvara. Later the giant Pussadeva built a temple in Pallebedda and offered it to Buddha shasana, which is Sankapala Viharaya. This history has been revealed by a stone pillar erected in the temple.

Later during the Kandian era a Buddhist monk named Karathota Dhammarama was offered with this temple. That was during the period of king Rajadhi Rajasinghe. But due to a dispute aroused between the king and the monk, the monk was taken into custody and kept under house arrest. At that time the monk Karathota Dhammarama wrote a 'Harasa Kawya' (a peice of poetry which includes 12 poems in one poem which is written in a circular shape) to show his intelligence. Afterwards king begun to respect the monk evenmore and monk was offered the Gamvara again by the king.

This temple includes a Sathsathi Vihara Mandira which has two Buddha statues in sitting posture and an ancient Buddha statue in standing posture. All of these statues have similarities to the statues of Kandian era. And the paintings on walls of the Viharaya, which were painted with indigenous material, also resembles Kandian era.

Apart from Sathsathi vihara mandiraya there is another shrine room in the middle of the temple, which is called 'Maha Viharaya'. This shrine room also consists of several Buddha statues as well as two statues of God Katharagama and God Vishnu.

This is an ancient temple, which should be preserved and which must be seen by you despite religious differences.-Dilan Dharshana
රත්නපුර සිට ඇඹිලිපිටිය දෙසට ගමන් කරද්දී කොළඹගෙආර ප‍්‍රදේශයේදී කුඹුක් සෙවණට ඉහළින් හුදකලා කඳුවැටියක් අසල අපේ නෙත ගැටෙන සංඛපාල රජමහා විහාරය දිගු ඉතිහාසයක් ඇති අප යා යුතුම තැනකි. මෙය දුටුගැමුණු රජතුමාගේ දස මහ යෝධයන්ගෙන් කෙනෙකු වන පුස්සදේව යෝධයා විසින් සසුනට පරිත්‍යාග කළ මහා පිංකමක සාධකයකි. පසුව පුස්සදේව රහතන් වහන්සේ බවට පත් වූ පුස්සදේව යෝධයාගේ සොහොන ද ඒ අසලම තවමත් අපට දැකිය හැකිය. එමෙන්ම අනුරාධපුර යුගයේ සිට නුවර දයුගය දක්වා විශ්මය දනවන බොහෝ දෑ ද, ගල් ලෙන් ද, හක්ගෙඩි ගළ ද එහි යන්නවුන්ගේ නෙත් සිත් පිනවයි