Ratnapura
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (Retd.) |
Ratnapura (रत्नपुर) was an ancient town of great value founded by Ratnadevi, queen of Jayasimha (1128 - 1149 AD) of second Lohara dynasty, mentioned in Rajatarangini [VIII (i), p.218]
Variants
History
Rajatarangini[1] mentions ....The matha of Ratnadevi to whom her husband the king Jayasimha was strongly attached was the best of all that were set up.
Rajatarangini[2] mentions .... The queen Ratnadevi set up a religious school named Vaikuntha and mathas and other edifices, and with her own money made arrangements for their permanent maintenance.
At Ratnapura, a town of great value, and which had many gates, the spotless religions school was the receptacle of virtue, and looked like a large cage for a swan. Mahadeva graced by his presence her white washed houses, like a white light, to destroy the transient state of man's existence. When she built sheds for cows, Shuravarmma and the other builders were reckoned as cows. There [at Ratnapura] adorned with cowsheds, where the kine roamed unrestricted, and which was washed by the waves of the Vitasta, she parted with her diseased body (died), At Nandikshetra she had raised religious schools, and in the principal places of the Yavanas she had built delightful mathas. In Dārvvā she built a town like the city of Indra, and named it after her name. It contained a beautiful and grand house befitting a king. The queen who was kind towards her dependants built various monuments consecrated to the memory of the great, the honored and the principal men who were dead.
The world held such jewels of women who were its ornaments. (p.217-218)
No. 4 Kuruspal Stone Inscription of Somesvaradeva[3] mentions certain contemporary kings, Most of these kings are mentioned here by the names of their countries or capitals, those quite clear being Uḍra, Lanji, Ratnapura, Lemṇa, Vengi, Bhadrapattana and Vajra.....Ratnapura, the capital of the Haihayas in Dakashina Kosala.