Atamasthana
The sacred places are known as Jaya Sri Maha Bodhiya, Ruwanwelisaya, Thuparamaya, Lovamahapaya, Abhayagiri Dagaba, Jetavanarama, Mirisaveti Stupa and Lankarama.
The sacred city of Anuradhapura exerted a considerable influence on the development of architecture in the country for several centuries.
According to the Mahavansa the sacred city was founded around 350 BC by Pandukabhaya, the 1st king of the Anuradhapura kingdom and sixth since the arrival of Vijaya.
The sacred tree was brought there in the 3rd century BC during the second mission, led by Sangamitta, a Buddhist nun and daughter of Emperor Ashoka.
[1] The city's apogee was reached under the reign of Dutthagamani who, in 161 BC, defeated the South Indian invader Ellalan re-establishing Buddhism in place of Brahminism and endowed the site with extraordinary monuments including the Mirisaveti Stupa, Ruwanwelisaya, and the Brazen Palace.
The wall was constructed during the reign of King Kirthi Sri Rajasingha, to protect it from wild elephants.
[4] The Ruwanwelisaya is a stupa in Sri Lanka, considered a marvel for its architectural qualities and sacred to many Buddhists all over the world.
Today, after incurring much damage from invading Indian forces, it rises 55m, considerably less than its original height; nor is its form the same as the earlier ‘bubble’ shape.
Thera Mahinda, an envoy sent by King Ashoka himself introduced Theravada Buddhism and also chetiya worship to Sri Lanka.
The surrounding vatadage's slender, capital-topped pillars, perhaps the dageba's most unusual feature, enclose the structure in four concentric circles.
There are remains of 1600 columns all that is left of this huge palace, Archaeological evidence said to have had nine storeys and could accommodate around 1000 monks and attendants.
Historically it was a great monastic centre as well as a royal capital, with magnificent monasteries rising to many stories, roofed with gilt bronze or tiles of burnt clay glazed in brilliant colours.
To the north of the city, encircled by great walls and containing elaborate bathing ponds, carved balustrades and moonstones, stood "Abhayagiri", one of seventeen such religious units in Anuradhapura and the largest of its five major viharas.
[8] The 1st or 2nd century BC Abhayagiri dageba (confused by some books and maps with the Jetavanarama), was the centrepiece of a monastery of 5000 monks.
The monastery was part of the ‘School of the Secret Forest’, a heretical sect that studied both Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism, also Chinese traveller Faxian (also spelt Fa Hsien) visited in AD 412.
[9] The Jetavanaramaya is a stupa, located in the ruins of Jetavana Monastery in the sacred world heritage city of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.
The ruins show that there are rows of stone pillars and it is no doubt that there has been a house built encircling the stupa (Vatadage) to cover it.
