According to the chronicles Mahavamsa and Thupavamsa, the Ridi Viharaya complex was built in gratitude for helping him cherish his dream of completing Ruwanwelisaya.

According to the chronicles, they saw some ripe jackfruit in the Ridigama area; cut it and thought of offering the first half to Buddhist monks as a ritual.

The last monk, known as Arhat Indragupta,[7] after partaking the jackfruit, directed the merchants to a path which led to a cave with a silver ore.

In gratitude, he built a temple complex on the silver ore, employing 300 masons and 700 others including his chief artisan Vishwakarma Prathiraja.

There are approximately twenty-five caves around the temple, which are considered to be inhabited by Arhat monks, since the arrival of Arahat Mahinda in 3rd century BCE.

Waraka Welandu Viharaya is a Polonnaruwa era building, considered as the place where the Arhat monks accepted jackfruit from the merchants.

Located in front of the Maha Viharaya, the Hevisi Mandapaya (or the drummers' pavilion) contains a rice bowl and other objects of historical value.

Maha Viharaya, or the main temple, is located inside the Rajatha lena (or the silver cave); a massive rock which takes the shape of a cobra head.

These blue-and-white tiles portray various biblical figures and stories such as expulsion from the Garden of Eden, dove of peace, prophets of yore, the Last Supper, burning bush and the creation of man.

Uda Viharaya, or the upper temple belongs to the Kandyan era, and contains a seated Buddha statue with Makara Thorana and a Sandakada pahana (moonstone).

This Sandakada pahana is a unique design, as it takes a semi-circular shape instead of a triangular shape, which is more common in similar designs of Kandy era and the Makara Thorana is the only one of its kind because two dragons appear from either sides of Lord Buddha's shoulders (a thing which cannot be seen in any other Makara Thorana in the world).

The cave walls of the Rajatha lena are painted with images that relate to incidents of Gautama Buddha's life.

On the sides of the seated Buddha statue at Uda Viharaya, drawings of Sath Sathiya (the way Gautama Buddha spent his first seven weeks after enlightenment) and Kandyan era symbols such as Nawanari Kunjaraya (nine entwined maiden figures in the shape of an elephant), Thri Sinha Rupaya (three seated lion figures with one head), Vrushba Kunjaraya (heads of a bull and an elephant entwined) and Sarpenda can be seen.