Stone inscriptions in Sri Lanka

The number of stone inscriptions that have been found in Sri Lanka to date is over 4000.

At the beginning, the inscriptions had two or three short lines containing the information about donations made to bhikkus.

Thirteen copies of the Vevalkatiya inscription of Udaya IV were placed in various parts of the Rajarata.

Thirteen copies of the Vevalkatiya inscription of Udaya IV were placed in various part of the Rajarata.

It is clear that people have used brahmi letters, Pali and Sanskrit to write these inscriptions.

Here from these inscriptions information can be gathered in order to get a knowledge about the evolution of the sinhala letters and the development of the language, grammar rules, and structure.

When studying these inscriptions, it is clear that donation was not limited to kings and royalty, but also people of different classes.

These forms of inscriptions written in pre-and-post-brahmi letters have been found in places such as Rajagirikanda and Aanaikkuttikanda.

Information like the old trade methods, the occupations and the economic stability of people, ownership of lands, types of taxes which cannot be extracted from the literary resources can be found from them.