Trilingual inscription from Sri Lanka

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 99-04-24 06:08:51 EDT, falk at ZEDAT.FU-BERLIN.DE writes:

> The early work of Paranavitana is good, e.g. his Sigiri graffiti, andhis
> corpus of old inscriptions.

The present discussion reminded me of what the well-known epigraphist
Iravatham Mahadevan states in Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies, vol.
12, no.1, p. 140. "In one of the early Brahmi rock inscriptions in Abhayagiri
area near Anuradhapura, a Tamil zamaNa is mentioned as hailing from a place
which has been read as Ilubarata by Paranavitana. He has listed the
place-name in the glossary with the comment 'of uncertain origin'. I have
examined closely the inscription in situ. The name of the place is in fact
written clearly as i.labarata. (Paranavitana consistently misread .la as lu
as he refused to recognise the existence of .la in the early Sinhala-Brahmi
Script.) Taking into account the facts that in Old Sinhalese i<sic> would be
shortened as i and l_a would be written as .la or .da, it is very likely that
we have here  a unique occurrence of the geographical name ii.la (Ta. iil_am)
in an Old Sinhalese inscription of about the second century B.C." Could
Paranavitana have been suffering from the illness or decay in the period when
he was working on this inscription?

Regards
S. Palaniappan