Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

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High medieval · Buddhist · Sri Lanka

Gadaladeniya Vihara

Pilimathalawa, Kandy District, Central Province · 7.2573°, 80.5561°

Gautama Buddha (seated image in dhyana mudra with four standing Buddhas; adjoining Vishnu devale)Gampola (Bhuvanekabahu IV)Dravidian with Polonnaruwa-era Sinhalese and Indo-Chinese elements
Sacred since
1344 CE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
1344 (Gampola kingdom)
Gampola (Bhuvanekabahu IV)

History & significance

A stone temple of 1344 near Pilimathalawa, raised under Bhuvanekabahu IV of Gampola by the monk Seelavamsa Dharmakirti to a design by the South Indian architect Ganesvarachari. Its shrine holds a 2.43 m seated Buddha flanked by four standing figures, with a separate Vijayothpaya shrine of five stupas in cruciform arrangement.

Sthala katha — the traditional account

What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.

The subsidiary Vijayothpaya shrine takes its name from the mythical palace of the god Indra.

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Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-28 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Gampola (Bhuvanekabahu IV)