Paochieh C.
Google
Kalupokuna or the Kaludiya Pokuna is a site with extensive ruins of a monastery on the slopes of a range of hills known as Eravalagala (also called Perawelagala), about a mile and a half to the south-east of Kumbukkandanvala, in the Vagapanaha Pallesiya Pattu of the Matale District. This is not to be confused with the Kaludiya Pokuna of Mihintale.
This monastery has been organized as a Pabbatha Vihara as described by Mañjuśrībhāṣitavāstuvidyāśāstra with primary buildings built on a platform surrounded by a moat.
Kaludiya Pokuna has been organized as a Pabbatha Vihara architecture. Archaeologists believe that Pabbata Vihara was built by merging with a natural rock formation. These are built by arranging several rectangular building areas (courtyards) at different levels surrounded by water. In the upper courtyard itself are the four sacred buildings arranged in specific order. In the ancient architecture book ‘Manju Sri Bhashitha Vastuvidyawa” (මඤ්ජු ශ්රී භාෂිත වාස්තුවිද්යාව) written in Sanskrit, these buildings and standards are well explained.
The basic feature of these monasteries is a large rectangular precinct or sacred quadrangle that contains the four major shrines, a stupa, a bodhighara, a patimaghara, and a prasada which has been identified as the uposathaghara. Vijayaramaya, Pankuliya Asokaramaya, Pacina Tissa Pabbatha Viharaya, Puliyankulama Pabbata Viharaya (Pubbaramaya), Toluvila, and Vessagiriya are the temples of this tradition in Anuradhapura. Kaludiya Pokuna (Dhakkinagiri Viharaya) in Dambulla, Lahugala Magul Maha Viharaya, Menikdena, Pulukunava in the Gal Oya valley, a group of shrines at the foot of the rock at Sigiriya and Moragoda in Padaviya are the other provincial sites where Pabbata Vihara have been identified. (Bandaranayake, 1974).
The principal buildings of the monastery, which included a moderate-sized stupa and a structure supported by massive but roughly hewn stone pillars, were arranged on several terraces on the hillside and seemed to have been surrounded by a moat. As one ascends the hill, passing the terraced sites, the ground to the south and the east becomes rocky and among the huge granite boulders, there are twelve caves used in ancient days as dwelling places by Buddhist hermits. However, it is said that with this 40-hectare (100-acre) reserve, altogether 69 caves have been identified. About 750 feet to the south-west of the stupa, there is a rubble-faced pond, the muddy water which it is now filled with gives the whole site its modern name of “Kaludiyapokuna“