Nuwaragala is located in Pollebedda village in the Mahaoya Divisional Secretariat Division in the Ampara District. At present this land belongs to the Department of Forest Conservation and before that it belonged to the aboriginal people. However, in the past, it could be said that this land was inhabited. This is because there are a large number of ancient tank walls, ruins of temples, and cave temples associated with this place. A lot of them have not been formally researched yet. That is why many places are being destroyed.
As for history here, one can say that it has not been discovered yet. But there are several opinions on that. One is that King Saddhatissa himself built these buildings and abandoned them halfway without being able to complete them completely. The other fact is that Ven. Ellawala Medananda Thero has said that King Lajjatissa, the son of King Saddhatissa built temples in this connection. It is also said that Giri Nuwara, built by Prince Giri Abaya, the husband of Princess Soma, the sister of King Kavantissa, was built in this connection. These three views are the main ones.
[envira-gallery id=”8432″]However, there are a large number of different ruins throughout this mountainous region. It is believed that there are many places that have not been found yet. The villagers say that there are many temples in that forest. Unfortunately, the treasure hunters’ eyes are wide open. Mainly ponds, caves with cave inscriptions, later cave paintings by aborigines, stone steps, stone ruins, and many ruins belonging to temples are found everywhere in this mountainous forest. In particular, the villagers say that the pond at the top of the hill never runs dry. Most of the animals around here drink water from here. This pond is usually about thirty feet large. You can see a lot of evidence that this is not completely built. Nearby you can see a large cave with dripstones with a cave inscription. The other thing is that there are a large number of stone pillars on the ground around this pond. However, the surrounding area is archeologically very important.
