Ancient background of ruwanweli maha seya 🙏🙏

• Ruwanweli maha seya was built by the great king dutugemunu who reigned from 137BC to 119BC from anuradhapura. Next to Sri maha bodhi, Ruwanweli seya temple is the most venerated Buddhist site in aanuradhapura. 
  
  
• After the defeat of elara, the south Indian invader and bringing the whole country under one rule by the great warrior king dutugemunu, building of ruwanweli seya has been given the most prominence in most ancient texts in srilanka. 
  
  
• The original stupa has been about 180 feet in height and had been expended and renovated by many kings thereafter. The stupa is 350 feet in height and 300 feet in diameter today.
  
  
• According to mahawansa, the great chronicle of srilanka, the preparation for the foundation for the stupa is described as follows,
  
  
         

The ruler had the site of the stupa dug to the depth of seven cubits (about 17 ½ feet) …….round stones brought by warriors and had them broken by small hammers , then for the sake of firmness of the site he had the crushed stones stamped by elephants with feet covered in leather. He had butter clay laid over the stones and bricks over the clay. …. Rough plaster over it, quarts over that, a network of iron over that, and above that fragrant “marumba”.

The king had crystal spread over that and over the crystal stones. Everywhere in the work was the clay called butter clay with the resin of wood apple mixed with mercury. A bronze plate, eight finger breadths thick was laid over the stones. A silver plate seven finger breadths thick was laid over it with arsenic mixed in the oil of sesame.

Mahavamsa – The Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka

• King dutugemunu did not live to see the completion of this massive stupa. when the king fell ill. he sent his brother to complete the work of the stupa. on king dutugamunu's death bed he wanted see this stupa and his brother covered the whole dome in white cloth and constructed the upper portion of the stupa in bamboo and painter it in imitation gold and carried the king to the stupa to show the competed stupa. After the king death the sadhdhathissa finished the remaining work.