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Kassapagiri

A monastery in Sri Lanka. Jetthatissa III gave the village of Ambilāpika for the supply of food to the monks of Kassapagiri (Cv.xliv.98), and Kassapa III showed this monastery his special favour (Cv.xlviii.24).

The monastery probably formed part of what — in an inscription of Mahinda IV found at Vessagiri — is called the “Isuramenu-Bo-Upulvan-Kasubgiri-Vihāra.” It would appear that Kassapa I founded a great monastic establishment out of the Vessagiri and Issarasamaṇa-vihāras and that this enlarged monastery was named after his two daughters Bodhi and Uppalavannā and also after Kassapa himself. This establishment was evidently referred to briefly as Kassapagiri. (Ep. Zey.i.31 ff; i.216; and Cv.Trs.i.43, n.7).

The name Kacchapagiri found in the Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā (p.652; see also 407, which has Kassapagiri) is apparently a wrong reading for Kassapagiri, in which case the identification is important, for here we have “Issarasamaṇasaṅkhāte Kacchapagirivihāre.” See also Kassapa-vihāra.