Ākāsacetiya untranslated

Ākāsacetiya. A cetiya in Rohaṇa in South Ceylon, not far from Cittalapabbatavihāra, so named because it is situated on the summit of a rock. It is not known when and by whom it was built. King Kākavaṇṇatissa fixed to it stone slabs, to make it easier of ascent (Mhv.xxii.26).

There were probably two cetiyas of the same name, one being in Rohaṇa and the other to the east of Anurādhapura. It is the latter which is mentioned in the thirty-third chapter of the Mahā Vaṁsa (Vers. 68-9).

Vaṭṭagāmaṇī, going up with his queen to the Ākāsacetiya, saw his minister, Kapisīsa, who had just come down from the cetiya, where he had been sweeping the courtyard, sitting by the road; because he did not fling himself down before the king, the latter slew him in anger.

This Ākāsacetiya was near Acchagalla Vihāra, which, according to the Mahā Vaṁsaṭīkā (Mhv­ṭ.302), was to the east of Anurādhapura.

It may be that Ākāsacetiya was a common name for any vihāra built on the summit of a rock, for the Commentaries (AN­a.i.375; MN­a.ii.955) speak also of an Ākāsacetiya at Sumanagiri (Sumanakūṭa) at which the Tamil general Dīghajantu offered a red silken robe.