Dimbulagala also known as Gunners Rock during the British colonial

British Ceylon

British Ceylon refers to British rule prior to 1948 of the island territory now known as Sri Lanka.-From the Dutch to the British:Before the beginning of the Dutch governance, the island of Ceylon was divided between the Portuguese Empire and the Kingdom of Kandy, who were in the midst of a war for...

 period, is a rock formation in the Polonnaruwa District

Polonnaruwa District

Polonnaruwa is a district in North Central Province, Sri Lanka. Its area is 3,403 km²....

 of Sri Lanka. By the time anthropologist Charles Gabriel Seligman

Charles Gabriel Seligman

Charles Gabriel Seligman FRS was a British ethnologist. Born in London, Seligman studied medicine at St. Thomas' Hospital....

 visited the location in 1911, a cave within the rock had become a refuge of the indigenous Vedda people. During the 12th century AD, The Sinhalese people had constructed a Buddhist monastery within the rock formation. The Dimbulagala Raja Maha Vihara

Dimbulagala Raja Maha Vihara

Dimbulagala Raja Maha Vihara is situated 16 kilometres south east of the ancient city of Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka. The Dimbulagala range houses a number of caves cut into the rock with Brahmi inscriptions over their drip ledges...

 monastery was restored in the 1950s. In 1990’s villagers around the rock are of mixed Vedda and Sinhalese ancestry. They all speak Sinhalese language and the Vedda language

Vedda language

The Vedda language is the language of the indigenous Vedda people of Sri Lanka. But communities, such as Coast Veddas and Anuradhapura Veddas, that do not strictly identify themselves as Veddas also use the Vedda language in part for communication during hunting and or for religious chants,...

is extinct.