Atadage
The house of eight relics, the first temple to hold tooth relics of Lord Buddha is known to be Atadage which is situated on the northwest side of Vatadage in the ancient kingdom Polonnaruwa. “Ata” means eight in Sinhala and it is believed that Atadage was built in eight days could be the reason for the name. This religious structure belonging to the 11th century was built by King Vijayabahu I and the only living architecture of his monarchy.
This an architecture with two storeys and the lower storey has 54 elaborate carved granite columns which are almost 9 feet tall. The upper storey is made out of wood, the tooth relics were kept here for safety purposes. The moonstone found here resembles the art of the Anuradhapura era.
The Velikkara inscription stone on the left to this building states that protection of tooth relics were done by hired tamil army and not by Sinhalese and the lettering is in tamil language.
