The Rathna Prasada – The Gem Palace (15) 

Turning to the right (north) and back towards the Dagaba, on the left is the Rathna Prasada (15), the chapter house of the Abhayagiri monastery. The guard stone on the entrance is perhaps the finest in Sri Lanka. It represents a Naga-King (God of water, elephants and cobras, a guardian spirit). The Naga-King holds a vase of plenty in his left hand, and holds a flowering branch, symbolizing prosperity, in the right. Around his head is a naga-hood and above it a makara arch and under his feet is a dwarf attendant. This sculpture of about 8th century date is a restrained work with beautiful modeling.

We are told by the Chronicle that Mahindha II, in the 8^th century, “built at a cost of 300,000 (coins) the superb, many storied Rathnaprasadha ,” and the present building can perhaps be attributed to him, but archaeologists who explored the building found traces of a first century A.D. foundation below it, that may have been the first chapter-house of the Abhayagiri.