The Hatadage stands at one end of the Quadrangle, a small but exquisitely built tooth-relic shrine. The chronicles say it was raised in sixty hours (hata-da-ge), and although this is unlikely the name has stuck. Three weathered standing Buddha figures fill the inner sanctum.
The shrine is rectangular, on a raised stone platform, and decorated with a typically Polonnaruwa-period basement of horizontal mouldings and pilasters. The doorways are framed by guard-stones carved with naga kings — a delicate detail worth a slow look.