The inscription is written on two granite slabs, which stand near the old refectory, also called Bhōjana-sālā, on the left of the third set of steps (on four) on the western slope of the hill at Mihintale. The inscription is divided equally between the two slabs, each one bearing 58 lines of Sinhalese prose. They were installed by the king Mahinda IV (975-91 A.D.) and record rules and regulations for the administration of the monastery (the name of the monastery is not mentioned) and payments made to the service staff.
| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Inscription ID | IN03030 |
| Title | Mihintale Inscription of Mahinda IV |
| Alternative titles | |
| Parent Object | OB03025 |
| Related Inscriptions | |
| Responsibility | |
| Author | Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe |
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| Language | සිංහල |
| Reigning monarch | Mahinda IV |
| Commissioner | |
| Topic | records rules and regulations of a Buddhist monastery and discusses the emoluments of servants |
| Date: | |
| Min | 975 |
| Max | 991 |
| Comment | Basis for dating: reign of Mahinda IV. |
| Hand | |
| Letter size | 2.22 |
| Description | Sinhalese characters of the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. |
| Layout | |
| Campus: | |
| Width | 109.2 |
| Height | |
| Description | 116 lines divided equally between two stone slabs (fifty-eight lines on each slab). Each line is approximately 109.2 cm in length. |
| Decoration | |
| Bibliography | |
| References | Translated in Turnour 1836: 84-90. Edited in Müller 1883: 57-58, 115-120, no. 121. Re-edited by Wickremasinghe in Epigraphia Zeylanica 1 (1904-12): 75-113, no. 7. |
| Add to bibliography | First nine lines edited by Goldschmidt in Ceylon Sessional Papers, no. 11 (1876), pp. 7-10. Full text first edited by Müller in Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 6, no. 21 (1880): pp. [?]. |
| Misc notes | |