IN03053 Kiribat Vehera Pillar Inscription

The inscription is engraved on four sides of a quadrangular stone pillar, which was discovered by H. C. P. Bell in 1891 in the jungle close by the ruined dāgaba Kiribat-Vehera, about three and half miles to the north of Anurādhapura. This dāgaba is also called Menik Vehera or Gem dāgaba by local people. The inscription is written in Sinhalese alphabet from the 10th century A.D. Wickremasinghe assigns this record to a period immediately preceding Kassapa V’s reign. The inscription itself is dated in the fourteenth year of a king called Siri San̆go, an epithet often used by kings, but here probably referring to Kassapa IV, who arrived on the throne in 912 A.D. It was set up by a royal order in the presence of three officials, who are named as: Sabā-vaḍunnā Salayem, the bodyguard of the Pāṇḍyan king Dāpuḷa; (Ro)ṭu Pullayem; and Kiling Agbo. The inscription proclaims certain privileges or immunities attached to the dispensary at Bamuṇ-kumbara.