The pillar was first discovered sometime in or before 1886 by H. Parker in the forest below the embankment of the Padaviya Tank “at the site of an ancient town which is now called Moragoḍa”. It was still there, “lying prone among the ruins”, when Bell and Wickremasinghe visited the spot in October 1891. The pillar is inscribed on all four sides in the Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th century A.D. The inscription is dated in the sixteenth year of reign of king Kasub Sirisaṅgbo, identified as Kassapa IV (r. 912-929 A.D.) It proclaims the grant of certain immunities to lands irrigated by the waters of the Padonnaru tank.
| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Inscription ID | IN03059 |
| Title | Moragoḍa Pillar Inscription of Kassapa IV |
| Alternative titles | |
| Parent Object | OB03039 |
| Related Inscriptions | |
| Responsibility | |
| Author | Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe |
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| Digitally edited by | |
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| Language | සිංහල |
| Reigning monarch | Kasub Sirisaṅgbo |
| Commissioner | |
| Topic | proclaims the grant of certain immunities to lands irrigated by the waters of the Padonnaru tank |
| Date: | |
| Min | 928 |
| Max | 928 |
| Comment | Basis for dating: intrinsic. The inscription is dated to the sixteenth year of the reign of Kasub Sirisaṅgbo, who was indenfied by Bell and Wickremasinghe as Kassapa IV (r. 912-929). |
| Hand | |
| Letter size | 5.08 |
| Description | Letter size varies from 1 to 2 inches (2.54 to 5.08 cm). Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th century A.D. |
| Layout | |
| Campus: | |
| Width | |
| Height | |
| Description | Campus size not reported. 91 lines in total, covering all four sides of a square pillar (24 lines on the first side, 21 on the second, 24 on the third and 22 on the fouth). Lines 9-14 on the second side and Lines 9-10 on the fourth side are not legible. |
| Decoration | There are a sun and a moon at the bottom of the second side of the pillar and a crow and a dog at the bottom of the fourth side. |
| Bibliography | |
| References | Edited by Wickremasinghe in Epigraphia Zeylanica 1 (1904-12): 200-207, no. 17. |
| Add to bibliography | |
| Misc notes | |