The inscription is engraved on the four sides of a stone pillar discovered by Bell in 1892. The pillar was found in Kirigallǟva, a hamlet in Kaḍawat Kōrale, about twenty miles north-north-east of Anuradhapura. The inscription consists of 57 lines of writing in the Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th century A.D. It records the granting of immunities to a village called Itnaru-gama in Angam-kuḷiya (a district in the Northern Quarter) by decree of His Majesty Abhā Salamevan in the second year of his reign. Wickremasinghe suggests that the biruda Abhā Salamevan refers in this instance to Udaya I, who reigned from 901 to 912 A.D.

Epigraphia Zeylanica
Wickremasinghe, Don Martino de Zilva. (1912-27). ‘No. 1. Kirigallǟva Pillar-Inscription,’ Epigraphia Zeylanica 2, p. 5.

On the tenth day of the waxing moon of [the month of] Äseḷa (June-July) in the second year after the raising of the canopy of dominion by his Majesty Abhā Salamevan.

 

Whereas it was [so] decreed by His Majesty in Council, we all of us, namely, Maṇitilǟ Kiliyem and Gan̆guḷhusu Agboyim [both] of the family of Mekāppar-Vädǟrum Vadurā, and Kavasilān̆g Gavayim of the family of the Chief Secretary Araksama Kas, have conjointly and with due inaugural ceremonies granted [the following immunities] to the village Itnarugama in the district of Amgamkuḷiya:—Dunumaṇ̆ḍlan, kulī, melāsī, tramps and vagrants shall not enter; servants of the royal family, peräläkkan, inhabitants holding two kinds of services, and peranāṭṭiyam shall not enter; and carts, oxen, and labourers shall not be appropriated.

 

[To this effect] we have set up this pillar of Council Warranty by Order of His Majesty.

 

Should any person enter this [village] and transgress the enactments, let him be . . . . let him be a dog or a crow [in his future birth. May there be] prosperity.

Other versions