Granting of immunities regarding land. Concerns a village and a hospital.
The inscription was discovered by the Archaeological Commissioner, H. C. P. Bell, in August 1897 in the course exploring the ruins of Mäḍirigiriya in Tamankaḍuva, about forty-six miles east-south-east of Anurādhapura. It is engraved on four sides of a stone pillar and consists of 95 lines in the Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th and early 11th centuries A.D. The text is dated to the third year of king Abhā Salamevan and records the granting of certain immunities in respect of the land within the four boundaries of Mäḍiligiri-Ätveher-Piyan-gala in Rantisǟ in the district of Bidervatu-kuḷiya. Wickremasinghe suggests that the biruda Abhā Salamevan refers in this instance to Kassapa V.
| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Inscription ID | IN03070 |
| Title | Mäḍirigiriya Pillar Inscription |
| Alternative titles | |
| Parent Object | OB03050 |
| Related Inscriptions | |
| Responsibility | |
| Author | Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe |
| Print edition recorded by | |
| Source encoded | |
| Digitally edited by | |
| Edition improved by | |
| Authority for | |
| Metadata recorded by | |
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| Authoriy for improved | |
| Language | සිංහල |
| Reigning monarch | Abhā Salamevan |
| Commissioner | |
| Topic | records the granting of certain immunities in respect of the land within the four boundaries of Mäḍiligiri-Ätveher-Piyan-gala in Rantisǟ in the district of Bidervatu-kuḷiya |
| Date: | |
| Min | 900 |
| Max | 1025 |
| Comment | Basis for dating: palaeography. The inscription is dated to the third year of king Abhā Salamevan. Wickremasinghe suggests that the biruda Abhā Salamevan refers in this instance to Kassapa V, whose reign lasted from 929 to 939. |
| Hand | |
| Letter size | 3.81 |
| Description | Letter size varies from 1 to 1½ inches (2.54 to 3.81 cm). Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th and early 11th centuries A.D. |
| Layout | |
| Campus: | |
| Width | 31.75 |
| Height | 182.88 |
| Description | 95 lines engraved on four sides of a stone pillar (26 lines on the first three sides and 17 lines on the fourth). |
| Decoration | Engraved below the inscription on the fourth side of the pillar are a crow and a dog and, beneath them, two further symbols - the first looks like a vaṭā-pata (‘Buddhist monk’s fan’) and the second was identified by Bell as a sickle. |
| Bibliography | |
| References | Edited by Wickremasinghe in Epigraphia Zeylanica 2 (1912-27) 25-33, no. 6. |
| Add to bibliography | |
| Misc notes | |