The inscription is engraved on three sides of a quadrangular pillar. It was discovered sometime in or before 1876 by J. H. Dawson, an Irrigation Officer, at Mayilagastoṭa, a village about 8 miles from Tissamahārāma in the Hambantoṭa district. The pillar was afterwards brought afterwards to the Colombo Museum. The first and second sides of the pillar each feature 35 lines written in the Sinhalese alphabet of the tenth or early eleventh century A.D. Further lines are inscribed on the third side of the pillar but they are now illegible. The inscription records the dedication of certain lands and a grant of immunities to Uḍa-Tisa-pirivena, situated near Mahagama on the left bank of Kirind-ho. No date is given in the inscription but it is described as having been issued by the ǟpā Mihindu, who subsequently became king Mahinda IV. The use of the title ǟpā indicates that the grant was made in the early part of this king’s career, when he was a mere governor. This record has been useful for identifying Mahinda IV of the Mahāvaṁsa with Siri Saňg-boy Abahay of the Mihintale tablets (IN03030).
Hail! Prosperity! The learned ǟpā Mihindu endowed with a knowledge of the (Buddhist) doctrine, a pinnacle of the Kṣatriya race, being legitimately born unto the great king Abhā Salamevan, of the womb of the anointed queen San̆g Gon; [as such] lord by hereditary succession of the lords of the soil of the Island of Laṅkā, which has been [as it were] the chief queen unto the royal chiefs descended from the line of the Okkāka dynasty which abounds in a multitude of benignant and boundless virtues, and which has thereby caused other Kṣatriya dynasties to render it homage:
The ǟpā Mihindu (having granted) lands out of crown property (for the up-keep ?) of Uḍa–Tisa–pirivena which is situated near Mahagama on the left bank of Kirind–bo and in which (he kept up the observance of the Buddhist sabbath devolving upon [the members of the pupillary] succession of the Buddha) who belong to the illustrious Mahāvihāra sect, set up the edictal pillar [to the effect that] melātsi, and servants of the royal family shall not enter (the premises granted) . . . . . . that village oxen, rice set apart (for the royal household?), carts, buffaloes and labourers shall not be appropriated; that tramps and vagrants shall not enter; that except on the occasion of a ‘relic-procession’ there shall be no musical entertainments within the outer boundary; that princes of the royal family shall not break these regulations, but shall perpetuate this edict; and that guilt (will accrue) to those employées who disregard this edict . . . . . . . . . This being the (order), the ǟpā Mihindu . . . . . . . . . .