The inscription is repeated on each of the four pillars which once supported the roof of an open pavilion on the southern terrace of the Ruvanväli or Rankot-dāgaba in Poḷonnaruva. According to the inscription, this pavilion was built to provide a place from which king Niśśanka Malla could pay his adorations to the relics enshrined in the dāgaba. Presumably, the pavilion originally contained an āsana (throne) or dias for this purpose. The pillars are square at the top and bottom with an octagonal section in the centre. All four pillars are fallen and two are broken. The inscription gives an account of some of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s acts, before describing the king’s use of the pavilion. Niśśaṅka-Malla reigned from 1187 to 1196 A.D. No specific date is given in the inscription but, as Wickremasinghe notes, the text must have been composed after the fourth year of Niśśaṅka-Malla’s reign because it refers to the king’s visit to Anurādhapura, which took place in his fourth regnal year, and to his later tours of inspection.
Of the four copies of the inscription on the four pillars, two were first transcribed and translated by Rhys Davids in 1875 for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. The third copy was edited by Müller in Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon (1883). The information below relates to the fourth copy, which was transcribed and translated for the first time by Wickremasinghe in Epigraphia Zeylanica 2 (1912-27). The fourth copy differs from the other three in the number of lines on each side and also in the beginning and end of each line.
[Side A.] His Illustrious Majesty Vīra Kāliṅga Laṅkeśvara Aprati–Malla Niśśaṅka–Malla Parākrama–Bāhu Cakravartī was pleased to tour round and throughout Laṅkā, inspecting completely, like a ripe nelli fruit in his hand, villages, market towns, seaport towns, cities, and many other localities of note in the three kingdoms [of Ceylon], including Devu–nuvara (i.e. Dondra), Käläṇi, Dam̆bulu, and Anurādhapura, as well as those places difficult of access either on account of water, mountains, forests, or marshes. He gave security to all animals in Rantisä, Miṇihoru, Gan̆gataḷā, Padī, and many other great tanks in the three kingdoms.
[Side B.] And he ordered that they should not be killed. He abolished for all times the visam̆buru-vata and the dues on places under chēna cultivation. From punishments and the like he exempted the inhabitants who were reduced to straitened circumstances through various [kinds of] oppression, imprisonment, and chastisement, as well as through the seizure of entire personal property, such as cattle, buffaloes, &c., in the days of former kings. And he bestowed on them gifts of pearls, precious stones, corals, and such other jewellery in abundance.
[Side C.] He gave them also cattle, buffaloes, money, and grain, male and female serfs, divel villages and permanent grants, together with various sorts of clothes, ornaments, and gold and silver vessels. Placing [in this manner] all the inhabitants in comfortable circumstances, he freed the land of Laṅkā from the thorns of lawlessness and kept it in a peaceful state.
[Thereafter] being desirous of single combats, he proceeded to the Pāṇḍyan country in the great [continent of] India, attended by his fourfold army of elephants, chariots, cavalry, and infantry.
[Side D.] Seeing [however] no opponent who would be his match [in a contest] he was pleased to exact tribute from the Coḷa, the Pāṇḍya, and various other countries.
And this is the pavilion from which His Majesty, who has thus gained victories in all directions, is pleased to worship the relics [enshrined in the Ruvanväli dāgaba].