IN03125 Eppāvaḷa Slab Inscription 1

The inscription is engraved on a broken guardstone found on the site of an ancient and overgrown vihara in Eppāvaḷa (Eppawala) in North-Central Province; the discovery was reported in the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon for the year 1890 and the guardstone was subsequently transferred to the premises of the Archaeological Commissioner at Anuradhapura. The lower part of the stone is missing but the inscription is complete except for the first two lines, which are too weathered to be read. Although the date of the inscription is no longer legible, the text may be attributed on palaeographic grounds to the latter half of the tenth century A.D. It is concerned with the registration of a gift to the image house and the Bō-tree at the Pamagalu Monastery by a person named Ukuṇuhusu Kottā. This was made by investing eight kaḷan̆das of gold in land and by depositing two kaḷan̆das so that the interest might be paid in paddy. Two more kaḷan̆das of gold were invested for the purpose of supplying curds and honey and for the maintenance of the canopy of the altar.