The inscription is engraved on a stone slab, which was discovered among the ruins of the Kirivehera stupa at Kataragama. The discovery was recorded by Edward Müller in his Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon (1883). Writing in the early 1930s, Senarath Paranavitana recorded that the slab was at that time stood upright some 50 feet (15.2 m) to the south of the main entrance to the stupa. The inscription can be dated on the basis of the palaeography to the first or second century A.D. It records that an elder of the Buddhist Church called Nanda enlarged the caitya (i.e. the Kirivehera stupa) and got the monks at Akujuka to construct flights of steps at the four entrances.
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Inscription ID | IN03129 |
Title | Kataragama Kirivehera Slab Inscription of circa 2nd century A.D. |
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Parent Object | OB03105 |
Related Inscriptions | |
Responsibility | |
Author | Senarath Paranavitana |
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Language | සිංහල |
Reigning monarch | |
Commissioner | |
Topic | records that an elder of the Buddhist Church called Nanda enlarged the caitya (i.e. the Kirivehera stupa) and got the monks at Akujuka to construct flights of steps at the four entrances |
Date: | |
Min | 0 |
Max | 200 |
Comment | Basis for dating: palaeography. |
Hand | |
Letter size | 11.43 cm |
Description | Letters are about 4½ inches (11.43 cm) on average in height. Sinhalese script of the first or second century A.D. |
Layout | |
Campus: | |
Width | 144.78 |
Height | 86.36 |
Description | Five lines engraved vertically from the top downwards on a stone slab. The slab is badly weathered but, thanks to the deepness of the engraving, almost all of the inscription remains legible, except for the first two letters of line 1 and the last letter of line 3. |
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Bibliography | |
References | Mentioned in Müller 1883: 46, no. 75. Edited and translated by S. Paranavitana in Epigraphia Zeylanica 3 (1928-33) 214–216, no. 21. |
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