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.

Metadata
Inscription ID IN03129
Title Kataragama Kirivehera Slab Inscription of circa 2nd century A.D.
Alternative titles
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.
Decoration
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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