The inscription is engraved on all four sides of a quadrangular stone pillar, currently in the stone gallery at the Colombo National Museum. The location where the pillar was found is not recorded. The pillar was broken into two pieces before it arrived at the museum. As a consequence, it was initially treated as two objects and the inscriptions on the fragments were recorded as distinct texts when eye-copies were produced for the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon in 1907 and 1924. However, the connection between the fragments was later recognised and the pieces were joined together. The inscription is dated on the tenth day of the first half of the month of Mändindina (February–March) in the eleventh year of Kassapa IV, referred to here by his biruda Kasub Sirisaṅgbo. Kassapa IV reigned between 898 and 914 A.D. The text records a grant of immunities to an estate which was an endowment of a lying-in-home founded by the Chief Secretary Senal (Sena).
| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Inscription ID | IN03140 |
| Title | Colombo Museum Pillar Inscription of Kassapa IV |
| Alternative titles | |
| Parent Object | OB03115 |
| Related Inscriptions | |
| Responsibility | |
| Author | Senarath Paranavitana |
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| Language | සිංහල |
| Reigning monarch | Kassapa IV |
| Commissioner | |
| Topic | records a grant of immunities to an estate which was an endowment of a lying-in-home founded by the Chief Secretary Senal (Sena). |
| Date: | |
| Min | 908 |
| Max | 909 |
| Comment | Basis for dating: intrinsic. The inscription is dated on the tenth day of the first half of the month of Mändindina (February–March) in the eleventh year of Kassapa IV, referred to here by his biruda Kasub Sirisaṅgbo. Kassapa IV reigned between 898 and 914 A.D. |
| Hand | |
| Letter size | 3.81 cm |
| Description | Letters are 1½ inches (3.81 cm) on average in height. Sinhalese script of the tenth century A.D. |
| Layout | |
| Campus: | |
| Width | 20.32 |
| Height | 213.36 |
| Description | 109 lines engraved across all four sides of a quadrangular stone pillar (32 lines on each of the first and second sides, 33 lines on the third side, and 12 lines on the fourth side). The letters are engraved between ruled lines two inches (5.08 cm) apart. |
| Decoration | The figures of a scythe, a monk’s fan, a crow and a dog are engraved beneath the inscription on the fourth side of the pillar. |
| Bibliography | |
| References | Edited and translated by S. Paranavitana in Epigraphia Zeylanica 3 (1928-33) 270–277, no. 28. |
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| Misc notes | |