This inscription is engraved on the perpendicular face of a rock situated about 40 or 50 yards (35 or 45 m) to the north-east of the Ambastala Dāgäba at Mihintaḷē. The epigraph has been seriously damaged by the action of the weather and possibly also by the destructive attentions of vandals, to the extent that large portions of the writing are now totally effaced and many letters are not very clear. However, with help from Sylvain Lévi, Senarath Paranavitana identified part of the inscription as a copy of the Trikāyastava, a Sanskrit hymn consisting of three Sragdharāverses adoring the three bodies of the Buddha and a fourth verse in the same metre embodying the wish of the reciter. Lévi published a version of the Trikāyastava, restored to Sanskrit from a Chinese transliteration, in 1896, and another version was published by Baron A. von Staël-Holstein from a Tibetan codex in 1911. Neither version was perfect: the Tibetan version was missing the fourth verse and, although the Chinese version was complete, Lévi was unable to recognise certain words due to the fact that the Chinese alphabet does not allow for precise transliteration of Sanskrit. Nonetheless, using these two version together, Paranavitana was able to read the Trikāyastava in the Mihintaḷē inscription, filling in those portions which are missing on the stone. The Trikāyastava starts towards the close of the sixteenth line of the inscription and is continued over the next two and three-quarter lines. The first sixteen lines of the inscription also appear to be in Sanskrit verse and may include other religious hymns. However, the inscription’s poor state of preservation means that none of these verses can be deciphered. Equally difficult to make out are the final lines of the inscription, which contain some verses in the śloka metre. These verses appear to give an account of the person who had the epigraph engraved on the stone and his religious aspirations in doing this meritorious act. His name is not preserved but he seems to have been a monk.
[Verse 1] I worship that incomparable Dharmmakāya of the Buddhas which, though not one is also not many, which is the support of the great prosperity causing the welfare of one’s own self as well as of others; which is not being and is also not non-being; which, like the sky, is of equal disposition to all, is of inconceivable nature, is stainless, unchanging, auspicious; which is unequalled but is also equal, is all-pervading but above every possible determination and is to be comprehended by each one for himself.
[Verse 2] I here do worship that Sambhogakāya of the Buddhas which is transcendental and unthinkable; which causes to spread in the midst of assemblies, for the pleasure of those endowed with wisdom, the great superhuman power of their [i.e. the Buddhas’] own, the result of hundreds of good deeds; which flows forth over the whole world and is of unceasing eloquent voice [proclaiming] the true doctrine and which is the foundation of the great empire of righteousness.
[Verse 3] I worship, by all sorts of means, that Nirmmāṇakāya of the Buddhas which, for the purpose of ripening [the intellect of] beings, sometimes shines radiant as the fire and which, sometimes again, as in the Enlightenment and in [the turning of] the Wheel of the Law, appears tranquil; which exists in divers forms; which assuages the dread of the three forms of existence; which goes to the ten directions and is of great benefit [to beings].