This inscription is engraved on one side of a stone slab, which stands at the foot of the flight of steps leading to the main shrine of the dēvāle at Alutnuvara. A related inscription is engraved on the other side of the slab (IN03205). The slab is situated to the right of the steps as one ascends. It is badly weatherworn and only the lower part of each face remains legible. Another inscribed slab stands on the other side of the steps but its inscription has been totally obliterated, apart from a few lines at the end (IN03207). The slabs were discovered in the late nineteenth century and their inscriptions were first published by H. C. P. Bell in 1892 (Report on the Kegalla District of the Province of Sabaragamuwa, pp. 80–81).
The present inscription contains a declaration by the ruler of Highlands that neither he nor any other member of the royal family will cause loss of property, limbs or life, to the people of the Satara Kōraḷē. No regnal year or date is found in the preserved portion of the record but it does state that it was set up Vikramabāhu Ǟpā at the command of King Senāsammata Vikramabāhu. Bell took this king to be Vikramabāhu III, who reigned from Gampaḷa in the middle of the fourteenth century, but this supposition was proved to be incorrect when H. W. Codrington proved that Senāsammata Vikramabāhu was in fact an independent ruler of the Hill Country who flourished in the latter half of the fifteenth century, his reign beginning in 1474 or 1475 at the latest. The identity of the individual called Vikramabāhu Ǟpā, who set up the edict on Senāsammata Vikramabāhu’s behalf, is not clear. In the medieval period, the title ǟpā was usually reserved for the heir-apparent. It would therefore appear that Senāsammata Vikramabāhu had an heir who was also called Vikramabāhu, although this would conflict with Codrington’s survey of the documentary evidence, which seems to show that the king’s successor was in fact named Jayavīra. The present inscription appears to be a response to the text engraved on the other side of the slab (IN03205), which contains a declaration of allegiance by the inhabitants of Satara Kōraḷē to the kingdom of the Highlands (Kanda-uḍakaṭṭuva).
. . . . . . So long as [they] conduct themselves in accordance with [the terms of] the letter dispatched to-day, sending and presenting women [as hostages], saying: ‘We, all of us, the host of the Satara Kōraḷe, including . . . . . . Yāpā Bhanḍāra, Doḍamvela Parākkramayā, Varāva Bhanḍāra and Gaṁpaḷa Bhanḍāra, shall conduct ourselves according to this agreement—so long shall there be no loss of property, loss of limbs or loss of life, inflicted or caused to be inflicted with regard to the aforesaid host of the Satara Kōraḷe by ourselves or any one whomsoever belonging to our family or our descendants, even, after due inquiry from the host, when any person of the aforesaid host shall have committed an offence.
To the effect that this stone inscription was set up by the order of His Majesty King Senāsammata Vikramabāhu, having invoked the Tooth Relic and the Three Gems and [also] having invoked Śakra, Brahma and other gods, and in order that there shall be no offence from Us to any person of the host who commits no offence—We, Vikramabāhu Äpāṇa‚ [testify].
Other versions
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . all who have held the sovereignty and the people of the Four Kóralés. In the provisions of this law . . . . . . . so long as it continues . . . . . . . . . . . . to the people of the said Four Kóralés . . . . . . having taken security from the people that they will not transgress [the compact], and having sworn by the Tooth-relic of the all-knowing one (Buddha), the three gems, and the gods Ṣakra and Brahma, in order to ensure [its] faultless observance, [this is] compact [agreed on].
In proof thereof I, Vikrama Báhu Ẹpá, have caused to this rock inscription to be made at the command of King Vikrama Báhu.