Person: Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe

The inscribed pillar was found at Tim̆biriväva, where it was examined by the Archaeological Commissioner H. C. P. Bell between 1898 and 1900. Tim̆biriväva is a small village in the Pahala Kälǟgam Tulāna of Vilacciya Kōrole, about twenty-three miles to the west-south-west of Anurādhapura. Written in Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th century A.D., the inscription covers three sides of the pillar and half of the fourth. It badly worn and illegible in places. The inscription is dated to the first year in the reign of Kassapa IV, called here by his biruda Kasub Siri San̆g-bo, and records immunities granted to the village Mibäḷi-gama attached to the Māḍbiyan-pirivena. The first twelve lines are almost word-for-word identified to those of the Moragoḍa pillar inscription of Kassapa IV (IN03059), which is dated fifteen years later.

The inscription was found at Noccipotāna, about one and a half miles from Galegama in Egoḍapattuva in the Tamankaḍuva district, some sixty miles south-east of Anurādhapura. It consists of 46 lines in the Sinhalese alphabet of 10^th century A.D. engraved on three sides of a stone pillar. The inscription records a grant of immunities to the village of Mun̆uneḷuva-gama and is dated to the ninth year of the reign of Abhā Salamevan. It is therefore seven years later than the Kirigallǟva inscription of the same king (IN03065). Wickremasinghe suggests that the biruda Abhā Salamevan refers in this instance to Udaya I.

The inscription is engraved on the four sides of a stone pillar discovered by Bell in 1892. The pillar was found in Kirigallǟva, a hamlet in Kaḍawat Kōrale, about twenty miles north-north-east of Anuradhapura. The inscription consists of 57 lines of writing in the Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th century A.D. It records the granting of immunities to a village called Itnaru-gama in Angam-kuḷiya (a district in the Northern Quarter) by decree of His Majesty Abhā Salamevan in the second year of his reign. Wickremasinghe suggests that the biruda Abhā Salamevan refers in this instance to Udaya I, who reigned from 901 to 912 A.D.

H. C. P. Bell  discovered the present inscription in 1910 in what was then believed to be the Jētavanārāma dāgaba. This dāgaba has since been shown to be part of the Abhayagiri vihara. The record consists of 16 lines of the top side of a slab, which has been reused to form one of the flag-stones of the pavement at the south altar of the dāgaba. Written in the Southern Brāhmī alphabet of the latter part of the 2nd or the first half of the 3rd century A.D., it records donations from the king Maḷu-Tisa to the Utara-maha-ceta, identified with the Abhayuttara-mahā-cētiya of the Abhayagiri-vihāra, as well as water regulations.

Engraved on a large stone slab, the inscription was discovered by Goldschmidt in 1875 at Vēvälkäṭiya, a small village in Pahala Kǟňdā Tulāna in Kǟňdā Kōrale, about 21 miles to the north-east of Anurādhapura. It was subsequently examined by Müller in 1883, who noted that “Wewelkaeṭiya” is situated “11 miles from Madawacci on the Horowapotāna road”, and then by Bell in 1891. The inscription consists of 45 lines in the Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th and early 11th centuries A.D. It deals with the administration of criminal justice in the dasagama of Kibi-nilam district in Amgam-kuḷiya in the Northern Quarter. The exact meaning of the term ‘dasagama’ is unclear. Wickremasinghe suggests that it may refer to a system of dividing the country into groups of ten (dasa) villages (gama) for administrative purposes. Despite the uncertainty around this term, the inscription gives us information concerning the Sinhalese law relating to crimes and wrongs and the administrative methods that prevailed in the 10th and 11th centuries.