OB03041

The inscription is engraved on a slab found lying in what was at the time believed to be the Jētavanārāma area, not far from the ‘stone canoe’ (trough) on the outer circular road in Anurādhapura. This area has since been shown to be the Abhayagiri monastery complex. The slab was examined by Bell in 1890. The inscription consists of 55 lines in the Sinhalese alphabet of the 10th and early 11th centuries A.D. The surface of the slab is damaged, rending the inscription is partly illegible from line 19 to the end. The date of the inscription is given in lines 43 and 44 but the name of the king and the number of the regnal year are in great part obliterated. The text gives an account of the Abhayagiri-vihāra and a general survey of the charitable acts of Mahinda IV (called by his title Siri Saňgbo Abā), as well as the religious monuments he erected and repaired.