Mayilagastota Pillar Inscription

Abstract

This inscription was discovered about 110 years ago by an Irrigation officer named J. H. Dawson. In 1876 P. Goldschmidt published a short account of it with a portion of the text as read by him .1 Seven years later when E. Muller published his Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon, he included this record therein as No. 120, accompanied by an incomplete and faulty transcript of the record with a translation and a preliminary note.2 About thirty years later D. M. de Z. Wickremasinghe edited it for the first time for the Department of Archaeology in the Epigraphia Zeylanicd, Volume II, pages 57-63. He has made many improvements on Muller’s reading and interpretation, but he also has not correctly read some parts of the text, and has left the whole of side C undeciphered. S. Paranavitana, having read the inscription in full, published a revised edition of this record in 1973 in the Epigraphia Zeylancia Volume VI, pages 30-39. His account of the record as given therein reads as follows: ‘This pillar, which was discovered at Mayilagastota in the Magam Pattu of the H am bantota District, is now preserved in the Colombo Museum. Apart from that part of the pillar which serves as the base and is buried below ground, it stands to a height of 6 ft., including 6 in. taken up by the capital. Faces A and C are on an average 10 in., in breadth, B and D 6 in. Each of the faces A and B has thirty four lines of writing; face C, on which the writing ends, 2 ft. 1 in. from top, has only twelve lines of writing. Parallel lines, boldly incised, separate the lines of writing from one another. The letters vary from l in. to 1|- in. in size, and have been engraved legibly, but not to a considerable depth. A chip, 2 inches in height and an inch in breadth, has been broken away on the left edge of Face A, four inches from the top. The first letter of line 3 has been lost due to this. The writing has been blurred by weathering in some places.