Mayilagastota Pillar Inscription of Kassapa V

The Mayilagastota Pillar Inscription of King Kassapa V is presently on the display at the Inscription Gallery of Colombo National Museum, Sri Lanka. 

The pillar was discovered by J. H. Dawson, an irrigation officer from a location in Mayilagastota village in Hambantota District (Ranawella, 1987; Ranawella, 2005; Wickremasinghe, 1928). It was later brought to the present location for conservation.

The inscription has been engraved on three sides of a quadrilateral pillar [(6 feet by 10 inches by 6.5 inches) Ranawella, 2005]. The first two sides contain thirty-four lines each and the third side has twelve lines of writing (Ranawella, 2005).

The script and the language of the inscription are Sinhala of the 10th century A.D. (Ranawella, 2005). It is not dated in a regnal year of a king but from the other facts, scholars have dated this inscription to the reign of King Kassapa V [(914-923 A.D.) Ranawella, 2005]. The purport of the record was to register a grant of certain immunities in respect of a village named Kapugama which had been dedicated to some Pirivena attached to a monastery named Maha Vehera (probably Tissamaharama) by a prince named Apa Mihindu, a son of a king styled Abha Salamevan and a queen named Sang-gon (Ranawella, 1987; Ranawella, 2005).

1) Ranawella, S., 1987. Mayilagastota Pillar Inscription. Rohana Research Journal: Vol.2. pp.61-68.

2) Ranawella, S. (Ed.), 2005. Sinhala inscriptions in the Colombo National Museum: Spolia Zeylanica. Vol 42. (2005). Department of National Museums, Sri Lanka. pp.64-69.

3) Wickremasinghe, D. M. D. Z., 1928. Epigraphia Zeylanica: Being lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon (Vol, II). Published for the government of Ceylon by Humphrey Milford. pp.57-63.

Location Map

This page was last updated on 31 January 2022
For a complete tourist map follow this link: Lankapradeepa Tourist Map