Success! Homage to the Bhagavant, the Buddha!

At the shrine hall (cetiyaghara), Cāntisirī — uterine sister of Great King Vāsiṭṭhīputta Siri-Cāntamūla of the Ikṣvāku family, favored by Mahāsena who has Virūpākṣa as his lord, sacrificer of the Agnihotra, the Agniṣṭoma, the Vājapeya and the Aśvamedha, giver of many times tens of millions of (pieces of) gold, hundreds of thousands of cows and hundreds of thousands of plows (of land), whose will is unimpeded in all matters; wife of the Great Talavara Vāsiṭṭhīputta Kandasiri of the Pūkīyas, Great-Talavara-wife, mother of Khandasāgaraṇṇaka — in order to increase the lifespan and leading to victory after victory of her son-in-law, King Māṭharīputta Siri-Vīrapurisadatta of the Ikṣvākus, and for the sake of bringing about well-being and happiness in both worlds and nirvāṇa for herself, at the base of the Great Shrine of the Bhagavant, the Perfect Buddha, who is ensconced in the excellent relic [or: element (i.e., nirvāṇadhātu)], for the great community of monks (consisting) of all good renunciants who come from various countries – having dedicated (the merit) to the past, future and present members of her family on both sides and to nikapanīka –, established in the possession of the Aparamahāvinaseliyas a stone pavillion equipped with everything and enclosed by a quadrangular compound.

In the eighteenth — 18th — year of King Siri-Vīrapurisadatta, in the sixth — 6th — fortnight of winter, on the fifth — 5th — day. May it be for the well-being and happiness of all beings.

This inscription has the particularity of writing many syllables with expected ā as a. Vogel corrects them by editing [ā], which should correspond to ā of our conventions but in fact indicates here an editorial addition, having the same function of [*x], when the editor supplies a missing anusvāra in pugiyāna (l. 1), or in his edition of other inscriptions (see for instance EIAD 30). Elsewhere, he uses the brackets [...] to mark damaged akṣaras that can still be read (cf. : 21, n. 2), which corresponds to our use of these brackets. In order to clarify as much as possible this inconsistent practice, we have thus marked Vogel’s suggested editorial additions with pointy brackets ⟨ ⟩ in our apparatus. Also, since the number of missing markers of vowel lengths is substantial, we have made only a minimum of corrections to the text.

First described and edited by : 14, 21-2 (E), and then by . Edited again, from the EI estampage, by : 227-8 and : 236-7. Re-edited here from Vogel's estampage and after autopsy of the stone slabs.