44^ ^rOTJRNAL, ItiA.S. (ckylon). [Vol. XVIII). 
(4) As to the age of the inscriptions, they can be styled 
archaic " in a modified sense only ; inasmuch as the form 
of characters is too modern for the periods to which their 
face records profess to relate. 
Sword No. 1.* 
(5) Owing to abrasion a good deal of the record on this 
sword is quite indecipherable, except to such guesswork as 
appears in much of the transcript given in the I'aper. 
Moreover, the inscription, even where legible, has been 
misread in important parts by the Mudaliyar. 
A rendering of the text more nearly correct is ofFeredf i-^ 
1. ( (^^«l(59(5 §^ ) c5c335-25>3(5 g ^0 §C3 d)d ©^23 
( ) (g §3) 9® eQ33df [^esf] (§Q»£d) 
3, 899 9(5^c '203(559 (cf) §g 555(K) qQo (9^ag'5^ei (3>9 9ss (Sv9e0<es> 
4. ^05. 
(6) In line 1 the words before <^d are clearly ^® §cs, not 
as read by the Mudaliyar. Of the date only eees^eJ and 
8oo are clearly legible : but the word preceding Scs is almost 
certainly €e55, and that which follows apparently S8s3c^ ; 
they cannot be twisted into eD9 and f£»^^Q,')d. The date 
A.B. 1917" must tlierefore be finally rejected. Line 
2 commences with ©Qjq ; correctly 9q^ [o^sj eo©]. 
The sign after ^csj, line is more like the ira^ or titay pause 
stop of Sinhalese manuscripts, than ce.J 
* The Royal Sign Manual, a lar^e is incised on the left of the inscrip- 
tion between Iraha%da hodi (Sun and Moon flags), one of *' the ten insignia 
of the Kara we people" (see **The Kara-Goi Contest," p. 51), To right of 
the Moon flag " is a Naga, or cobra, ready to strike. 
t Braclicts are used for readings where letters are worn and partially 
illegible, but not really uncertain. Letters wholly illegible, which caunot 
be supplied, are represented hy points, one for each syllable. 
X As a matter of f ict the version of this inscription given, hut without 
text, in "The Kara-Ooi Contest "( p. 58) is an approximately accurate 
translation of the record on the sword. The translation as there given 
runs *' In the year of blessed Buddha 1143 the great King of Srie Lanka 
Kuia-akbo appointed Kaurawir Aditte Kuruwede Arsenillaitte Illenaga, 
second king, and presented a sword with the Royal Seal thereon in 
the faid year, full moon, 15th, Tuesduy, in the month Wesak at the 
Seneviraja Wasala in Jayawardena." 
Reading the date on the sword as " A.B. 1125 " (= a.d. 582), it tallies 
with the reign of Agbo, or Agra Bodhi I. (A.D. 564-598). This at once 
stamps the inscription as not a contemporaneous record ; since the writing 
is in a character many centuries later, and *^Jayawardhana pura " (Kot|e) 
was not occupied as a capital until the 14th century. 
