It is carved on the neck of a freestanding 11 feet (3.4 m) high red sandstone Varaha statue, a zoomorphic iconography of Vishnu avatar, and dated to the 6th century.

The inscription names king Toramana, ruler of the Alchon Huns, as ruling over Malwa ("governing the earth") and records that a Dhanyaviṣṇu is dedicating a stone temple to Narayana (Vishnu).

According to Radhakumud Mookerji, this means that the inscription was made after 510 CE when the Gupta king Bhanugupta and his local chief Goparaja had lost Malwa region after Toramana's invasion.

[1] The inscription was made by a Vishnu devotee named Dhanyaviṣṇu, the younger brother of the deceased Maharaja Mātṛviṣṇu, who is the same person who also erected a pillar in Eran.

Victorious is the god (Vishnu), who has the form of a Boar; who, in the act of lifting up the earth {out of the waters}, caused the mountains to tremble with the blows of {his} hard snout ; {and) who is the pillar {for the support) of the great house which is the three worlds !

Triumphant is the God who, in the likeness of a Boar, lifted up the earth; who, by blows of his hard snout, tossed the mountains aloft; the upholding pillar of that vast mansion, the threefold world.

In the first year that the auspicious Toramana, sovereign of great kings, of extended fame and wide-spread effulgence, is governing the earth; on the tenth day of Phalguna; even so, in the year and month and on the day of his reign before mentioned, during the first watch of the said lunar day as circumstantiated of the great grandson of Indra Vishnu, —a Brahman saint, of the illustrious Maitrayaniya monarchs, who took delight in his duties, celebrated solemn sacrifices, and well read in the scriptures; grandson of Varuna Vishnu, who imitated the excellencies of his father; son of Hari Vishnu, who was the counterpart of his sire, and derived prosperity to his race, that is to say, of the great king Mātṛviṣṇu, who was departed to elysium a most devout worshipper of Bhagavat, who, by the will of the Ordainer, acquired, like as a maiden sometimes elects her husband, the splendour of royalty; of fame recognized as far as the four oceans; of unimperfect wealth; victorious in many a battle over his enemies, — the younger brother, Dhanyaviṣṇu, who did him due obeisance, and was revered because of his favour; whose righteous deeds have been notably unintermitted;— with purpose to advance the merit of his mother and father, in his dominions, in this town of Erakaina [Eran] has caused this substantial temple of the adorable Narayana, in form a boar, affectionately attached to the world, to be constructed.