Inscribed with 16 lines of Sanskrit in Old Kannada script by king Mangalesha, it is an important and partly disputed source of historic information about the times of Badami Chalukya, the dynasty, and his influential father Pulakeshin I.

Henry Cousens and early scholars presumed that it was always near the Mahakuta pushkarni (natural springs tank).

An inscription is engraved on it in Sanskrit language and Old Kannada script winding up from the base over a length of 38 inches (970 mm).

The pillar's primary aim is to declare the gift of an additional ten villages to the Shiva temple called Makutesvaranatha, one that already existed in 602 CE.

In the lineage of the Chalukyas, — who are of the Manavya gotra; who are Haritiputras; who are possessed of unrepulsed energy, strength, intellect, splendour, heroism, firmness, and vigour; who meditate on the feet of (their) parents; who have kindled the sacrificial fire according to due rite; who gratify supplicants according to (their) desires; (and) who generate the religious merit of many pious actions, there was born a king, the illustrious Jayasingha the chief of favorites, who, like (the god) Maghavan (Indra), was possessed of virtuous qualities, (and) who in affluence resembled (the god) Vaigravana (Kubera).

Resembling him in virtuous qualities and heroism and affluence, from (him who was) a very receptacle of brilliance, energy, valour, memory, intellect, splendour, polity, and refinement, there was born one who was possessed of an auspicious name, the king called Ranaraga, who by (his) fondness for war elicited the affection of his own people, and-caused vexation of mind to (his) enemies.

Of that king, possessed of virtuous qualities resembling (those of his father), the dear son (was) the king who had the names of Satyasraya, the favourite of fortune and of the earth, and Ranavikrama; whose body was purified by the religious merit of ablutions performed after celebrating the agnishthoma, agnichayana, vajapeya, bahusuvarna, paundarika, and ashvamedha-sacrifices; who was descended from Hiranyagarbha (Brahman); who accepted the admonitions of the elders; who was good to Brahmins; who was a speaker of the truth; (and) who never broke (his) promises.

The elder (was) he who was fond of (his) name of Paru-Ranaparakrama, which was rendered illustrious by a multitude of most excellent virtues; who was endowed with sovereignty acquired by the strength and prowess of his own arm; whose choice feet were rubbed and scrubbed by the jeweled diadems of hostile kings (bowing down before him); (and) whose body was purified by the religious merit of ablutions performed after celebrating the bahusuvarna and agnishthoma sacrifices.

When he, having acquired victory by crushing the array of many hostile kings commencing with those of Vanga, Anga, Kalinga, Vatttura, Magadha, Madraka, Kerala, Gangs, Mushaka, Pandya, Dramila, Choliya, Aluka, and Vaijayanti, had ascended to the skies, there was (his) younger brother, the king who has the appellations of Uru-Ranavikranta, and Mangalesha, and chief of favorites of fortune and of the earth; who meditates on the feet of gods, Brahmins, and spiritual preceptors; who is the fall-moon of the sky which is the race of the Chalukyas; who is endowed with polity, refinement, knowledge, liberality, kindness, and civility; who is a, king resembling a group of water-lilies, being an object of desire to crowds of warriors, being surrounded by young damsels, being full of charming qualities, being enlightened by (his) excellent religious merit, and being the abode of majesty, just as the group of water-lilies is an object of desire to crowds of birds, is surrounded by female bees, is full of blossoms, is caused to expand by the rays of the sun, and is the abode of (the goddess) 'Sri; who is as pleasing as a group of water-lilies; whose heroism has for (its) faultless eye (his) servants the spies who are intent upon scorching up the whole aggregate of the fear, (that displays itself) in the multitude of the faces of (his) enemies, who has exterminated (other) lion-like kings with the majesty and vigour and speed of (his) forearm; (and) who is well skilled in counsel, in (the selection of) spies and messengers, in (arranging) peace and war, in encamping and in moving forward, in attacking in the rear, in the invasion of territories, in the construction of fortresses, and in the apportioning of honours among country-people and townsfolk.

And he, — having set (his) heart upon the conquest of the northern region, (and) having conquered king Buddha, (and) having taken possession of all his substance, (and), with an eager desire to set up a pillar of victory of (his) prowess on the bank of (the river) Bhagirathi, having determined in (his) mind that in the first place indeed there should be set up the prowess" of a pillar of victory of religion, calls (to his presence) the royal lady named Durlabha(devi), his own father's wife [stepmother], who is fit and worthy to follow (his) lead in the matter; who, like Damayanti, was a most devoted wife; who was the ornament of the Batpura family; (and) whose body has been purified by participating, in the rewards of a variety of religious actions, and informs (her) of this (assignment of authority The wealth of the Kalatsuri has been expended in the idol-procession of the temple of (Our) own god.

And (therefore) this property, which at (their) own idol-procession was assigned by our father [Pulikesin] and elder brother [Kirtivarman] to (the god) Makutesvaranatha, — supplement it, by (bestowing the) enjoyment of the ten villages headed by Sriyambataka, (.... lost ....), Vrihimukhagrama, Kesuvolala, Kendoramanya, and Nandigrama.

Accordingly, in the fifth glorious year of (his) constantly augmenting reign, in the current Siddhartha (sarkivatsara), on the full-moon day of (the month) Vailiakha, (in commemoration of the grant of the villages in question) he has set up this Dharma Jayastambha (column of victory of religion).

[1] George Michell and others questioned this, and suggested that the pillar may be referring to an older temple with the same name, one mentioned by Fleet and Cousens in their footnotes of 1880s publications.

According to Ramesh, Kirtivarman may have conquered only the Alupas in coastal Karnataka, the Banavasi Kadambas and the Mauryas of Konkan and he dismisses the rest as exaggeration.

Furthermore, other inscriptions of this same dynasty, including one issued during the rule of his own son Pulakesin II contradict this wildly exaggerated claims.

Thus, many parts of this inscription cannot be taken at face value or being even partially true, but reflect mere "imagination" and "fabrication" by the beneficiary of the gift and his scribe.

Along with about 30 ruins of Hindu temples that exist in Mahakuta, and numerous more in nearby sites of Badami, Aihole and others, it helps fix the relative decades and century for innovations that unfolded.