The first effectual study of the sandstone fragments was by the Dutch epigrapher Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern. He succeeded in deciphering a few words, including "salāgalalasayanara", "ya-āmānavana", "kesarabharala" and "yadalama", but was unable to identify the language in which they were written. He gave the probable date of the inscription as around 1230. Another Dutch Indologist, N.J. Krom, judged from a rubbing of the Stone published in 1848 that the script resembled that of the Majapahit Empire but dated from a period somewhat earlier than 1360.