Dear Ven. Nyanatusita,
I was at the library today and found another English translation of the Dīpavaṃsa by Bimala Churn Law (The Chronicle of the Island of Ceylon or the Dīpavaṃsa, published by the Ceylon Historical Journal vol. 7 July 1957 to April 1958, nos. 1-4 and as a book in 1959.
He translates the verse in question on page 163 as
"Giving up the original state, name, characteristic, decoration and decent acts, they made it differently."
The sentence refers to the texts in the previous verse.
He has a footnote on decoration (parikkhāra) referring to Childers' definition of as "The furniture of nouns and their genders, niceties of composition"
Hope that helps,
Best wishes,
Bryan