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Sri Lanka History

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PRE- HISTORY 
During the last one million years, when humans are known to have existed in various parts of India, Sri Lanka was connected to the sub-continent on numerous occasions. The rise and fall of sea level (due to cold/warm fluctuations in the global climate) determined the periodicities of these connections, the last separation having occurred at ca. 7000 BP. There is secure evidence of settlements in Sri Lanka by 130,000 years ago, probably by 300,000 BP and possibly by 500,000 BP or earlier.

• The Lost Continent of Lemuria (The lost continent of Lemuria (Mu) was originally referenced in the works of several 19th century scientists.  Observing similarities between the geology and fauna of India and Madagascar, some scientists theorized that there once existed a huge land mass (Lemuria) in the Indian Ocean that spanned the two locales.  As with Atlantis, the days of Lemuria came to an end with a cataclysmic natural disaster that sank the continent into the sea.)
• Prehistoric basis for the rise of civilisation in Sri Lanka and southern India (Batadomba-lena cave, Sri Lanka (29,000-9,500 B.C.), where the ramains of prehistoric humans have been found)
• ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF TECTONIC ACTIVITY (AND TSUNAMIS) IN SRI LANKA(The gravels with artifacts are today at considerable heights above the present sea level: 15 metres at Bundala-Patirajawela dated to 125,000 years ago and 8 metres at Bundala-Wellegangoda dated to 80,000 years before the present. Occurrences of ancient coastal gravels inland around Mankulam and on Aruakallu at 60-80 metres and at Minihagalkanda in Yala at 40 metres have yet to be scientifically dated. At least some of the ancient coastal gravels mentioned above suspiciously resemble residues from past tsunamis)
• Pre- and protohistoric settlement in Sri Lanka (By S. U. Deraniyagala, Director-General of Archaeology, Sri Lanka)
• Early Man and the Rise of Civilisation in Sri Lanka: the Archaeological Evidence (By S. U. Deraniyagala, Director-General of Archaeology, Sri Lanka: It is therefore possible that humans were present in Sri Lanka from at least as early as one million years ago. There are ancient coastal sands in the north and southeast of the island which could be as old as 250,000 BP or even 700,000-500,000 BP. These deposits may contain evidence of human habitation, a prime research objective for the future. )
• Prehistoric and early historic burial sites of Lanka (Sri Lanka's North-Central and North-Western Regions are dotted with numerous burial sites that are believed to be well over 2000 years old'. These prehistoric and early historic sites have revealed two distinct burial customs, namely urn burials (where the dead were placed in huge urns and interred) and cist burials (where the ashes of the deceased were interred in large tombs hidden under the ground)
• A Book: The Prehistory of Sri Lanka: an Ecological Perspective (By S. U. Deraniyagala,Director-General of Archaeology, Sri Lanka: memoir volume 8 of the Archaeological Survey of Sri Lanka, is the first comprehensive, in-depth account to have been written on the subject. It is the definitive text on the prehistoric archaeology of the island. )
• Pallemalala discovery throws new light on Lanka's pre-historic culture (A major archaeological breakthrough that could shed new light on the physical type and lifestyle of the island's pre-historic population has been accomplished by a team of Sri Lankan Archaeologists )
• Pallemalala: Several thousand years ago Here they lived and died ( Several thousand years ago, a group of pre- historic people set up camp at a dried-up lagoon bed in Hambantota. Here, they lived, hunted and fished for food and upon death they were buried under the very same ground. ) 
• NASA Images 1,750,000 Year Old Man-Made Bridge between India and Sri Lanka ( Space images taken by NASA reveal a mysterious ancient bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. The recently discovered bridge currently named as Adam4s Bridge is made of chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long. The bridge4s unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge4s age is also almost equivalent.) 
• The ports of ancient Sri Lanka: Jambukola and Mahatittha ( Jambukola and Mahatittha are two ports frequently alluded to in the Mahavamsa unfolding the earliest historical eras of the Island. Presumably the origin of these ports are not datable, however, it could be assumed without any predilection, that they were in existence long before the colonization of the Island by Aryans in the sixth century BC. ) 
• Godavaya: glorious harbour in the maritime Silk Route 2nd century AD ( It seems almost like a modern harbour - but all this happened as far back as the 2nd century AD in Godapavata Pattana, west of Hambantota. Evidence is being unearthed every day to prove Godavaya's importance in the maritime Silk Route, with excavations and research revealing connections from China in the East to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean in the West. ) 
• Guharamaya: a cave of stone age man ( About four miles to the north of Rambukkana, in the heart of a village on the plain beside a plantation of jak, is a curious structure of stone, like the table of some giant of the good old days. It is called by local folk, Maliyadeva Guharamaya, the dwelling of the last great Initiate of Buddhism in our island. The dolmen at Padavigampola is the only known example in Ceylon of structural work by Stone Age man. )
• India - Sri Lanka: Search for a common past (The gempits in the Ratnanapura area have also revealed the fossilised remains of the lower jaws and teeth of a Ceylon hippopotamus and rhinoceros. The lower jawbone of the hippopotamus reveals six incisor teeth, whereas the hippopotamus that survives in Africa has only four incisors. The extinct Ceylon hippopotamus has been named the Hexaprotodon sinhaleyus Deraniyagala 1937. The change in climate  from heavy rainfall that fed numerous large rivers and lakes to a more moderate rainfall that reduced the island's waterbodies  was probably responsible for the extinction of the world's second heaviest land mammal in the island, thought Deraniyagala Senior)

• Sri Lanka's History : In Danger of Disappearing (Environmentalists warn that unchecked vandalism and neglect is destroying thousands of ancient rock caves in Sri Lanka dating back to 30,500 BC, with scores of Buddha statues rendered headless, and paintings defaced. One of the most priceless relics here is a female body remains in Bulathsinhala, in Kalutara district in the Western province, which testifies to the consumption of rice, maize and salt. This body remains embedded in a rock dates back to 30,500 BC and is considered the world's oldest proof of consumption of rice, maize and salt.)
   

The first major legendary reference to the island is found in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana, thought to have been written around 500 B.C. The Ramayana tells of the conquest of Lanka in 3000 B.C. by Rama, an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Rama's quest to save his abducted wife, Sita, from Ravanna, the demon god of Lanka, is, according to some scholars, a poetic account of the early southward expansion of Brahmanic civilization. 

The most valuable source of knowledge for the legends and historical heritage of Sri Lanka is the Mahavamsa (Great Genealogy or Dynasty), a chronicle compiled in Pali, in the sixth century. Vijaya is the central legendary figure in the Mahavamsa. He was the grandson of an Indian princess Suppadevi from Vanga in northern India who had been abducted by an amorous lion, Simha, and son of their incestuous and half-leonine offspring, Sinhabahu & Sinhasivali. Along with 700 of his followers, perhaps from Kalinga (Orissa), Vijaya arrived in Lanka, and established himself as ruler with the help of Kuveni, a local demon-worshiping princess. Although Kuveni had given birth to two of Vijaya's children, she was banished by the ruler, who then arranged a marriage with a princess from Madurai in southeastern India. Kuveni's offspring are the folkloric ancestors of the present day Veddahs.

READ Great Dynasty of Sri Lanka (B.C. 543 - 1815)

• SRI LANKA - HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE ( covers more than 2,000 years. Known as Lanka--the "resplendent land"--in the ancient Indian epic Ramayana, the island has numerous other references that testify to the island's natural beauty and wealth. Islamic folklore maintains that Adam and Eve were offered refuge on the island as solace for their expulsion from the Garden of Eden )
• The complete book: A SHORT HISTORY OF LANKA by Humphry William Codrington published in 1929 (The text of the whole 50,000 word book was translated to HTML by Rhajiv Ratnatunga in Pittsburgh. PA USA )
• Shift of Sinhala Civilisation: From North to South (The civilisation lasted for about 1500 years and was initially centred in Anuradhapura. As a result of Dravidian invasions, the capital was later shifted to Polonnaruwa. Following the sudden collapse of this great civilisation then based in Polonnaruwa in the 13th century, the Sinhalese drifted towards the south-west with their rulers establishing capitals in major cities such as Dambadeniya, Yapahuva, Gampola and Kotte. )
• Hiuen Tsiangs description of Sri Lanka ( Between the years 629 and 645 AD the famous Chinese monk Hiuen Tsiang travelled through Central Asia and India to visit Buddhist sacred places ) 

• Ancient ports in Sri Lanka (Jambukola and Mahatittha are two ports mentioned frequently in the Mahavamsa, in its resume of the history of the island. Sri Lankans are not totally of Indian descendants and Aryan immigrants only provided a cross-cultural impact on Sri Lanka, which already had an advanced civilization. )
• Ancient ports in Sri Lanka: Mathoddam (Mannar), Urkavalthurai (Kayts) & Tiruconamalai (Mathoddam Port in present day Mannar, is first mentioned in connection with the landing of Vijayas second wife. Undoubtedly this port was known to mariners and merchants of India even in the pre-Aryan era.)
• Medical feats of the ancient Sinhalese (The Sinhalese medical tradition harkens back to well over 2000 years. Besides a number of medical discoveries that are only now being acknowledged by western medicine, the ancient Sinhalese are perhaps responsible for introducing the concept of hospitals to the world. )
• Hospitals in ancient Sri Lanka (The archaeological evidence as well as references in chronicles and literature indicate the existence of four types of hospitals during the period of the Rajarata civilisation. Their gradual growth cannot be traced in stages but it is certain that towards the late Anuradhapura period they had attained a fairly advanced stage. )
• Ancient Sri-Lankan trade and cultural links with China (The earliest authenticated reference to Sri Lankan links with China is made by the Roman historian and naturalist Pliny the elder who fell victim to the catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Pliny chronicles an account of a Sri Lankan embassy to Rome in the reign of emperor Claudius Caesar (10 B.C. - 54 B.C.))
• 2000 years of China-Sri Lanka relations : Literary and numismatic evidence (Literary records in China have established that the earliest contact with Sri Lanka was a mission from China to Sri Lanka during the Han dynasty 206 BC - 220 AD. It took place in the reign of Emperor P'ing 1-6 AD.)
• The arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka (In BC 306, (i.e., 237 years after the demise of the Buddha), the Arhat Mahinda, the illustrious apostle of Buddhism met King Devanampiyatissa (307-267 BC) of Sri Lanka, atop the Mihintale rock..)
• Ancient Rajarata  
  • Economy and politics of ancient Rajarata (The evolution of the islands economy commenced with migration to Sri Lanka from the Indian subcontinent, which according to former Commissioner of Archaeology Dr. Siran Deraniyagala occurred from around 1000 BC. According to him, migrants arrived attracted by water and prime agricultural land.)
  • Small Tank Heritage of Rajarata (Robert Knox (1681 ) gives a graphic description of Every town (village) has one of these ponds (tanks) of which there is a great number, the banks of which are in length above a mile, some less - not all of a size He does not mention sluices and spillways, but he states that they cut a gap in one end of the tank in order to draw water for irrigating the corn (rice).)
  • Lunuganvehera and Moragahakande: Will history repeat itself? (The historical chronicle Culavamsa refers to Dvadahassaka desa and Aththasahassaka rata, the regions of eight thousand villages and twelve thousand villages, respectively, obviously the reference being to tank villages. To this day, even though the vast majority of the ancient small tanks in the dry zone have long been abandoned in the face of the cruel jungle tide, the name of a village is often synonymous with that of a village tank.)
  • China's ceramic trade with ancient Rajarata (By Prof. W. I. Siriweera: The earliest mission originated from China during the reign of Emperor P'ing (1-6 A.D.) of the Han Dynasty who sent a delegation of Chinese officials to several South Asian countries including Ssu-Cheng-Pu which can be identified as Sinhadipa, one of the ancient names of Sri Lanka. )
• Ancient Cities  
  • The lost cities of Ruhuna (Locating places mentioned in ancient chronicles is not an easy task. Where there is no scientific way of locating them on the ground except on the basis of physical evidence of stone inscriptions in situ or other archaeological evidence: often their locations have been based on informed gushes depending on the knowledge of the interpreter, but have not always stood the test of time.)
  • Tissamaharamaya - the modernised monument of Magama (The Maha Aramaya and the Mahacetiya in Magama in the deep South of Ruhunu Rata was built by King Kavantissa's father of the heroic king Dutugemunu and his younger brother Saddhatissa.)
  • The Buried Kingdom of Kotte (It was the capital of our island from 1415-1565 AD predominated by the long reign of Parakrama Bahu VI, the last Sinhala king who ruled a unified Lanka.)
  • Kotte: The capital of the Sinhalese Kings from the early 15th to the late 16th century (Kotte was built in the 14th century by a scion of a powerful family of Kerala ancestry Nissanka Alagakkonara in a village called Darugama, served as the capital of the Sinhalese Kings from the early 15th to the late 16th century before it fell into the hands of the Portuguese imperialists with the death of its last ruler, the puppet king Don Juan Dharmapala who willed his kingdom to Philip I of Portugal in 1597.)
  • Sri Jayawardhanapura Kotte - Capital of sri Lanka(c. 1400-1565 A. D.) (Kotte, as its name indicates was originally a fortified city; the word Kotte, is derived from the Malayalam word Kottei (fortress).)
  • Yapahuwa -The Chinese connection (The Yapahuwa rock and its surrounding area became the capital of the island for a short time in the 13th century. It is known that King Buvanaikabahu 1 (1273-1284) made this rock, rising loftily out of the outskirts of Kurunegala his capital. There is no mention of anything about Yapahuwa beyond 13th century in Sri Lankan historical sources.)
  • History of Kandy : The Senkadagalapura
  • Jaffnapatnum
  • Beruwela  a multi-faceted historic city (Beruwela, according to some historians derived its name from two Sinhala words, viz. Be (lower) and Ruwala (sail), which denotes the place where the sails of the Arab merchant vessels were lowered.)
• The So-called Tamil Kingdom of Jaffna - Prof S. Ranwella ( SPUR web site )
• Beginnings of tamil rule in ceylon (When Suratassa was regning at Anuradhapura the two Tamils Sena and Guttaka "sons of a freighter who brought horse hither" conquered the king "at the head of a great army." They wer evidently from South India and were in the Island as dealers in horses like many other merchants who frequented the country.)
• Forgotten ties - Sinhala-Tamil relations in the past ( The Tamil presence in Sri Lanka goes back to very early times. Ancient Brahmi inscriptions in Sinhala Prakrit dated to the 3rd century B.C.-1st century A.D. make reference to Tamil householders (Dameda gahapatikana) and others of Tamil origin. )
• READ Great Dynasty of Sri Lanka (B.C. 543 - 1815)

- A list of European Rulers of Sri Lanka

- The Portuguese in Lanka (1505-1658)

• The Portuguese in Sri Lanka (1505-1658)( "There is in our harbour of Colombo a race of people fair of skin and comely withal. They don jackets of iron and hats of iron: they rest not a minute in one place: they walk here and there; they eat hunks of stone and drink blood, they give two or three pieces of gold and silver for one fish or one lime; the report their cannon is louder than thunder when it bursts upon the rock Yugandhara. Their cannon balls fly many a gawwa and shatter fortresses of granite.")
• The Portuguese in Sri Lanka (1505-1658)( In 1505 a Portuguese fleet commanded by Lourenço de Almeida was blown into Colombo by adverse winds. Almeida received a friendly audience from the king of Kotte, Vira Parakrama Bahu. )
• The Portuguese in Sri Lanka (The Portuguese possessions in Sri Lanka were a part of their Estado da India. The administrative structure of the Kotte kingdom was retained. Sri Lanka was divided into four dissavanies, or provinces, each headed by a dissava.)
• WHY NO APOLOGY OR REPARATIONS FOR SRI LANKA? ( The Pope has recently gone round the world and apologised for the great destruction the Catholic Church has caused to other cultures. Factually speaking, this includes, horrors such as: invasion, war,rape, murder, genocide and destruction of unique architecture and priceless temples.)
• The Portuguese Cultural Imprint on Sri Lanka ( The Portuguese era marked theend of medieval Sri Lanka and the beginning of modern Sri Lanka. It changed the island's orientation away from India and gave it a unique identity moulded by almost 450 years of Western influence due to the presence of three successive European powers.)
• Sri Lanka Portuguese Creoles(  Sri Lanka Portuguese Creole was the successful solution to the intercommunication problems that arose when the Portuguese and Sri Lankans came into contact from the sixteenth century. The Creole served as a lingua franca, the language for external communication and trade purposes, for about three and a half centuries, until English took over this role. )
• JOAO RIBEIRO(1641 to 1659 ) ( Joao Ribeiro was a lad of nineteen when he came to Ceylon to serve in the Portuguese army. He rose to the rank of Captain and was in the thick of fighting during the next eighteen years both against the forces of Rajasinha II, the Kandyan king, and the Hollanders who dislodged the Portuguese, capturing Colombo in 1656 and Jaffna in 1658. )
• First Recorded Earthquake in Sri Lanka: 14th April, 1615( On the evening of April 14th, 1615, a strong earthquake struck Sri Lanka unleashing widespread damage and casualties in western sections of the island, most notably in Colombo.Knowledge of this earthquake is derived from a 4 page pamphlet published in Lisbon in 1616 )
• Dona Catherina: the last empress of Lanka( Dona Catherina (Princess Kusumasana) was for all running through her veins practical purposes a foreign lady with Portuguese culture. Konappu Bandara (Don Juan) assumed the name of Vimaladharmasuriya I, (l592- 16O4) marrying Dona Catherina and thereby strengthening his claim to the throne. )
• Don Phillip, Don John and Dona Catherina of Sri Lanka( Both Don Phillip and Don John (Konappu Bandara) were trained in warfare in Goa by the Portuguese while Dona Catherina was named in the niceties of Royal etiquette and court craft. The Portuguese decide to Conquer Kandy with Don Phillip to be installed as King with Don John as his General, who were both expected to marry Portuguese wives, so that they could have a control over them and were taken to Mannar for the expedition.)
• READ Great Dynasty of Sri Lanka (B.C. 543 - 1815)

In 1592 an English privateer attacked the Portuguese off the southwestern port of Galle. This action was England's first recorded contact with Sri Lanka. A decade later, Ralph Fitch, traveling from India, became the first known English visitor to Sri Lanka. The English did not record their first in-depth impressions of the island until the mid-seventeenth century, when Robert Knox, a sailor, was captured when his ship docked for repairs near Trincomalee. The Kandyans kept him prisoner between 1660 and 1680. After his escape, Knox wrote a popular book entitled An Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon in which he described his years among his "decadent" captors.

• THE BRITISH IN SRI LANKA (A compact summary of the British colonial period of Sri Lanka)
• The British Occupation in Sri Lanka (1796-1948)( After skirmishing with both the Dutch and French, the British took Trincomalee in 1796 and proceeded to expel the Dutch from the island.)
• The Fall of Sri Wickrema Rajasinha and The Kandyan Convention  (The main reason for the fall of the Kandyan kingdom was the disunity between the king and his chiefs. While the king tried to curb the growing power of the chiefs, the chiefs, in their turn, attempted to work out their plans for the destruction of the king.)
• The complete book: Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon. (1845 - 1853) by Samuel White Baker ( Translated to HTML by Rhajiv Ratnatunga in Pittsburgh. PA USA )
• A Visit to Ceylon (1881) by Ernst Haeckel - The electronic version ( This the Englisch translation from a German original. ) 
• Surrender of Kandy in 1815( On February 18, 1815 Sri Wickrema Raja Sinha, the Last King of Kandy was captured by Eknaligoda one of his chieftains and handed over to the British. The king had been hiding in the house of a subordinate Headman.)
• The Kandy Mail Coach : the first Mail Coach in Asia (In December 1831, a prospectus was issued of the proposal to establish a Mail Coach Service between Colombo and Kandy. This provided for two light four-wheeled horse-carriages to run daily between the two termini, commencing simultaneously in both directions at four a.m.)
• READ Great Dynasty of Sri Lanka (B.C. 543 - 1815)

The British negotiated the island's dominion status with the leader of the State Council, D.S. Senanayake, during World War II. Senanayake was also minister of agriculture and vice chairman of the Board of Ministers. The negotiations ended with the Ceylon Independence Act of 1947, which formalized the transfer of power. Senanayake was the founder and leader of the United National Party (UNP), a partnership of many disparate groups formed during the Donoughmore period, including the Ceylon National Congress, the Sinhala Maha Sabha, and the Muslim League. The UNP easily won the 1947 elections, challenged only by a collection of small, primarily leftist parties. On February 4, 1948, when the new constitution went into effect (making Sri Lanka a dominion), the UNP embarked on a ten-year period of rule. Read a summary of SRI LANKA - POST COLONIAL HISTORY

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