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The Transitional period of Sri Lanka spans from the end of the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa, in 1232, to the start of the Kandyan period in 1597. The period is characterised by the succession of capitals that followed the fall of the Polonnaruwa Kingdom and the creation of the Jaffna kingdom and Crisis of the Sixteenth Century.
Periodization of Sri Lanka history:
| Dates | Period | Period | Span (years) | Subperiod | Span (years) | Main government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300,000 BP–~1000 BC | Prehistoric Sri Lanka | Stone Age | – | 300,000 | Unknown | |
| Bronze Age | – | |||||
| ~1000 BC–543 BC | Iron Age | – | 457 | |||
| 543 BC–437 BC | Ancient Sri Lanka | Pre-Anuradhapura | – | 106 | Monarchy | |
| 437 BC–463 AD | Anuradhapura | 1454 | Early Anuradhapura | 900 | ||
| 463–691 | Middle Anuradhapura | 228 | ||||
| 691–1017 | Post-classical Sri Lanka | Late Anuradhapura | 326 | |||
| 1017–1070 | Polonnaruwa | 215 | Chola conquest | 53 | ||
| 1055–1232 | 177 | |||||
| 1232–1341 | Transitional | 365 | Dambadeniya | 109 | ||
| 1341–1412 | Gampola | 71 | ||||
| 1412–1597 | Early Modern Sri Lanka | Kotte | 185 | |||
| 1597–1815 | Kandyan | – | 218 | |||
| 1815–1948 | Modern Sri Lanka | British Ceylon | – | 133 | Colonial monarchy | |
| 1948–1972 | Contemporary Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka since 1948 | 75 | Dominion | 24 | Constitutional monarchy |
| 1972–present | Republic | 51 | Unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic |
Dambadeniya is an ancient capital of Sri Lanka. Four kings ruled from there, Vijayabâhu III (1220–1236), Parâkkamabâhu II (1236–1270), Vijayabâhu IV (1270–1272), and Bhuvanaikabâhu I (1272–1283). The first king to choose Dambadeniya as his capital was Vijayabâhu III. He was able to bring about unity among the sangha who had scattered due to the hostile invasion of the Kalinga magha. He also succeeded in holding a Buddhist convention in 1226 to bring about peace among the Buddhist clergy. Parâkkamabâhu II inherited the throne from Vijayabâhu III. He was considered a genius who was a great poet and prolific writer. Among the books he wrote are Kausilumina, which is considered a great piece of literature. Unifying the three kingdoms that existed within Sri Lanka at that point in time is regarded as his greatest achievement.
Vijayabâhu, as the eldest son of Parâkkamabâhu II, was crowned in 1270. He was well known for his modest behaviour and for his religious activities. He was killed in the second year of his reign by a minister called Miththa. After the demise of his elder brother Vijayabâhu, king Bhuvanaikabâhu I, as the next in line to the throne, shifted the capital to Yapahuwa for reasons of security. He followed his father's footsteps as a writer and continued with the religious activities started by his brother Vijayabâhu.
The Jaffna kingdom came into existence after the invasion of Magha, who is said to have been from Kalinga, in South India. It was a tribute-paying feudatory region of the Pandyan Empire in modern South India in 1250, but it later became independent with the fragmentation of the Pandyan control. For a brief period, in the early and middle 14th century, it was an ascendant power in the island of Sri Lanka when all regional kingdoms accepted subordination. However, the Jaffna kingdom came under the rule of the south on one occasion; in 1450, following the conquest by Parâkramabâhu VI's adopted son, Prince Sapumal. He ruled the North from 1450 to 1467. [1] It was freed of Kotte control in 1467. Its subsequent rulers directed their energies towards consolidating its economic potential by maximising revenue from pearls and elephant exports and land revenue. It was less feudal than most of other regional kingdoms in the island of the same period. During this period, important local Tamil literature was produced and Hindu temples were built, including an academy for language advancement.
The capital was moved to Gampola by Buwanekabahu IV, he is said to be the son of Sawulu Vijayabāhu. During this time, a muslim traveller and geographer named Ibn Battuta came to Sri Lanka and wrote a book about it. The Gadaladeniya Viharaya is the main building made in the Gampola Kingdom period. The Lankatilaka Viharaya is also a main building built in Gampola.
Chinese admiral Zheng He and his naval expeditionary force landed at Galle, Sri Lanka in 1409 and got into battle with the local king Vira Alakesvara of Gampola. Zheng He captured King Vira Alakesvara and later released him. [2] [3] [4] Zheng He erected the Galle Trilingual Inscription, a stone tablet at Galle written in three languages (Chinese, Tamil, and Persian), to commemorate his visit. [5] [6]
By the Sixteenth century the population of the island was approximately 750,000, the majority, 400-450 thousand lived in the Kingdom of Kotte which was the largest and most powerful polity on the island. [7] [8] Its boundaries reached from the Malvatu Oya in the North to the Valave River in the South, and from the central highlands to the western coast. The Kotte kings regarded themselves as Chakravartis (Emperors), laying claim to the whole island, after Parakramabahu VI, but actual power was limited to within their own boundaries. [9] Despite areas under its direct jurisdiction changing from time to time, Kotte held the island's lands where trade and agriculture were most developed. The Kotte kings were the largest land owners in the country, with much of the royal income coming from land revenue as opposed to trade. The Gabadāgam (Royal lands) accounted for more than three quarter of the annual royal income, and monetization of the economy in the littoral region began at least as far back as the fifteenth century. [8]
During this time the Portuguese entered into the internal politics of Sri Lanka. Largely by accident, first contact between the two nations was in 1505-06. But it was not until 1517-18 that the Portuguese sought to establish a fortified trading settlement in order to establish control over the island's Cinnamon trade, as opposed to territorial conquest. [10] The building of a fort, near Colombo, had to be given up due popular hostility that was fanned by Moorish traders, who had established themselves on the island and controlled a large portion of its external trade. [10] The Portuguese at no stage established dominance over the politics of South Asia, but sought to do so over its commerce by means of subjugation through naval power. Using their superior technology and sea power at points of weakness or divisions, the Portuguese would attain influence in greater proportions to their actual strength. Portuguese anxiety to establish a Bridgehead in Sri Lanka to control the island's Cinnamon trade drew them further into the politics of Sri Lanka. [11]
Kotte suffered from persistent succession disputes during this time. Though all were subordinate to the emperor of Kotte, brothers of the king would take the title Raja (king) and rule parts of the kingdom. This practice was possibly tolerated to humour princes who had some claim to the throne by giving them positions of responsibility, and the belief that having loyal relatives in outlying districts afforded some security to the king. However this political structure inevitably led to its own weakening in the long run, as those princes, who could, virtually administered the areas they claimed as autonomous principalities. [12]
In 1521 the Vijayabā Kollaya was one such and the most eventful of succession disputes in the kingdom and would trigger the most chaotic period in the history of Sri Lanka. Vijayabāhu VI, who had four sons by two wives, sought to select his youngest son for the succession of the kingdom. In reaction the three older brothers assassinated their father, with the assistance of the Kandyan ruler, and divided the kingdom among themselves. With this partition the fragmentation of the Sri Lankan polity seemed well beyond the capacity of any statesman to repair. [12] The Kandyan ruler took advantage of the situation in a cynical and shrewd move to aggravate the political instability as an opportunity to assert their independence from the control of Kotte. Kanday ruler Jayavira Bandara (1511–52) readily aided the three princes against their father, and it was clear the decline of the Kingdom of Kotte was necessary for the rise of the Kingdom of Kandy. [10]
The Jaffna Kingdom, also known as Kingdom of Aryachakravarti, was a historical kingdom of what today is northern Sri Lanka. It came into existence around the town of Jaffna on the Jaffna peninsula and was traditionally thought to have been established after the invasion of Kalinga Magha from Kalinga in India. Established as a powerful force in the north, northeast and west of the island, it eventually became a tribute-paying feudatory of the Pandyan Empire in modern South India in 1258, gaining independence when the last Pandyan ruler of Madurai was defeated and expelled in 1323 by Malik Kafur, the army general of the Delhi Sultanate. For a brief period in the early to mid-14th century it was an ascendant power in the island of Sri Lanka, to which all regional kingdoms accepted subordination. However, the kingdom was overpowered by the rival Kotte Kingdom around 1450 when it was invaded by Prince Sapumal under the orders of Parakramabahu VI.
The Ayra Chakravarti dynasty were kings of the Jaffna Kingdom in Sri Lanka. The earliest Sri Lankan sources, between 1277 and 1283, mention a military leader of this name as a minister in the services of the Pandyan Empire; he raided the western Sri Lankan coast and took the politically significant relic of the Buddha's tooth from the Sinhalese capital city of Yapahuwa. Political and military leaders of the same family name left a number of inscriptions in the modern-day Tamil Nadu state, with dates ranging from 1272 to 1305, during the late Pandyan Empire. According to contemporary native literature, such as Cekaracecekaramalai, the family also claimed lineage from the Tamil Brahmins of the prominent Hindu pilgrimage temple of Rameswaram in the modern Ramanathapuram District of India. They ruled the Jaffna kingdom from the 13th until the 17th century, when the last of the dynasty, Cankili II, was ousted by the Portuguese.
Chandrabhanu or Chandrabhanu Sridhamaraja was the King of Tambralinga Kingdom in present-day Thailand, Malaysia and Sumatra and the Jaffna Kingdom in northern Sri Lanka. A Javaka, he was known to have ruled from during the period of 1230 until 1262. He was also known for building a well-known Buddhist stupa in southern Thailand. He spent more than 30 years in his attempt to conquer Sri Lanka. He was eventually defeated by the forces of the Pandyan Dynasty from Tamil Nadu in 1262 and was killed by the brother of the south Indian Emperor Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan.
Alagakkonara, also known as Alakeshwara, were a prominent feudal family that provided powerful ministers and military rulers during the medieval period in Sri Lanka. Some historians claim that the family was of Tamil origin, possibly from Madurai or Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu, India. The family arrived in Sri Lanka around the 13th century and naturalized themselves in Sri Lanka.
The Kingdom of Kandy was a monarchy on the island of Sri Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in the late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century.
Vira Alakesvara, also known as Vijayabahu VI, was the last King of Gampola who ruled from 1397 to 1411. He was the last prominent member of the Alagakkonara family.
The Portuguese conquest of the Jaffna Kingdom occurred after Portuguese traders arrived at the rival Kotte Kingdom in the southwest of modern Sri Lanka in 1505. Many kings of Jaffna, such as Cankili I, initially confronted the Portuguese in their attempts at converting the locals to Roman Catholicism, but eventually made peace with them.
The current capital of Sri Lanka, since 1982, is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte. Over the course of the island's history, the national capital has been in several locations other than Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the following is a list of cities which have historically served as the capital city of Sri Lanka and its predecessor states.
The Kingdom of Sitawaka was a kingdom located in south-central Sri Lanka. It emerged from the division of the Kingdom of Kotte following the Spoiling of Vijayabahu in 1521. Over the course of the next seventy years it came to dominate much of the island. Sitawaka also offered fierce resistance to the Portuguese, who had arrived on the island in 1505. Despite its military successes, Sitawaka remained unstable, having to contend with repeated uprisings in its restive Kandyan territories, as well as a wide-ranging and often devastating conflict with the Portuguese. Sitawaka disintegrated soon after the death of its last king Rajasimha I in 1593.
Parâkramabâhu VI was the first king of Kotte, ruling from 1410 until his death in 1467. He is the last great king in Sri Lanka who managed to unite the island under one flag. His rule is famous for the renaissance in Sinhalese literature, due to the patronage of the king himself. Classical literature as well as many rock inscriptions and royal grant letters have been found, rendering much information pertaining to this period.
The Kingdom of Dambadeniya was a medieval kingdom in what is present-day Sri Lanka. The kingdom's rulers reigned from 1220–1345.
The Kingdom of Kotte, named after its capital, Kotte, was a Sinhalese kingdom that flourished in Sri Lanka during the 15th century.
When to date the start of the history of the Jaffna kingdom is debated among historians.
Bhuvanaikabahu IV was the first King of Gampola who ruled from 1344/5 to 1353/4. He succeeded his father Vijayabahu V of Dambadeniya and became the King of Gampola. He was succeeded by his brother Parakkamabahu V.
Parakramabahu II, also known as Panditha Parakramabāhu, was the King of Dambadeniya in 13th century, whose reign lasted from 1234 to 1269. As a pioneer in literature, he was bestowed with the honorary title "Kalikala Sahitya Sarvagna Pandita". Parakramabahu's reign is notable for the creation of numerous Sinhalese literal works such as, Kausilumina, Pūjāvaliya, Pāli Vishuddḥi Mārgaya, Thūpavaṃsa and Sidhath Sangarāva. He launched a campaign against the Eastern Ganga invader Kalinga Magha, and successfully expelled him in 1255, unifying Sri Lanka under one rule. He succeeded his father Vijayabahu III as King of Dambadeniya, and was succeeded by his elder son, Vijayabahu IV, after his death.
Vijayabahu IV was King of Dambadeniya in the 13th century, who ruled from 1267/8 to 1270. He succeeded his father Parakkamabahu II as King of Dambadeniya and was succeeded by his brother Bhuvanaikabahu I after being murdered consequent to a conspiracy.
Bhuvanaikabahu I was King of Dambadeniya in the 13th century, who ruled from 1271 to 1283. He succeeded his brother Vijayabahu IV as King of Dambadeniya and an Interregnum of 19 years is thought to have occurred after his death. His nephew Parakkamabahu III ruled from Polonnaruwa, and was not formally considered as a King of Dambadeniya.
Vijayabahu V was the last King of Dambadeniya in the 14th century, who reigned from 1325/26 to 1344/45. He succeeded Bhuvanaikabahu III as King of Dambadeniya and was succeeded by Bhuvanaikabahu IV, King of Gampola.
Sinhalese–Portuguese conflicts refers to the series of armed engagements that took place from 1518 to 1658 in Sri Lanka between the native Sinhalese kingdoms and the Portuguese Empire. It spanned from the Transitional to the Kandyan periods of Sri Lankan history. A combination of political and military moves gained the Portuguese control over most of the island, but their invasion of the final independent kingdom was a disaster, leading to a stalemate in the wider war and a truce from 1621. In 1638 the war restarted when the Dutch East India Company intervened in the conflict, initially as an ally of the Sinhalese against the Portuguese, but later as an enemy of both sides. The war concluded in 1658, with the Dutch in control of about half the island, the Kingdom of Kandy the other half, and the Portuguese expelled.
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