The history of Sri Lanka is unique because its relevance and richness extend beyond the areas of South Asia,Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. The early human remains which were found on the island of Sri Lanka date back to about 38,000 years ago.
The Sinhalese people,also known as the Sinhalese or Sinhala people are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group native to the island of Sri Lanka. They are the largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka,constituting about 75% of the Sri Lankan population and number more than 15.2 million.
The flag of Sri Lanka,also called the Sinha Flag or Lion Flag,consists of a golden lion holding a kastane sword in its right fore-paw in a maroon background with four gold bo leaves,one in each corner. This is bordered by gold,and to its left are two vertical stripes of equal size in teal and orange,with the orange stripe closest to the lion. The lion and the maroon background represent the Sinhalese race,while the saffron border and four bo leaves represent the concepts of meththa,karuṇā,muditā and upecka respectively. The stripes represent the country's two largest ethnicities,with the orange representing the Tamils inhabitants—namely the Sri Lankan Tamils and the Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka—and the teal stripe representing the Sri Lankan Moors. The golden yellow border is a catch-all representing the various minority communities of the country.
Colonel Colin Mackenzie was Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist. He surveyed southern India,making use of local interpreters and scholars to study religion,oral histories,inscriptions and other evidence,initially out of personal interest,and later as a surveyor. He was ordered to survey the Mysore region shortly after the British victory over Tipu Sultan in 1799 and produced the first maps of the region along with illustrations of the landscape and notes on archaeological landmarks. His collections consisting of thousands of manuscripts,inscriptions,translations,coins and paintings,which were acquired after his death by the India Office Library and are an important source for the study of Indian history. He was awarded a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 4 June 1815.
Mahāvaṃsa is the meticulously kept historical chronicle of Sri Lanka until the period of Mahasena of Anuradhapura. It was written in the style of an epic poem written in the Pali language. It relates the history of Sri Lanka from its legendary beginnings up to the reign of Mahasena of Anuradhapura covering the period between the arrival of Prince Vijaya from India in 543 BCE to his reign and later updated by different writers. It was first composed by a Buddhist monk named Mahanama at the Mahavihara temple in Anuradhapura in the 5th or 6th-century CE.
Sir James Emerson Tennent,1st Baronet,FRS was a Conservative Member of the United Kingdom Parliament for the Irish seats of Belfast and of Lisburn,and a resident Colonial Secretary in Ceylon. Opposed to the restoration of a parliament in Dublin,his defence of Ireland's union with Great Britain emphasised what he conceived as the liberal virtues of British imperial administration. In Ceylon,his policies in support the growing plantation and wage economy met with peasant resistance in the Matale Rebellion of 1848. In recognition of his encyclopedic surveys of the colony,in 1862 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Ellalan,also referred to as Elara the Pious,and by the honorific epithet Manu Needhi Cholan,was a member of the Tamil Chola dynasty in Southern India,who upon capturing the throne became king of the Anuradhapura Kingdom,in present-day Sri Lanka,from 205 BCE to 161 BCE.
Sir Solomon Dias Abeywickrema Jayatilleke Senewiratna Rajakumaruna Kadukeralu Bandaranaike,was a Ceylonese colonial-era headmen. He was appointed as Head Mudaliyar and the aide-de-camp to the British Governor of Ceylon,therefore he was one of the most powerful personalities in British colonial Ceylon.
A Bandâra was a Great Officer in the Amātya Mandalaya,or Sinhalese Council of State,in the Sinhalese Kingdoms of premodern Sri Lanka. A Bandâra was the sons of a chief in the Sinhala Kingdom.
The Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) is based in Colombo,Sri Lanka. It is one of the oldest learned societies in Sri Lanka with a history of over 160 years. It was established on 7 February 1845,paralleling the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland to further oriental research as the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1977 it was renamed the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka.
Alexander Robert Johnston,FRS was a British colonial official who served twice as Acting Administrator of Hong Kong from 1841 to 1842. He also served in the Executive and Legislative Councils of Hong Kong. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1845 for his work on the natural history of China.
Vira Bahu I (1196) was son of Nissanka Malla and king of the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa,in present-day Sri Lanka. He came to the throne after his father's death,however only managed to reign for less than a day,being crowned at night and slain at dawn by the commander-in-chief of the army,Tavuru Senevirat on the grounds that he was a son not equal to his father.
George Turnour Jnr,CCS (1799–1843) was a British colonial administrator,scholar and a historian. A member of the Ceylon Civil Service,he served as a Government Agent,Assistant Colonial Secretary and Treasurer of the Colony. He is known for his translation of the Mahavamsa,the Great Chronicle of Sri Lankan history which was published in 1837. Along with James Prinsep and Captain Edward Smith,he began to decipher the inscriptions on the first discovered Pillar of Ashoka.
The Tissanayagam family(Mathakal),sometimes also spelled Tissainayagam,is a Jaffna Tamil family descended from Tissanayaka Mudali of Mannanpulam Mathakal. Tissanayaka Mudali (circa 1730) was a Tamil chieftain who lived during Dutch times (1658–1798).
This is a bibliography of works on Sri Lanka.
The Sinhalese monarchy has its origins in the settlement of North Indian Indo-Aryan immigrants to the island of Sri Lanka. The Landing of Vijay as described in the traditional chronicles of the island,the Dipavamsa,Mahavamsa and Culavamsa,and later chronicles,recount the date of the establishment of the first Sinhala Kingdom in 543 BC when Prince Vijaya,an Indian Prince,and 700 of his followers are claimed to have landed on the island of Sri Lanka and established the Kingdom of Tambapanni. In Sinhalese mythology,Prince Vijaya and followers are told to be the progenitors of the Sinhalese people. However according to the story in the Divyavadana,the immigrants were probably not led by a scion of a royal house in India,as told in the romantic legend,but rather may have been groups of adventurous and pioneering merchants exploring new lands.
Mahavamsa Part III is the title of a Sinhala language continuation of the Mahavamsa published in 1935 by Yagirala Pannananda,a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk. Written at the request of a Sinhala village leader but without official approval or support from the government,it describes the history of Sri Lanka from 1889 until 1935.
Robert Atherton CCS,JP was a 19th-century British colonial official in British Ceylon for more than 25 years. After a distinguished career in the Royal Navy,and recipient of the Burma Medal,he held various administrative and judicial roles in the Northern Province of Ceylon from 1825 until 1835. He was appointed as Assistant Government Agent (A.G.A),Eastern Province of Ceylon,in 1835,1839,and 1845;A.G.A Northern Province,in 1836,and acted as District Judge,Batticaloa in 1841,and Justice of the Peace (JP),Eastern Province (1848–1855).
