Mahāvaṃsa (Sinhala: මහාවංශ, Pali: මහාවංස 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 at the Mahavihara temple in Anuradhapura in the 5th or 6th century CE.
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party, often abbreviated as LSSP, is a major Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka. It was the first political party in Sri Lanka, having been founded in 1935 by Leslie Goonewardene, N.M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva, Philip Gunawardena and Robert Gunawardena. It currently is a member of the main ruling coalition in the government of Sri Lanka and is headed by Tissa Vitharana. The party was founded with Leninist ideals, and is classified as a party with socialist aims.
Walpola Rahula Thero was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, scholar and writer. In 1964, he became the Professor of History and Religions at Northwestern University, thus becoming the first bhikkhu to hold a professorial chair in the Western world. He also once held the position of Vice-Chancellor at the then Vidyodaya University. He has written extensively about Buddhism in English, French and Sinhala. He wrote the book What the Buddha Taught about Theravada Buddhism.
Professor Karthigesu Sivathamby was a Sri Lankan Tamil literary historian, author and academic.
Senarath Paranavitana, was a Sri Lankan archeologist and epigraphist, who pioneered much of post-colonial archaeology in Sri Lanka. He served as the Commissioner of Archeology from 1940 to 1956 and there after as Professor of Archeology at the University of Ceylon from 1957 to 1961.
David J. Kalupahana (1936–2014) was a Buddhist scholar from Sri Lanka. He was a student of the late K.N. Jayatilleke, who was a student of Wittgenstein. He wrote mainly about epistemology, theory of language, and compared later Buddhist philosophical texts against the earliest texts and tried to present interpretations that were both historically contextualised and also compatible with the earliest texts, and in doing so, he encouraged Theravada Buddhists and scholars to reevaluate the legitimacy of later, Mahayana texts and consider them more sympathetically.
Ellawala Medhananda Thero is a Sri Lankan politician and a former member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. He had also organized many charities and engaged himself in educational activities in under-prevailed rural communities. As an academic scholar he has published 40 books of academic and archaeological research of which the book on the "Sinhala-Buddhist Heritage in the Northern and Eastern Provinces" published in 2003 by Jayakody Publishers in Colombo is most well known Medhananda was a parliamentarian elected by the Jathika hela Urumaya, a party which campaigned for the rights of Buddhists. As a consequence, many Marxist as well as minority Tamil writers have criticized him for his alleged right-wing political leanings and pro-majoritarian sentiments. He presented himself for elections twice first in 2004 then in 2010. Since then he has devoted himself to charitable works, teaching and scholarly activities in rural regions of Sri Lanka
Valagamba, also known as the Great Black Lion, Wattagamani Abhaya and Valagambahu, was a king of the Anuradhapura Kingdom of Sri Lanka. Five months after becoming king, he was overthrown by a rebellion and an invasion from South India, but regained the throne by defeating the invaders fourteen years later. He is also known for the construction of the Abhayagiri Dagaba.
Alagiah Thurairajah was a leading Sri Lankan Tamil academic and vice-chancellor of the University of Jaffna.
Professor Karthigesu Indrapala is a Sri Lankan academic, historian, archaeologist, author and former dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Jaffna.
Clifford Senaka Ratwatte was a Sri Lankan politician. He was a former Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, Food, Co-operatives and Fisheries in 1964 Member of Parliament for Balangoda, Chairman of the State Plantations Corporation and the Sri Lanka Tea Board.
This is a bibliography of works on Sri Lanka.
Don Carlin Gunawardena was a Sri Lankan botanist, Emeritus Professor of Botany, and Head of the Department of Science at Vidyodaya University, Ceylon. He was known for his etymological and historical accounts of Sri Lankan flora and fauna and other works on tropical taxonomy.
Alvappillai Veluppillai was a Sri Lankan Tamil academic, historian and author.
Ranaweera Appuhamilage Leslie Herbert Gunawardana was a Sri Lankan historian, academic, politician and government minister.
Nalanda Sampath Ellawala was a Sri Lankan politician.
Mallika Eslin Ratwatte was a Ceylonese politician. She was a Member of Parliament from the Balangoda electorate.
Nanda Sydney Ellawala was a Ceylonese politician. He was a Member of Parliament from the Ratnapura electorate.
Akila Saliya Ellawala is a Sri Lankan politician, former provincial councillor and Member of Parliament.
