Our Motherland – Sri Lanka

Our History

The earliest known history

Evidence of human colonisation in Sri Lanka appears at the site of Balangoda. Balangoda Man arrived on the island about 34,000 years ago and has been identified as Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who lived in caves. Archaeological evidence for the beginnings of the Iron Age in Sri Lanka is found in Anuradhapura, where a large city–settlement was founded before...

543–377 BCE – Pre-Anuradhapura Era Indo-Aryan immigration

The Pali chronicles, Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa, Thupavamsa and Chulavamsa, as well as a large collection of stone inscriptions, the Indian Epigraphical records, the Burmese versions of the chronicles etc., provide information on the history of Sri Lanka since the 6th...

377 BCE–1017 -Anuradhapura period

In the early ages of the Anuradhapura Kingdom, the economy was based on farming. Early settlements were mainly made near the rivers of the east, north central, and north east areas which had the water for farming whole year round. The king was responsible for the law,...

1056–1232 – Polonnaruwa period

The Kingdom of Polonnaruwa was the second major Sinhalese kingdom of Sri Lanka. It existed from 1055, under King Vijayabahu I to 1212 under the rule of Queen Leelavati. The Kingdom of Polonnaruwa came into being after the...

1232–1505 – Pre-European Rule

There were several kingdoms established during this period, Dambadeniya (1220-1340), Gampola (1341-1408 ), Kotte (1412- 1597) and Seethawaka (1521-1593 ). Those were limited to seral area rather than the entire country.

Our History…….. Continue…

1505 – 1948 European Rule

The first Europeans to visit Sri Lanka in modern times were the Portuguese: Lourenço de Almeida arrived in 1505 and found that the island, divided into seven warring kingdoms, was unable to fend off intruders. The Portuguese founded a fort in the port city of Colombo in 1517 and gradually extended...

Kandyan period (1594–1815)

After the invasion of the Portuguese, Konappu Bandara (King Vimaladharmasuriya) intelligently won the battle and became the first king of the kingdom of Kandy. He built The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. The monarch ended with the death of the last king, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha in 1832.

Colonial Sri Lanka (1815–1948)

During the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain, fearing that French control of the Netherlands might deliver Sri Lanka to the French, occupied the coastal areas of the island (Ceylon) with little difficulty in 1796. In 1802, the Treaty of Amiens formally ceded the Dutch...

Independence movement

Ceylon National Congress (CNC) was founded to agitate for greater autonomy, although the party was soon split along ethnic and caste lines.. The independence movement broke into two streams: the "constitutionalists", who sought...