The history of Sri Lanka covers Sri Lanka and its surrounding regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.
Prehistoric Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years and possibly even as far back as 500,000 years. The earliest humans found in Sri Lanka date to Prehistoric times about 35,000 years ago. Little is known about the history before the Indo-Aryan Settlement in the 6th century BC. The earliest documents of the settlement on the Island and its early history are found in the national chronicles of the Mahāvamsa, Dipavamsa, and the Culavamsa.
According to the Mahāvamsa, a chronicle written in Pāḷi, the preceding inhabitants of Sri Lanka were said to be Yakkhas and Nagas. Sinhalese history traditionally starts in 543 BC with the arrival of Prince Vijaya, a semi-legendary prince who sailed with 700 followers to the island, after being expelled from the Vanga Kingdom, in present-day Bengal. Prince Vijaya thereafter established the Sinhala Kingdom ushering in the historical period of Sri Lanka. During the Anuradhapura period (377 BCE–1017) Buddhism was introduced in the 3rd century BCE by Mahinda, son of Indian emperor Ashoka.
Due to the island's close proximity to Southern India, Dravidian influence on Sri Lankan politics and trade had been very active since the third century BC. Trade relations between the Anuradhapura Kingdom and southern India existed very probably from an early time. South Indian attempts at usurping power of the Anuradhapura Kingdom appears to have been at least motivated by the prospect of influencing the country's lucrative external trade. From about the fifth century AD onwards, Tamil mercenaries were brought to the island for the service of the Sinhalese monarchs. This would play a main role in the fall of the Anuradhapura Kingdom, part of an incompetent monarchy, in the 11th century with the Chola conquest.
Invasion of the Anuradhapura Kingdom by Rajaraja I began in 993 AD when he sent a large army to conquer the kingdom and absorb it into the Chola Empire. By 1017 most of the island was conquered and incorporated as a province of the vast empire beginning the Polonnaruwa period (1017–1232) of Sri Lanka. However the Chola occupation would be overthrown in 1070 through a campaign of Sinhalese Resistance led by Prince Kitti (later Vijayabahu I of Polonnaruwa). From the 10th century more permanent settlements of Tamils began to appear in Sri Lanka. While not extensive, these settlements formed the nucleus for later settlements around that of Northern Sri Lanka which would later form the Sri Lankan Tamil community of today.
The Sinhalese Kingdom now located in Polonnaruwa lasted less than two centuries. During its later turbulent stages it was once again invaded from the Indian mainland in 1215, forcing the Sinhalese to abandon their tranditional center of administration in the North central region of the island and flee south into the mountainous interior. This invasion saw a catastrophic decline in centralized Sinhalese power and began the Transitional period (1232–1597), which was characterised by the succession of capitals followed by the creation of the Jaffna Kingdom as a buffer state by the South Indian Pandyans.
The Crisis of the Sixteenth Century (1521–1597), started with the Vijayabā Kollaya, the division of the Sinhalese Kingdom, now at Kotte. The country was divided among three brothers resulting in a series of Wars of Succession. It was also at this time that the Portuguese intruded into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka, establishing control over the maritime regions of the island and seeking to control its lucrative external trade. The Crisis culminated in the collapse of the short lived but influential Kingdom of Sitawaka, and with Portuguese dominance, if not control by 1597, over two of three kingdoms that had existed at the start of the century, including the Jaffna Kingdom. The Kingdom of Kandy was the only independent Sinhalese kingdom to survive thus beginning the Kandyan period (1597–1815).
The Portuguese lost their possessions in Sri Lanka due to Dutch intervention in the Eighty Years' War, and the Dutch too were soon replaced by the British. Following the Kandyan Wars and an internal struggle between the Sinhalese monarch at the time and the Kandyan aristocracy, the island was united for the final time and came under British colonial rule in 1815 beginning the British Ceylon period (1815–1948). Armed resistance against the British took place in the 1818 and the 1848. Native sovereignty was once again achieved when Independence was granted in 1948 as a Dominion of the British Empire. In 1972 Sri Lanka became a Republic. A constitution was introduced in 1978 which created Sri Lanka a unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic. In the 1970s and 80s the country suffered from armed uprisings in 1971 and 1987–89 and a Civil War which lasted 25 years ending in 2009.
Geographical background
Sri Lanka lies on the Indian Plate, a major tectonic plate that was formerly part of the Indo-Australian Plate. It is in the Indian Ocean southwest of the Bay of Bengal, between latitudes 5° and 10°N, and longitudes 79° and 82°E. Sri Lanka is separated from the mainland portion of the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Strait. According to Hindu mythology, a land bridge existed between the Indian mainland and Sri Lanka. It now amounts to only a chain of limestone shoals remaining above sea level. Legends claim that it was passable on foot up to 1480 AD, until cyclones deepened the channel. Portions are still as shallow as , hindering navigation. The island consists mostly of flat to rolling coastal plains, with mountains rising only in the south-central part. The highest point is Pidurutalagala, reaching above sea level.
Sri Lanka has 103 rivers. The longest of these is the Mahaweli River, extending . These waterways give rise to 51 natural waterfalls of 10 meters or more. The highest is Bambarakanda Falls, with a height of . Sri Lanka's coastline is 1,585 km long. Sri Lanka claims an Exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extending 200 nautical miles, which is approximately 6.7 times Sri Lanka's land area. The coastline and adjacent waters support highly productive marine ecosystems such as fringing coral reefs and shallow beds of coastal and estuarine seagrasses.
Sri Lanka has 45 estuaries and 40 lagoons. Sri Lanka's mangrove ecosystem spans over 7,000 hectares and played a vital role in buffering the force of the waves in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The island is rich in minerals such as ilmenite, feldspar, graphite, silica, kaolinite, mica and thorium. Existence of petroleum and gas in the Gulf of Mannar has also been confirmed and the extraction of recoverable quantities is underway.
Lying within the Indomalayan realm, Sri Lanka is one of 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world. Although the country is relatively small in size, it has the highest biodiversity density in Asia. A remarkably high proportion of the species among its flora and fauna, 27% of the 3,210 flowering plants and 22% of the mammals (see List), are endemic. Sri Lanka has declared 24 wildlife reserves, which are home to a wide range of native species such as Asian elephants, leopards, sloth bears, the unique small loris, a variety of deer, the purple-faced langur, the endangered wild boar, porcupines and Indian pangolins.
Flowering acacias flourish on the arid Jaffna Peninsula. Among the trees of the dry-land forests are valuable species such as satinwood, ebony, ironwood, mahogany and teak. The wet zone is a tropical evergreen forest with tall trees, broad foliage, and a dense undergrowth of vines and creepers. Subtropical evergreen forests resembling those of temperate climates flourish in the higher altitudes. Yala National Park in the southeast protects herds of elephant, deer, and peacocks. The Wilpattu National Park in the northwest, the largest national park, preserves the habitats of many water birds such as storks, pelicans, ibis, and spoonbills. The island has four biosphere reserves: Bundala, Hurulu Forest Reserve, the Kanneliya-Dediyagala-Nakiyadeniya, and Sinharaja. Of these, Sinharaja forest reserve is home to 26 endemic birds and 20 rainforest species, including the elusive red-faced malkoha, the green-billed coucal and the Sri Lanka blue magpie.
During the Mahaweli Development programme of the 1970s and 1980s in northern Sri Lanka, the government set aside four areas of land totalling as national parks. Sri Lanka's forest cover, which was around 49% in 1920, had fallen to approximately 24% by 2009.
Overview Periodization of Sri Lanka history:
Prehistoric Sri Lanka
Pre Iron Age (Pre ~1000 BC) The pre-history of Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years and possibly even as far back as 500,000 years. The era spans the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and early Iron Ages. Among the Paleolithic human settlements discovered in Sri Lanka, Pahiyangala (named after the Chinese traveller monk Faxian), which dates back to 37,000 BP, Batadombalena (28,500 BP) and Belilena (12,000 BP) are the most important. In these caves, archaeologists have found the remains of anatomically modern humans which they have named Balangoda Man, and other evidence suggesting that they may have engaged in agriculture and kept domestic dogs for driving game.
One of the first written references to the island is found in the Indian epic Ramayana, which provides details of a kingdom named Lanka that was created by the divine sculptor Vishwakarma for Kubera, the Lord of Wealth. It is said that Kubera was overthrown by his demon stepbrother Ravana, the powerful emperor who built a mythical flying machine named Dandu Monara. The modern city of Wariyapola is described as Ravana's airport.
Early inhabitants of Sri Lanka were probably ancestors of the Vedda people, an indigenous people numbering approximately 2,500 living in modern-day Sri Lanka. The 19th-century Irish historian James Emerson Tennent theorized that Galle, a city in southern Sri Lanka, was the ancient seaport of Tarshish from which the mythological King Solomon is said to have drawn ivory, peacocks, and other valuables.
Iron Age (~1000 BC–543 BC) The protohistoric Early Iron Age appears to have established itself in South India by at least as early as 1200 BCE, if not earlier The earliest manifestation of this in Sri Lanka is radiocarbon-dated to c. 1000–800 BCE at Anuradhapura and Aligala shelter in Sigiriya. It is very likely that further investigations will push back the Sri Lankan lower boundary to match that of South India. Archaeological evidence for the beginnings of the Iron Age in Sri Lanka is found at Anuradhapura, where a large city–settlement was founded before 900 BCE. The settlement was about 15 hectares in 900 BCE, but by 700 BCE it had expanded to 50 hectares. A similar site from the same period has also been discovered near Aligala in Sigiriya.
The hunter-gatherer people known as the Wanniyala-Aetto or Veddas, who still live in the central, Uva and north-eastern parts of the island, are probably direct descendants of the first inhabitants, Balangoda Man. They may have migrated to the island from the mainland around the time humans spread from Africa to the Indian subcontinent. Achievements include the construction of the largest reservoirs and dams of the ancient world as well as enormous pyramid-like stupa architecture. This phase of Sri Lankan culture may have seen the introduction of early Buddhism. Early mythical history recorded in Buddhist scriptures refers to three visits by the Buddha to the island to see the Naga Kings, snakes that can take the form of a human at will. The earliest surviving chronicles from the island, the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, say that tribes of Yakkhas, Nagas and Devas inhabited the island prior to the Indo-Aryan migration.
Pre-Anuradhapura period (543–377 BCE)
Indo-Aryan syncretism