# The Chronicle of Sri Lanka: From the hydraulic kingdoms of Anuradhapura to an island republic. History of Sri Lanka: From the hydraulic kingdoms of Anuradhapura to an island republic. 5 eras and 27 sourced events, every claim traceable to a named… Canonical: https://terralore.co/country/LKA/chronicle Updated: 2026-08-10 Founding: Independence from Britain — 4 Feb 1948. The Dominion of Ceylon became independent on 4 February 1948, when its 1947 constitution came into force, ending British colonial rule that had governed the unified island since 1815. D. S. Senanayake became the first prime minister. In 1972 a new constitution declared the country a republic and changed its name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka, though its statehood traces to Sinhalese kingdoms more than two thousand years older. Sri Lanka's recorded history reaches back more than two millennia, to Sinhalese kingdoms that built one of the world's great hydraulic civilisations around the city of Anuradhapura and embraced Buddhism in the 3rd century BCE. After medieval capitals at Polonnaruwa and, later, Kandy, the island's coasts passed in turn to Portuguese, Dutch and British control, with the whole island unified under Britain in 1815 and remade as a plantation economy. The Dominion of Ceylon won independence on 4 February 1948 and became the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972. The modern nation has been shaped by a long civil war (1983–2009), the catastrophic 2004 tsunami, and a severe economic crisis in 2022. This file carries the chronicle's sourced event record — every event with its year, summary and source keys (resolved under References below). The full reading narrative lives on the canonical page. ## Anuradhapura and the Coming of Buddhism — c. 5th century BCE – 11th century CE Sinhalese kingdoms centred on Anuradhapura built a great hydraulic civilisation and made the island a heartland of Theravada Buddhism. - c. 5th century BCE: **Sinhalese settlement and the founding of Anuradhapura** — By tradition Prince Vijaya's followers settle the island; the kingdom of Anuradhapura is founded under Pandukabhaya and grows into the strongest Sinhalese state, capital for over a thousand years. [britannica-srilanka-history, britannica-anuradhapura] - c. 3rd century BCE: **Buddhism introduced under Devanampiya Tissa** — The missionary Mahinda, sent during the reign of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, converts King Devanampiya Tissa near Mihintale, establishing Theravada Buddhism as the island's defining faith. [britannica-conversion-buddhism, ebsco-buddhism-srilanka] - from c. 2nd century BCE: **Hydraulic civilisation and South Indian invasions** — Anuradhapura's kings build vast reservoir-and-channel systems to irrigate the dry plain, while recurrent invasions from South India culminate in the Chola conquest and the abandonment of the capital around 1017. [britannica-anuradhapura, unesco-anuradhapura] - 477–495: **Kassapa I builds Sigiriya** — A king who took the throne by killing his father moves the capital to the summit of a 180-metre granite peak, entered through a stair rising from the mouth of a brick lion. [unesco-sigiriya] Figures: - Devanampiya Tissa (reigned 3rd century BCE) — King of Anuradhapura, patron of Buddhism. The Sinhalese ruler converted by Mahinda's mission, he became the first great royal patron of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, founding the Mahavihara monastery and receiving the sacred Bodhi tree sapling at Anuradhapura. ## Polonnaruwa and the Move South — 11th – 18th centuries A second classical capital at Polonnaruwa peaked under Parakramabahu I before drought, invasion and political decline pushed the Sinhalese kingdoms toward the south-west and the hills. - c. 1017: **Polonnaruwa becomes the capital** — Following the Chola conquest and the abandonment of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa is established as Sri Lanka's second great capital in the north-central dry zone. [unesco-polonnaruwa, britannica-srilanka-history] - 1153–1186: **Golden age under Parakramabahu I** — Parakramabahu I rebuilds the city and its irrigation, creating the immense Parakrama Samudra reservoir and a garden-capital that marks the high point of the Polonnaruwa period. [unesco-polonnaruwa] - 13th c. onward: **Decline and the drift southward** — Invasion, the breakdown of the dry-zone irrigation system and disease lead to the abandonment of the northern capitals and the migration of Sinhalese power toward the south-west and the Kandyan hills. [britannica-srilanka-history] Figures: - Parakramabahu I (reigned 1153–1186) — King of Polonnaruwa. The greatest of Polonnaruwa's kings, he unified the island under his rule, restored its irrigation works and built the colossal Parakrama Samudra reservoir, embodying the ideal that not a drop of water should be wasted. ## European Coasts and the Kandyan Kingdom — 1505 – 1815 Portuguese and then Dutch powers seized the island's lucrative coasts and cinnamon trade, while the Kandyan kingdom held the interior for three centuries. - 1505: **Arrival of the Portuguese** — A Portuguese fleet reaches Colombo, opening more than a century of Portuguese control over Ceylon's coasts and its profitable cinnamon trade. [britannica-portuguese] - 1640–1658: **Dutch supplant the Portuguese** — Allied with Kandy, the Dutch East India Company takes Galle (1640) and expels the Portuguese with the fall of Colombo (1656) and Jaffna (1658), ruling the maritime provinces for cinnamon. [britannica-srilanka-history, unesco-galle] - 1796: **Britain takes the Dutch coasts** — With the Netherlands under French control in Europe, Britain begins taking over the maritime provinces — the island changes hands as a consequence of a war fought elsewhere. [bbc-srilanka] - 2 Mar 1815: **Kandyan Convention unifies the island under Britain** — The Kandyan chiefs cede the highland kingdom to the British crown, ending the last independent Sinhalese kingdom and placing the whole island under a single colonial administration. [britannica-kandyan-convention, archives-srilanka] ## British Ceylon and the Road to Independence — 1815 – 1948 Britain remade the unified island as a plantation colony of coffee and tea, bringing Indian Tamil labour to the highlands, before Ceylon negotiated a peaceful path to independence in 1948. - 1830s onward: **Plantation economy and Tamil labour migration** — British coffee and later tea estates transform the highlands; indentured South Indian Tamil labourers are brought in to work them, forming the Indian Tamil community of the plantation districts. [britannica-srilanka-history] - 1833: **One administration for the whole island** — Reform dissolves the separate systems of the maritime provinces and the highlands, governing Ceylon as a single colony for the first time. [bbc-srilanka] - 1931: **Universal suffrage and reform** — Constitutional reforms grant universal adult suffrage in Ceylon, far ahead of most colonies, strengthening a moderate movement for self-government. [britannica-senanayake, archives-srilanka] - 4 Feb 1948: **Independence of the Dominion of Ceylon** — Ceylon becomes an independent dominion within the Commonwealth as its 1947 constitution takes effect, with D. S. Senanayake as first prime minister. [britannica-independent-ceylon, archives-srilanka, statedept-srilanka] - 1949: **Indian Tamil plantation workers disenfranchised** — The estate workforce brought from South India is stripped of the vote a year after independence — the opening move of a nationalism that alienated the Tamil minority. [bbc-srilanka] Figures: - D. S. Senanayake (1884–1952) — First prime minister of Ceylon. Often called the father of the nation, he led Ceylon to independence through negotiation and served as its first prime minister from 1947 until his death, championing irrigation and land-settlement schemes that resettled hundreds of thousands. ## Republic, Civil War and the Modern Nation — 1948 – present Independent Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka, endured a long civil war and the 2004 tsunami, and confronted a severe economic crisis in 2022. - 1972: **Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka** — A new republican constitution ends dominion status and changes the country's name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka, while it remains within the Commonwealth. [britannica-independent-ceylon, britannica-reconstruction] - 1956: **The Sinhala Only Act** — S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike is elected on a wave of Sinhalese nationalism and makes Sinhala the sole official language, alongside measures elevating Buddhism. [bbc-srilanka, britannica-bandaranaike] - 1971: **The JVP insurrection** — A Marxist rising is put down; its missing would still be uncounted in the state's own figures forty-five years later. [bbc-srilanka] - 1976: **The LTTE is founded** — The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam form to fight for Tamil rights, seven years before the war that would define them. [bbc-srilanka] - 1983–2009: **Civil war between the state and the LTTE** — After the anti-Tamil violence of Black July in 1983, the LTTE fights for a separate Tamil state; the war ends with the group's military defeat in May 2009 after about twenty-six years. [britannica-reconstruction, britannica-srilanka-history] - 1987: **The Indo-Lanka accords and the Indian peacekeepers** — Accords create new councils for the Tamil north and east and bring in an Indian peacekeeping force, which spends three years bogged down in the fighting it came to end. [bbc-srilanka] - 1990: **Indian withdrawal and the expulsion of northern Muslims** — Indian troops leave and the war escalates; the LTTE expels thousands of Muslims from the northern districts. [bbc-srilanka] - 26 Dec 2004: **Indian Ocean tsunami** — Waves from a magnitude-9.1 undersea earthquake off Sumatra devastate Sri Lanka's coasts, killing more than 30,000 people in the country's deadliest natural disaster. [britannica-tsunami-2004] - 2022: **Economic crisis and sovereign default** — A foreign-exchange crisis forces Sri Lanka's first sovereign default; shortages and protests topple President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, leading to an IMF bailout and, in 2024, the election of Anura Kumara Dissanayake. [britannica-reconstruction] - 2016: **The state counts its missing** — The government acknowledges for the first time that some 65,000 people are missing from the 26-year war and the 1971 insurrection. [bbc-srilanka] - 21 Apr 2019: **The Easter Sunday bombings** — Jihadist suicide bombers attack churches and hotels, killing more than 350 people. [bbc-srilanka] Figures: - S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike (1899–1959) — Prime minister of Ceylon. Founder of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, he came to power in 1956 on a wave of Sinhalese nationalism, making Sinhalese the sole official language and elevating Buddhism in public life before his assassination by a Buddhist monk in 1959. Machine-readable claims — every event above as an addressable claim ID (TL:LKA:event::) with its sources and a ready citation string: https://terralore.co/country/LKA/chronicle.claims.json ## References - [britannica-history-srilanka] History of Sri Lanka — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Sri-Lanka - [britannica-srilanka-history] Sri Lanka: History — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Sri-Lanka/History - [britannica-conversion-buddhism] Sri Lanka: Conversion to Buddhism — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Sri-Lanka/Conversion-to-Buddhism - [britannica-anuradhapura] Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Anuradhapura-Sri-Lanka - [britannica-sigiriya] Sigiriya — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Sigiriya - [britannica-portuguese] Sri Lanka: The Portuguese in Sri Lanka (1505–1658) — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Sri-Lanka/The-Portuguese-in-Sri-Lanka-1505-1658 - [britannica-kandyan-convention] Kandyan Convention — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/event/Kandyan-Convention - [britannica-independent-ceylon] History of Sri Lanka: Independent Ceylon (1948–71) — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Sri-Lanka/Independent-Ceylon-1948-71 - [britannica-reconstruction] Sri Lanka: Reconstruction and the modern nation — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Sri-Lanka/Reconstruction - [britannica-tsunami-2004] Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/event/Indian-Ocean-tsunami-of-2004 - [britannica-senanayake] D. S. Senanayake — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/biography/D-S-Senanayake - [britannica-bandaranaike] S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike — Encyclopædia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/biography/S-W-R-D-Bandaranaike - [unesco-anuradhapura] Sacred City of Anuradhapura — UNESCO World Heritage Centre · https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/200/ - [unesco-polonnaruwa] Ancient City of Polonnaruwa — UNESCO World Heritage Centre · https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/201/ - [unesco-galle] Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications — UNESCO World Heritage Centre · https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/451/ - [archives-srilanka] Path to Freedom: 1815 Convention and Dominion Status — Department of National Archives, Sri Lanka · https://www.archives.gov.lk/online-exhibits/path-to-freedom/ - [ebsco-buddhism-srilanka] Buddhism Established in Sri Lanka — EBSCO Research Starters · https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/buddhism-established-sri-lanka - [wikipedia-anuradhapura] Anuradhapura Kingdom — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anuradhapura_Kingdom - [wikipedia-kandyan-wars] Kandyan Wars — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kandyan_Wars - [statedept-srilanka] A Guide to the United States' History of Recognition: Sri Lanka — U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian · https://history.state.gov/countries/sri-lanka - [nwe-srilanka] Sri Lanka — New World Encyclopedia · https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Sri_Lanka - [bbc-srilanka] Sri Lanka country profile — BBC News · https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11999611 - [unesco-sigiriya] Ancient City of Sigiriya (World Heritage List) — UNESCO World Heritage Centre · https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/202/ - [unesco-kandy] Sacred City of Kandy (World Heritage List) — UNESCO World Heritage Centre · https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/450/ Citation template: Terralore, "The Chronicle of Sri Lanka: From the hydraulic kingdoms of Anuradhapura to an island republic.", terralore.co/country/LKA/chronicle, retrieved .