About Ceylon History.

The story of ancient Ceylon has its inaugurations in the culture of rocky, the rocky Age. And ageless, everlasting period, the rocky Age In Ceylon stretched from 125,000 BC to 1000 BC. besieging 10 of 1000 of years, the dimension are so immeasurable that we still can't measure it properly. It is like grinding through a field glass, looking at a world so far away that's apparent only in fractions, a caducousing glimpse here and there. This era is called "pre-history". The time before the dawn of History.. 

It is while the period that we find ray's of early man. He seems to have lived approximately everywhere ; along the maritime, on the familiar and amongst the rolling lea of the upcountry. The greatest happiness evidence though survives in caves. It is only then that the rocky Age commences to take shape in our memory. At tunnel like Fa Hsien – lena, near Buthsinhala (C 35000 3400 BC) Batadomba – lena in Kuruwita (C 29000 9500 BC) and Beli lena in Kitugala ( C 28000 1500 BC ).

The Balangoda Man is a popular diction, derived from his being great for the Mesolithic "Balangoda Culture" first confident in sites near Balangoda. The skeleton are brawny, with thick cranium-bones, protuberant brow-ridges, depressed broad noses, heavy jaws and short shorts necks. The teeth are patently large. These traits have endured in varying degrees interring the Veddas and some Sinhalese groups, consequently pointing to Balangoda Man as a fecundity ancestor.

Ceylon has an enchanting recorded history of civilisation. Its peerless and proud historical record of a superior civilization spans further 25 chronicled centuries, and is comprehensives primarily in 3 books; the Mahavansa , Dipavansa and Chulavansa. Ceylon history is exquisite as it has a historical record, any is ancient, continuous and confidential, and begins with the livelihood of the island by civilised men in 5th century, BC. The story carry on under one by one consecutive king for over 20 centuries. The Mahavamsa is fundamentally a dynamic and ecclesiastical historical record. In addition to this record, there are over 2500 epigraphs in Ceylon. The earliest epigraphs are synchronous with the introduction of Buddhism in the 3rd century BC. More over 1000 epigraphs, for the most part inscribed on caves, belong to the 3rd, second and 1 centuries BC, appear in the dry zone also in the ancient caves temples in Colombo, Kegalla, and Kandy.

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 The historical records disclose a past intricated by a composition of the historical and the mythological. The legend of Prince Vijaya, from whom the Sinhalese claim descent, is one such instance. Archaeological testimony reveals formerly settlement in Ceylon. Ceylon’s earliest residents were the Veddahs who attend around 125,000 BC. Given its strategic installation, the country operated as an appreciable trade port and recession of nature for merchants of China, Arabia & Europe. Ceylon’s history have be categorized as follows;

The Historic aeon

The Mahavamsa records the hereditary history of Ceylon as
it was conceived in the 4th century AD. The account is
based in ample measure on an earlier work that brought the
history of Ceylon down to the time when Ashoka despatched
hi's son Mahinda to convert Ceylon and was perfected by addition of a 4th century edition continuing the history of the island down to the wield the spectre of King Mahasena (337-364). The Mahavamsa, as it now dwells, includes a few later affixture inserted about the turn of the 1st the millennium.

Pre Historic Times (beyond 1000BC)

Yaksha and Naga Period
The Thammanna Kingdom 543 BC-505 BC
The Upathissa Grama-526 BC-504
The Panduwas Nuwara - 504 BC 474 BC

The Historic aeon (when Ceylon was ruled by regional kings,rulers - 483BC to 1815AD)

Anuradhapura Era 483 BC-1017 AD
Polonnaruwa Era 1017-1215
Dambadeniya Era 1215-1272
Yapahuva Era 1272-1300
Kurunagala Era - 1293 - 1341
Gampola Era 1341- 1415
Kotte Era 1415 - 1514
Kandyan Era 1514 - 1815

The Colonial times

Portuguese Period 1505
Dutch Period 1796
British Rule 1815 - 1948

Pre Historic Period

The earliest-conceived inhabitants of Ceylon ar the ancestors of the Wanniyala-Aeththo people, as well as known as Veddahs.From the ancient times date some marvelous archaeological sites include the ruins of Sigiriya, the so called , the large "tanks" or reservoirs, responsible for conserving water in a environment that alternates rainy seasons with dry times, and chiselled aqueducts, some with a inclination as finely calibrated as 1" to the mile. Ancient Ceylon was likewise the 1st in the world to have constituted a dedicated hospital in Mihintale in the fourth century BC. Ancient Ceylon was likewise the world's leading exporter of cinnamon, which was exported to Egypt as early as 1400 BC. Ceylon is the 1st Asian nation to have a female ruler in Queen Anula (47–42 BC).

The 1st literary Ceylons between Pandyas of Madura and Lanka seem in the semi conventional part of the Mahavamsa which unearths of the position of the Sinhala king by Vijaya who arrived on the island of Ceylon in the year of Buddha's nirvana (486 to 483 BC).

The earliest citation to the usage of coins in Ceylon is found in the Buddhist books and papers which refer types of coins released in the 3rd century BC. These earliest known coins were few pieces of metal, normally of silver, punched with a plentiful Royal mark. The metal was subjected to punching with marks of many institutions. These punched marked metal are referred to as `purana'and Englished as `eldling'. The eldlings were maked by subdividing bars of metal or borders cut from a hammered strap, the weight beast adjusted where suitable by clipping the corners of every coin so formed. for the period of Pandya domination over Ceylon which ended from the time of the first Tamil occupation about 177 BC to the period when the kings of Ceylon were able to afford their independence in a steadfast manner from more about 28 BC the Elephant coinage of the Pandyas was present both in Madura and in Ceylon.

According to the Mahavamsa once the Sinhala king Sirinaga I died in AD 275 he was succeeded by his son Voharaka Tissa: but another son named Abhaya Naga collected a military on the mainland, invaded and took management of Lanka in 297. During the 360's AD Lanka was dominated by Sri Meghavarna (364-392), son of Mahasena, WHO is recorded to possess brought the Buddha's tooth relic from Kalinga and to possess sent an embassy to Samudragupta. Lanka was later visited by the Chinese pilgrim fa Hsien in 411-412, throughout the reign of Mahadharmakathin and by the Buddhist author Buddhaghosha when Mahanaman (409-431) was king. shortly once the top of Mahanaman's reign the Sinhala king Mitrasena was killed by a "Damila named Pandya". The Pandya occupation of northern Lanka lasted some twenty seven years (433-460), till they were expelled by the Sinhala king Dhatusena (460-478). In 478 Kasyapa taken the throne, once imprisoning his father Dhatusena, however he was eventually de-throned in 496 by his brother Maudgalyayana, who brought an Indian army from his exile within the Penninsula. The island remained conciliation underneath Maudgalyayana (496-513) and his son Kumaradasa (513-522). Family struggles then supervened till Maudgalyayana II(537-556) brought a replacement time of peace. After Maudgalyayana's death his son Kirtisrmegha was quickly de-throned by Mahanaga (556-559), a former official from Southern Lanka. once Mahanaga died he was succeeded by the heir apparent, his sister's son Agrabodhi (559-592). The throne then passed to Agraboahi's sister's son Agrabodhi eleven (592-602).

Polonnaruwa was established because the town of the land in eleventh century AD. substitution Anuradhapura because the capital town of Sri Lanka, due its constant south Indian invasions, it remained because the capital till thirteen AD. The vital kings of the Polannaruwa time were King Wijayabahu the 1st, King Maha Parakramabahu the 1st and King Nissankamalla.

With the South Indian Kings ruling the country, Prince Keerthi of Ceylon shaped a military and attacked. He defeated the South Indian King and was referred to as King Wijebahu the 1st. as a result of this foreign trade was done between South Asia, Arab and China, the foremost important King during this era was King Maha Parakramabahu the primary who dominated from 1153 AD to 1186 AD. throughout his time, he built a hundred sixty five dams 3000 canals, 163 major and 2376 minor tanks. Following his death the Sinhalese kingdom began to interrupt due to war and foreign attacks. At the tip of thirteen century the glory of Ceylon pale. For seventy years Sri Lanka was dominated by Cholas from South India.

Colonial Era

Ceylon had continuously been an important port and commerce post within the ancient world, and was more and more frequented by merchant ships from the center East, Persia, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, indonesia and alternative components of Southeast Asia. The island were best-known to the primary European explorers of South Asia and settled by several teams of Arab and Malay merchants. A Portuguese colonial mission arrived on the island in 1505 headed by Lourenço de Almeida the son of Francisco de Almeida. At that time the island consisted of three kingdoms, that is to say Kandy within the central hills, Kotte at the Western coast, and Yarlpanam (Anglicised Jaffna) within the north. The Dutch arrived within the seventeenth century. though abundant of the island came underneath the domain of European powers, the interior, mountainous region of the island remained independent, with its capital in Kandy. British east india Company established management of the island in 1796, declaring it a crown colony in 1802, though the island wouldn't be officially connected with British India. the fall of the kingdom of metropolis in 1815 unified the island underneath British rule.

Sri Lankan Independence And Independence Movement

Following the tip of war I and II, pressure for independence in Ceylon intense. The workplace of the Prime Minister of Ceylon was created prior to of independence on fourteen October 1947 and Don Stephen Senanayake was chosen because the 1st prime minister. On four february 1948 the country won its independence because the Commonwealth of Ceylon. On twenty one July 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike took workplace as prime minister, and have become the world's 1st feminine prime minister and therefore the 1st feminine head of presidency in post-colonial Asia. In 1972, throughout Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike's second term as prime minister, the country became a republic inside the Commonwealth, and therefore the name was changed to Ceylon

source: srilanka.travel