Sri
Lanka / History / Ancient Times
According
to legend, as related in the Mahawamsa, the Buddhist
chronicle, Sinhala history begins with the arrival
of a group of 700 people of Indo-Aryan stock led by
Prince Vijaya from the Indian mainland in 544 BC.
Gradually, the island's original inhabitants, the
aborginal Veddahs were replaced by these settlers.
Sinhala history really comes into its own with the
establishment of Anuradhapura, the first great capital
of Sri Lanka around the 4th century B.C. This was
also the time when, with the efforts of Mahinda, the
son of India's Ashoka the Great, Buddhism proliferates
over the royal family of Anuradhapura and subsequently
the entire island.
One of the famous kings of Anuradhapura was Dutugemunu
who is revered even now as the most important national
hero among the Sinhalese. Regular invasions from South
India forced the abandonment of Anuradhapura for Polonnaruwa
further south-east which asserted its place in Sri
Lankan history as the second great capital under Parakramabahu
1 and Nissanka Malla, two of its illustrious rulers.
Polonnaruwa was reduced to desolation like its predecessor
by nagging depredations from South Indian kingdoms
and the centre of Sinhalese power shifted to Kotte
on the south west coast where in 1505 with the coming
of the Europeans began a new phase in Sri Lankan history.
