Fablewings › Sri Lankan history › Part 2

Anuradhapura Rises (c. 500 BCE – 77 BCE)

In these four centuries a cluster of chiefdoms in the northern dry zone became a kingdom centred on Anuradhapura. Buddhism arrived from Ashoka's India, writing appeared on pots and cave walls, and the first tanks were dug. The era ends with Dutugemunu, whose war with Elara became one of the most retold, and most argued-over, stories in Sri Lankan history.

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Two clocks for one history

Almost every date in this era comes from the Pali chronicles, which count years from the Buddha's death. Because scholars disagree about when that was, each reign below carries two dates: the chronicle (traditional) reckoning and the corrected modern one.

The 60-year gap

The traditional Sri Lankan Buddhist era places the Buddha's death in 544/543 BCE. Wilhelm Geiger, translator of the Mahavamsa (1912), recalculated it to about 483 BCE, so every early reign shifts roughly 60 years later.

What the sources sayGeiger worked back from Chandragupta Maurya's accession (c. 321 BCE), admitting the result was only approximate. He called the 544 BCE era 'a relatively late fabrication', probably no older than the 12th century CE, wrong by 'roughly speaking, sixty years'. Many popular books still use the older dates.

The chronicles behind the dates

The Dipavamsa (4th–5th century CE) and the Mahavamsa (5th–6th century CE, attributed to the monk Mahanama) were written by monks of the Mahavihara at Anuradhapura, centuries after the events of this era.

What the sources sayGeiger found the Mahavamsa's style 'modest and simple, indeed dry', its fables an 'outward decoration which can be easily omitted'. Historians generally accept its broad outline of kings while treating its speeches, miracles and numbers as later literary work.

Anuradhapura before its kings

Excavations in the Anuradhapura citadel by Siran Deraniyagala (1988) and by a British–Sri Lankan team under F.R. Allchin and Robin Coningham (from 1989) found a settlement far older than the chronicle's founding story.

Myth and correctionThe Mahavamsa presents Anuradhapura as a village of Vijaya's minister Anuradha, made a city by Pandukabhaya. Radiocarbon dates put the first settlement at about 900 BCE, with iron, rice, horses and cattle. It grew from about 35–65 acres to over 250 acres by the 3rd century BCE.

Timeline: the early kings, two reckonings

Vijaya — Chronicle 543–505 BCE; corrected c. 483–445 BCE

Panduvasudeva — Chronicle 504–474 BCE; corrected c. 444–414 BCE

Abhaya — Chronicle 474–454 BCE; corrected c. 414–394 BCE

Interregnum — Seventeen kingless years; corrected c. 394–377 BCE

Pandukabhaya — Chronicle 437–367 BCE; corrected c. 377–307 BCE

Mutasiva — Chronicle 367–307 BCE; corrected c. 307–247 BCE

Timeline: from Tissa to Dutugemunu

Devanampiya Tissa — Chronicle 307–267 BCE; corrected c. 247–207 BCE

Uttiya, Mahasiva, Suratissa — Ten years each; corrected c. 207–177 BCE

Sena and Guttika — Chronicle 237–215 BCE; corrected c. 177–155 BCE

Asela — Chronicle 215–205 BCE; corrected c. 155–145 BCE

Elara — Chronicle 205–161 BCE; corrected c. 145–101 BCE

Dutugemunu — Chronicle 161–137 BCE; corrected c. 101–77 BCE

Vijaya's successors

The chronicle's first kings ruled from Upatissagama, not Anuradhapura. Their stories are legend wrapped round what may be memories of early chiefly families competing for land and followers.

c. 445 BCE (chronicle 505 BCE): a year without a king

The Mahavamsa says the childless Vijaya, in his last year, sent for his brother Sumitta in India to succeed him, and died soon after. Ministers governed from Upatissagama and Lanka was kingless for a year.

Myth and correctionThis is chronicle legend, not record. No inscription or archaeological find names Vijaya or his ministers; the story's role is to link the island's first dynasty to North India.

Reign of Panduvasudeva (c. 444–414 BCE; chronicle 504–474 BCE)

Vijaya's nephew Panduvasudeva, the Mahavamsa says, sailed from India with 32 companions disguised as mendicants and was given the kingship. His queen was the Sakyan princess Bhaddakaccana, set adrift on the Ganges with 32 companions. He reigned thirty years and had ten sons and a daughter.

Myth and correctionFloating brides and Sakyan kin are stock motifs tying the dynasty to the Buddha's clan, not records of a real voyage.

Settlements named after princes

Later, the chronicle says, Bhaddakaccana's brothers followed her. Each founded a settlement: Rama, Uruvela, Anuradha, Vijita, Dighayu and Rohana. Anuradha built a tank and a palace there, giving his name to the place that became Anuradhapura.

What the sources saySome of these names match real early districts, such as Rohana in the south-east. Scholars read the list as an origin story for known places, composed after they already existed, not as a dated record of colonisation.

Reign of Abhaya (c. 414–394 BCE; chronicle 474–454 BCE)

The eldest son, Abhaya, had been vice-regent in his father's lifetime and was consecrated after his death. He reigned twenty years at Upatissagama, according to the chronicle.

The politicsAbhaya was king, but his nine brothers held real force. Angered when he aided their rebel nephew, they pushed him aside; the chronicle then counts seventeen kingless years (c. 394–377 BCE) under their brother Tissa as regent. This looks like rule by kin-based chiefs, not a strong throne.

Birth of Pandukabhaya

Brahmans foretold that the son of Abhaya's sister Citta, called 'Ummada' (maddening) Citta for her beauty, would kill his uncles. Shut in a one-pillared chamber, she secretly married Digha-gamani; when she bore a son, she swapped him for a baby girl. He was named Pandukabhaya.

Myth and correctionThe hidden-heir plot is a folk-tale pattern, and the chronicle's version cannot be checked against any independent source. Its purpose is to explain why the future founder had to fight his own uncles.

A hunted childhood

The Mahavamsa says the boy was raised among herdsmen, twice escaping his uncles' killers. At sixteen he was taught statecraft by the brahman Pandula, who predicted his queen: Pali, daughter of his uncle Girikandasiva, renamed Suvannapali. Years of fighting followed, from Dola mountain to Arittha (Ritigala).

What the sources sayThe chronicle's geography is detailed but its timespans are suspiciously round; it reads as later monks imagining war among rival chiefs.

The mare-spirit Cetiya

The Mahavamsa says Pandukabhaya captured the yakkhini Cetiya, who took the form of a mare, and she promised to win him the kingdom. With her help his men attacked his uncles' camp after a false embassy, and he killed eight uncles.

Myth and correctionYakkhas in the chronicle are spirits, yet Pandukabhaya later gives them homes and yearly offerings in the city. One common reading is that local cults and their followers were being absorbed into the new royal centre.

c. 377 BCE (chronicle 437 BCE): Anuradhapura founded

After his victory he went to the dwelling of his great-uncle Anuradha, who gave him his palace. A soothsayer chose the site. He consecrated himself with water from a pond there and made Suvannapali his queen and Pandula's son Canda his chaplain.

Myth and correctionThe chronicle explains the name twice over: the place of two Anuradhas, and founded under the Anuradha constellation. Archaeology shows a settlement there some five centuries earlier, so 'founding' really means becoming a royal capital.

Mercy for two uncles

Pandukabhaya spared his eldest uncle, the former king Abhaya, and gave him rule 'for the night' as Nagaraguttika, guardian of the city. The chronicle says the office survived in the capital. He also left Girikandasiva his district of Girikanda.

The politicsTurning a deposed king into a city officer, and a rival uncle into a provincial lord, reads like a settlement between kin factions. It suggests the new king governed by bargaining with powerful relatives, not only by conquest.

Planning a city

The Mahavamsa credits Pandukabhaya with four suburbs, a common cemetery, a place of execution, shrines to local deities, a hall for the sick and a lying-in house. Candala workers were assigned street-sweeping, sewer-cleaning and carrying the dead, and housed outside the centre.

What the sources sayThe detailed list may reflect the 5th-century city the chronicler knew. Even so, it shows ritual purity and occupational groups already shaping how the capital was imagined. Excavation confirms a large, organised settlement by the 3rd century BCE.

A city of many faiths

Before Buddhism arrived, the chronicle's Anuradhapura housed Jain ascetics, Ajivikas, wandering mendicants and brahmans, and Pandukabhaya set aside ground for the Yonas near the west gate, which Merlin Peris reads as a settlement of western foreigners.

What the sources sayThe Buddhist chronicler is a hostile witness to these groups, yet still records them: evidence of religious and foreign variety before Mahinda. Whether Yonas truly lived there so early is debated.

The first city tanks

The Mahavamsa says Pandukabhaya deepened the consecration pond into Jayavapi, the 'tank of victory', laid out the Abhaya tank himself, and mentions a Gamani tank. Abhaya tank is usually identified with today's Basawakkulama.

What the sources sayBasawakkulama is described as the earliest medium-scale tank at Anuradhapura, with Nuwara Wewa and Tissa Wewa about a century later. R.L. Brohier noted its bund was never breached. The identifications of Jayavapi and Gamani tank remain guesses.

Reign of Pandukabhaya (c. 377–307 BCE; chronicle 437–367 BCE)

The Mahavamsa says he took power at 37 and ruled seventy years in Anuradhapura, which would make him 107 at death.

Myth and correctionSeventy years for Pandukabhaya and sixty for his son are among the longest reigns in the chronicle. A 1922 survey of early Ceylon noted variant figures in other versions and doubted the synchronism of Vijaya with the Buddha's death. These lengths look stretched to fill the gap to Ashoka's time.

What kind of kingdom?

Chronicle language makes Pandukabhaya a king of all Lanka. Modern historians are more cautious.

The politicsScholarly summaries say there were no proper kings or central government before Devanampiya Tissa, and that his father was probably a regional chieftain. Michael Roberts calls even Dutugemunu a chieftain who conquered other chieftaincies. The 'kingdom' was likely the strongest of many local polities.

Reign of Mutasiva (c. 307–247 BCE; chronicle 367–307 BCE)

Pandukabhaya's son Mutasiva, the chronicle says, inherited a peaceful kingdom and reigned sixty years. He laid out the Mahameghavana garden, named after a cloud that brought unseasonal rain when the site was chosen. It would become the ground of the Mahavihara.

Devanampiya Tissa and the Ashokan mission

The reign of Devanampiya Tissa is the turning point of the chronicles. Through an alliance with Ashoka's Mauryan empire, the Anuradhapura ruler gained new regalia, a new religion and a monastic order.

c. 247 BCE (chronicle 307 BCE): Tissa becomes king

Mutasiva's second son, Tissa, succeeded him. The Dipavamsa dates his consecration 236 years after the Buddha's death: 247 BCE on Geiger's reckoning, about 307 BCE on the traditional one. The first consecration fell in the month of Maggasira.

What the sources sayThis single Dipavamsa figure shows the two chronologies at work: the same 236 years yields different BCE dates depending on whether the Buddha died in 483 or 544/543 BCE.

The embassy to Pataliputra

Tissa sent gems and pearls to his friend Ashoka. Four envoys, led by his nephew Maha Arittha, embarked at Jambukola, reached the port of Tamalitti in seven days and Pataliputra in seven more. After five months they returned with royal regalia, Ganges water and 'the gift of the Dhamma'. Tissa was consecrated again on the full moon of Vesakha.

What the sources sayRajitha Weerakoon (2016) suggests Tissa also acted from caution towards Mauryan power.

'Beloved of the gods'

Tissa now bore the title Devanampiya, 'beloved of the gods', which Ashoka himself used.

The politicsSome scholars think Ashoka granted the title; others see Tissa adopting Mauryan royal style. Weerakoon notes no sign that Tissa pledged allegiance. Either way, Indian regalia and ritual lifted the Anuradhapura ruler above rival chiefs.

The missions after the Third Council

The Mahavamsa says that after the Third Buddhist Council the elder Moggaliputta Tissa sent missionaries abroad: to Kashmir and Gandhara, the Yona country, the Himalaya, Suvannabhumi and elsewhere. Mahinda was sent to Lanka with four monks: Itthiya, Uttiya, Sambala and Bhaddasala.

What the sources sayThe Mahavamsa credits the monk; other retellings say Ashoka sent the missions, in his seventeenth regnal year. The detailed mission list is known mainly from Sri Lankan Pali sources.

Who was Mahinda?

The chronicles make Mahinda Ashoka's son by Devi of Vedisa (near Sanchi). Before sailing he spent a month at the Vedisagiri monastery with his mother. With him went the novice Sumana and the lay disciple Bhanduka.

Myth and correctionIndependent evidence outside the Sri Lankan Pali tradition does not confirm that Ashoka had a son Mahinda or a daughter Sanghamitta. Some historians therefore treat the royal kinship as a Sri Lankan tradition that enhanced the mission's prestige, while accepting that a mission came.

c. 247 BCE: Mahinda meets the king at Missaka

On the full moon of Jettha (June), says the Mahavamsa, Mahinda alighted on Missaka mountain (Mihintale), about 12 km (8 miles) east of Anuradhapura. King Tissa, out hunting, was led to him by a deity in stag form. After testing the king with a riddle about mango trees, Mahinda preached and the court took refuge. Buddhists mark this as Poson.

Mahinda meets the king

The chronicle's founding scene: the monk Mahinda meets King Tissa, out hunting, on the mountain now called Mihintale. Every Poson full moon pilgrims climb its steps to remember it.

The Mahavihara is founded

Tissa gave the Mahameghavana park to the monks and ploughed a furrow marking the sacred boundary. There rose the Mahavihara, the Great Monastery, centre of Theravada learning, whose monks later wrote the chronicles. Tissa also built the Thuparama, held to be the island's first stupa.

The politicsBecause the Mahavihara wrote the history, its version of events dominates. Rival monasteries founded later, such as the Abhayagiri, appear through its eyes. Readers should remember the chronicles are the record of one monastic tradition.

Caves for the monks at Mihintale

Tissa gave Missaka mountain to the monks, who renamed it Cetiya-pabbata, and had 68 caves cleared for them. Mahinda spent the first rains retreat there.

What the sources sayHere chronicle and archaeology meet. Mihintale and hundreds of similar sites have drip-ledged caves cut with Brahmi inscriptions recording gifts to the sangha, matching the chronicle's picture of an early cave-dwelling order.

Sanghamitta and the Bodhi branch

Queen Anula and her women wished to become nuns, which only a nun could arrange. Tissa asked Ashoka to send Mahinda's sister Sanghamitta. She sailed with eleven nuns and a branch of the Bodhi tree of Bodh Gaya, landing at Jambukola; the king waded in to receive it.

The planting of the Sri Maha Bodhi

The branch was planted in the Mahameghavana; the chronicle says eight saplings went to Jambukola, the Thuparama, Kataragama and elsewhere, then thirty-two more. Families of craftsmen and guilds were sent to tend it.

Myth and correctionPopular sources give 288 BCE or 236 BCE. The Mahavamsa places the planting in Ashoka's eighteenth year, which on Geiger's reckoning falls in the 240s BCE. The tree is often called the oldest human-planted tree with a known date, but that date depends on the chronology used.

The first order of nuns

Sanghamitta ordained Queen Anula and her followers, founding the bhikkhuni order. The king built the Hatthalhaka and Upasika nunneries for them. Prince Arittha and 500 men also entered the order.

What the sources sayThe founding story is chronicle tradition; no contemporary inscription records Sanghamitta or Anula. What is certain is that a women's monastic order became part of island Buddhism.

Reign of Devanampiya Tissa (c. 247–207 BCE; chronicle 307–267 BCE)

Tissa ruled forty years; the chronicle also credits him with the Tissa tank and the Vessagiri monastery. His younger brother Uttiya succeeded.

The politicsK.M. de Silva calls Tissa's conversion decisive for Buddhism's success, since royal patronage sped acceptance. Bardwell Smith and others trace from here a lasting pact: kings protected the sangha, and the sangha lent kings legitimacy.

How much changed?

The chronicle presents a whole people converting within days.

Myth and correctionModern scholars stress that sources are too thin to measure the conversion's real reach. Inscriptions show Buddhism spreading through gifts by chiefs and householders over generations, alongside older cults that persisted. 'Mass conversion' is the chronicle's theology, not a census.

Reign of Uttiya (c. 207–197 BCE; chronicle 267–257 BCE)

Uttiya ruled ten years. In his eighth year Mahinda died, aged sixty, on Cetiya-pabbata during the rains; a week of funeral honours followed. In the ninth year Sanghamitta died at 59 in her convent.

What the sources sayOn Geiger's corrected chronology Mahinda's death falls about 200–199 BCE; on the traditional reckoning, around 259 BCE.

Reigns of Mahasiva and Suratissa (c. 197–177 BCE; chronicle 257–237 BCE)

Mahasiva reigned ten years and built the Nagarangana monastery. His brother Suratissa, also ten years, is credited with some 500 monasteries.

Myth and correctionThe Mahavamsa gives Suratissa ten years as king yet speaks of building over sixty years, explaining that he built both as prince and as ruler. Round numbers like 500 are conventional praise.

Writing on stone and pot: the Brahmi evidence

Alongside the chronicles stands a second, older body of evidence: short Brahmi inscriptions on potsherds and above cave entrances. They were written by or for the people they name, not by later monks.

Brahmi at Anuradhapura: how early?

Coningham, Allchin, Batt and Lucy (Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 1996) reported Brahmi-inscribed sherds from Anuradhapura dated to the start of the 4th century BCE, then the earliest dated Brahmi anywhere in South Asia.

What the sources sayThey suggested Sri Lanka may have helped develop the script. Deraniyagala reported Brahmi sherds from layers dated 600–500 BCE. In Tamil Nadu, K. Rajan reported AMS dates of about 490 and 450 BCE for Tamil-Brahmi contexts at Porunthal (2011), with early claims also for Kodumanal. The dates remain debated.

The cave inscriptions

From roughly the 3rd century BCE onward, hundreds of caves were given to monks, each with a short Brahmi label naming the donor. Senarat Paranavitana's Inscriptions of Ceylon, vol. 1 (1970), remains the standard collection.

What the sources sayR.A.L.H. Gunawardana (1979) noted that donors identify themselves chiefly by lineage, naming fathers and grandfathers, with rank, occupation and labels like upasaka (lay follower). Identity was rooted in family and status.

Chiefs and village heads

Many donors bear titles. The commonest high title is usually read parumaka, a chief; others include gamika, a village head, and later ratika for district heads.

The politicsFamilies of parumakas donating cave after cave suggest a landscape of local chiefs. Sudarshan Seneviratne (1989) traced how such 'pre-state chieftains' became servants of the Anuradhapura state from about the 2nd century BCE. S.K. Sitrampalam (1987) linked the title to Tamil perumakan.

The 'Damela' householders

Five early Prakrit inscriptions are often cited as referring to Dameda or Damela people, the Prakrit word for Tamils: two at Periya Puliyankulam (Vavuniya), one at Seruvila (Trincomalee), one at Kuduvil (Ampara) and one at Anuradhapura. They mention a Tamil merchant, a terrace of Tamil householders and a mariner named Karava.

What the sources sayK. Indrapala (2007) uses these to show Tamils as donors to Buddhist monks by the 2nd century BCE. They counter the idea that every Tamil in the chronicles was an invader.

Tamil-Brahmi and southern trade

Potsherds with early Tamil-Brahmi writing, some claimed to date as early as the 5th century BCE, have been reported from Poonakari in the north to Tissamaharama in the south, some with clan names such as Vela. Coins with Tamil-Brahmi legends, dated about 200 BCE–200 CE, turn up at Tissamaharama.

What the sources sayIravatham Mahadevan's Early Tamil Epigraphy (2003) underpins many of these readings, though exact dates are disputed. They show the island was part of a wider South Indian trading world from early on.

A word that is missing

Gunawardana listed group names in the early Brahmi records: Dameda, Kabojha, Milaka and others.

What the sources sayHe stressed that the word 'Sinhala' does not appear. Its earliest Sri Lankan use is in the Dipavamsa (4th–5th century CE). He argued that the label first meant a ruling dynasty and spread to the whole people only centuries later.

South Indian rulers at Anuradhapura

Twice in the 2nd century BCE (corrected dates) men from South India took the Anuradhapura throne. The chronicle names them Damilas, and its account of them is shaped by what came after.

Reign of Sena and Guttika (c. 177–155 BCE; chronicle 237–215 BCE)

Two Damila brothers, sons of a horse-dealer, overthrew Suratissa with a large army and reigned jointly for twenty-two years. The Mahavamsa itself says they ruled justly.

What the sources sayHorse-dealing ties them to the seaborne trade between South India and the island. Historians read their rise as an episode in the struggle for the capital among merchants, chiefs and kin groups, not a clash of nations.

c. 145 BCE (chronicle 205 BCE): Elara takes Anuradhapura

Asela, a son of Mutasiva, overthrew Sena and Guttika and ruled ten years (c. 155–145 BCE). Then Elara, a Damila 'of noble descent' from the Chola country, defeated him and ruled forty-four years.

The politicsK.M. de Silva (1981) argued that Elara did not rule a united north and had Sinhalese support. The area he held is often described as Pihiti Rata, north of the Mahaweli, while the south-east remained under its own rulers.

The bell of justice

The Mahavamsa says Elara hung a bell by his bed for anyone seeking judgement. When his only son's chariot killed a calf, the grieving cow rang it, and Elara had his son executed under the same wheel. Even a bird whose young a snake ate was given justice.

What the sources sayThe Buddhist chronicler praises a non-Buddhist king's fairness. Historians note that the chronicle, despite its hostility to Elara's beliefs, keeps a tradition of him as a model of justice.

Rohana: a second royal line

Meanwhile in the south-east, the chronicle says, Tissa's brother Mahanaga had fled to Rohana, and his descendants ruled from Mahagama (near Tissamaharama). The devout Kakavannatissa (Kavan Tissa) ruled there in Elara's time.

The politicsRohana had its own resources, ports and chiefs. The rivalry between a southern dynasty and whoever held Anuradhapura recurs for centuries and is central to understanding Dutugemunu.

'Damilas beyond the river'

Kakavannatissa's queen Viharadevi, by legend a Kalaniya princess set adrift at sea, bore Gamani and Tissa. The Mahavamsa's famous scene: the boy Gamani lies curled in bed because, he says, the Damilas are beyond the river and the ocean on this side.

Myth and correctionThis is literary characterisation by a writer of the 5th–6th century CE. It became one of the best-known lines in modern Sinhala school history, and critics note how it has been used to frame Tamils as hemming in the Sinhalese.

Dutugemunu and Elara: the war

The Mahavamsa devotes eleven of its first 37 chapters to Dutugemunu (Dutthagamani). His war with Elara is the climax of its early history, told as an epic.

The angry prince

Gamani wished to fight the Damilas; three times his father forbade it, saying the land this side of the river was enough. Gamani sent him a woman's ornament as an insult and fled to the hills of Malaya. The chronicle says he was therefore called Duttha-gamani, 'angry' or 'wicked' Gamani.

The war of the two brothers

When Kakavannatissa died, Tissa fled with their mother and the state elephant Kandula. Gamani was crowned at Mahagama and fought him at Culanganiyapitthi, where the chronicle says thousands died. After further fighting, monks brokered peace and Tissa was put in charge of the harvest.

The politicsBefore facing Elara, Dutugemunu had to win a civil war in his own family. Britannica notes he fought his brother twice to win the crown and Kandula.

The campaign begins

Gamani had a relic set in his spear and asked for monks to march with his army. The chronicle has him declare that he fought not for the joy of kingship but to establish the Buddha's teaching.

What the sources sayThis speech, written centuries later, frames the war as religious. W. Siriweera argued that, read between the lines, it was a struggle for power among rulers. Dhammavihari Thera (1989) noted that the Mahavamsa never calls it a 'Sinhala' war.

The siege of Vijitapura

After defeating Chatta at Mahiyangana and seven princes in one day, Gamani besieged Vijitapura, a fortress with three moats and an iron gate. After four months, the chronicle says, Kandula broke the gate.

What the sources sayVijitapura's site is uncertain: one view places it near Kalawewa, another near Kaduruwela by Polonnaruwa. The battle is dated 161 or 162 BCE on the traditional chronology, around 101 BCE on the corrected one.

Thirty-two kings, not one

The chronicle says Gamani overthrew 32 Damila kings before reaching Elara.

What the sources sayGunawardana (1979) argued this is best explained as Dutugemunu uniting the island against many independent principalities. He noted that not all his opponents were Tamil: one general's uncle served Elara (Mahavamsa 23). The chronicle labels all defeated chiefs 'Damilas'.

c. 101 BCE (chronicle 161 BCE): the duel at the south gate

Elara came out on his elephant Mahapabbata. Gamani proclaimed that none but he should kill the king, pursued him to the south gate of Anuradhapura and slew him with a dart as their elephants clashed. The chronicle says Lanka was now under one rule.

Honours for a fallen enemy

Dutugemunu cremated Elara where he fell, built a monument and ordered it honoured. The chronicle adds that Lanka's princes still silenced their music when passing it.

What the sources sayWriters on every side have cited this passage: some to praise Dutugemunu's chivalry, others to show that Elara was respected even by his conqueror. It undercuts readings of the war as pure ethnic hatred.

'One and a half men'

After victory, the chronicle says, Gamani grieved over the death of 'millions'. Eight arahants consoled him: only one and a half true persons had died, one a refuge-taker and one keeping precepts. The rest, they said, were no more than beasts.

Myth and correctionThis is one of the chronicle passages its critics cite most often. Scholars read it as the chronicler's theology of righteous war, not a record of what monks actually said.

Reading the war: four historians

Modern scholarship has steadily reframed the story.

What the sources saySiriweera (1976, 2004): a feudal power struggle; Elara had Buddhist and Sinhalese ministers. K.M. de Silva (1981): the chronicle omits inconvenient facts. K. Indrapala (2005): an epic recreation, with 'liberation' an anachronism. Gunawardana (1979): unification against many principalities, retold through later conflicts.

A Tamil perspective

Tamil historians have long read Elara differently.

What the sources sayS. Pathmanathan (The Kingdom of Jaffna, 1978) saw Elara as a just ruler portrayed with hostility by the chronicler. Indrapala (2005) argued that rule by a chief from South India was no more foreign at the time than rule by one from Rohana. Both reject a 'perpetual Sinhala–Tamil conflict'.

Timeline: Dutugemunu's war

Youth — Quarrel with father; flight to Malaya

Accession — Crowned at Mahagama; war with brother Tissa

Campaign — Mahiyangana, Ambatitthaka, seven princes defeated

Siege — Vijitapura falls after four months

c. 101 BCE — Elara killed at Anuradhapura's south gate

After — Bhalluka defeated near the Mahavihara

Reign of Dutugemunu (c. 101–77 BCE; chronicle 161–137 BCE)

Britannica gives his reign as 101–77 BCE or 161–137 BCE, noting how far his life has merged with myth. The chronicle has him say he was patron of the sangha for twenty-four years.

The Lohapasada, or Brazen Palace

The chronicle's Lohapasada was a nine-storey uposatha house for monks, roofed in copper plates. Dutugemunu also built Mirisawetiya over the spear that held his relic. The site today has 1,600 stone pillars in 40 rows of 40.

Myth and correctionThe ruins visible today reflect many later rebuildings. The chronicle's nine storeys are literary; it says the building burnt in Saddhatissa's reign and was rebuilt seven storeys high.

c. 140 BCE (traditional): the Great Stupa begun

Dutugemunu began the Mahathupa, now Ruwanwelisaya, on Vesakha full moon. Elephants with leather-bound feet tramped the foundations. It was to hold relics, including by tradition the Buddha's bowl.

What the sources sayPopular sources date the start to about 140 BCE, on the traditional chronology; the corrected date is around 80 BCE. Mahinda's prophecy that a descendant would build it is chronicle framing.

A death before completion

Falling ill, Dutugemunu asked his brother to finish the stupa. Tissa draped the unfinished dome in white cloth and set a bamboo spire on it so the dying king could see it 'complete'. He had his book of merits read aloud and died within sight of it.

Myth and correctionThe chronicle says he was reborn in Tusita heaven and will be chief disciple of the future Buddha Maitreya. This promise turned a warrior into a model Buddhist king.

Ruwanweli rising

The Great Stupa under construction, as the chronicle imagined it: elephants pounding the foundation and a dying king watching from his litter.

Reign of Saddhatissa (c. 77–59 BCE; chronicle 137–119 BCE)

Saddhatissa reigned eighteen years. He completed the Great Stupa, rebuilt the Lohapasada seven storeys high after a fire, and founded the Dighavapi stupa. After him came Thulathana, Lanjatissa, Khallatanaga and Vattagamani, whose reign opens the next era.

What the sources sayThe chronicle prophesies that Saddhatissa will be second disciple of Maitreya, after his brother. The once-rival brothers are united in the text's religious ending.

The early sangha

By the end of this era the sangha lived mainly in donated caves and in monasteries such as the Mahavihara, supported by kings, chiefs and householders.

The politicsGunawardana's Robe and Plough (1979) traced monasteries' later growth as landholding institutions. In this early period, the chronicle shows, they already legitimised kings, mediated royal quarrels, as between Gamani and Tissa, and, through the Mahavihara, controlled the writing of history.

The beginnings of irrigation

Rain-fed farming in the dry zone depended on storing monsoon water. Small village tanks came first; Pandukabhaya's Abhaya tank (Basawakkulama) and Tissa's Tissa Wewa were early medium-scale works near the capital.

Myth and correctionPopular histories credit great kings with the whole system. Larger reservoirs multiplied later, notably under King Vasabha in the 1st century CE; the early network was built tank by tank, often by local communities and chiefs.

A story for the 20th century

Few ancient episodes have mattered more in modern Sri Lanka than Dutugemunu's war. How it was read changed with politics.

The chronicle as ideology

Michael Roberts (1993) describes how the Mahavamsa presents Lanka as destined by the Buddha to preserve the Dhamma, with its people chosen guardians and its king sacred.

What the sources sayRoberts argues the Mahavamsa refashioned Dutugemunu, a chieftain conquering other chieftaincies, into a Sinhala culture hero, and that this historical consciousness supplied a foundation for later nationalism.

Colonial race theory and the Aryan Sinhalese

Gunawardana traced how 19th-century European theories of 'Aryan' race reshaped Sinhala identity.

What the sources sayJames de Alwis (1852, 1866) claimed Aryan status for Sinhala; by the 1890s–1920s the Buddhist press and school histories adopted the theory. Gunawardana argued the Dutugemunu story was then read as a model of Sinhala–Tamil war, a projection the ancient sources do not support.

1956 and after

Walpola Rahula's History of Buddhism in Ceylon appeared in 1956, a pivotal election year.

The politicsSachi Sri Kantha (2018) argues that its use of the chronicle's heroic framing resonated with Sinhala Buddhist voters. Tamil and other critics point to the story's recurring political use, including in victory rhetoric after the civil war ended in 2009.

The People of the Lion (1979)

R.A.L.H. Gunawardana's essay in the Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities argued that Sinhala identity was not fixed from Vijaya's day.

What the sources sayHe held that 'Sinhala' first meant the dynasty and its aristocracy, extended to kingdom and people around the 11th–12th centuries, with ideological roots in state formation from the 2nd century BCE. The essay drew strong attacks from nationalist writers.

Critics of the critic

Gunawardana's thesis itself became a debate.

What the sources sayMichael Roberts (1993) accepted much of it but argued Sinhala consciousness could be pushed back to the 5th–6th centuries. Laksiri Fernando, reviewing Gunawardana's Historiography in a Time of Ethnic Conflict (1995), argued religion more than ethnicity drove the Dutugemunu story.

Looking back: Anuradhapura Rises

Historians now see this era less as the reigns of great kings than as the slow growth of a state from rival chiefdoms, visible in Brahmi records and excavated layers. The chronicles' dates sit about 60 years too early, and their Dutugemunu is an epic hero shaped by 5th-century monks and re-read by 20th-century nationalists. What remains secure is a literate, Buddhist, multi-ethnic island centred on Anuradhapura.

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