Post-classical period

Main articles: Polonnaruwa period and Transitional period of Sri Lanka

Following a 17-year-long campaign, Vijayabahu I successfully drove the Chola out of Sri Lanka in
1070, reuniting the country for the first time in over a century. [65][66] Upon his request, ordained monks
were sent from Burma to Sri Lanka to re-establish Buddhism, which had almost disappeared from
the country during the Chola reign.[67] During the medieval period, Sri Lanka was divided into three
sub-territories, namely, Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya.[68]

The seated image of Gal Vihara in Polonnaruwa, 12th century,

which depicts the dhyana mudra, shows signs of Mahayana influence.
Sri Lanka's irrigation system was extensively expanded during the reign of Parākramabāhu the
Great (1153–1186).[69] This period is considered as a time when Sri Lanka was at the height of its
power.[70][71] He built 1,470 reservoirs – the highest number by any ruler in Sri Lanka's history –
repaired 165 dams, 3,910 canals, 163 major reservoirs, and 2,376 mini-reservoirs. [72] His most
famous construction is the Parakrama Samudra,[73] the largest irrigation project of medieval Sri
Lanka. Parākramabāhu's reign is memorable for two major campaigns – in the south of India as part
of a Pandyan war of succession, and a punitive strike against the kings of Ramanna (Burma) for
various perceived insults to Sri Lanka.[74]
After his demise, Sri Lanka gradually decayed in power. In 1215, Kalinga Magha, an invader with
uncertain origins, identified as the founder of the Jaffna kingdom, invaded and captured the Kingdom
of Polonnaruwa. He sailed from Kalinga[72] 690 nautical miles on 100 large ships with a 24,000 strong
army. Unlike previous invaders, he looted, ransacked and destroyed everything in the ancient
Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Kingdoms beyond recovery.[75] His priorities in ruling were to extract
as much as possible from the land and overturn as many of the traditions of Rajarata as possible.
His reign saw the massive migration of native Sinhalese people to the south and west of Sri Lanka,
and into the mountainous interior, in a bid to escape his power.[76][77]
Sri Lanka never really recovered from the effects of Kalinga Magha's invasion. King Vijayabâhu III,
who led the resistance, brought the kingdom to Dambadeniya. The north, in the meanwhile,
eventually evolved into the Jaffna kingdom.[76][77] The Jaffna kingdom never came under the rule of
any kingdom of the south except on one occasion; in 1450, following the conquest led by
king Parâkramabâhu VI's adopted son, Prince Sapumal.[78] He ruled the North from 1450 to 1467 CE.
[79]

The next three centuries starting from 1215 were marked by kaleidoscopically shifting collections of
capitals in south and central Sri Lanka, including
Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Gampola, Raigama, Kotte,[80] Sitawaka, and finally, Kandy. In 1247, the
Malay kingdom of Tambralinga which was a vassal of Sri Vijaya led by their
king Chandrabhanu[81] briefly invaded Sri Lanka from Insular Southeast Asia. They were then
expelled by the South Indian Pandyan dynasty.[82] However, this temporary invasion reinforced the
steady flow of the presence of various Austronesian merchant ethnic groups,
from Sumatrans (Indonesia) to Lucoes (Philippines) into Sri Lanka which occurred since 200 BCE.
[83]
Chinese admiral Zheng He and his naval expeditionary force landed at Galle, Sri Lanka in 1409
and got into battle with the local king Vira Alakesvara of Gampola. Zheng He captured King Vira
Alakesvara and later released him.[84][85][86][87] Zheng He erected the Galle Trilingual Inscription, a stone
tablet at Galle written in three languages (Chinese, Tamil, and Persian), to commemorate his visit.[88]
[89]
The stele was discovered by S. H. Thomlin at Galle in 1911 and is now preserved in the Colombo
National Museum.
Early modern period
Main article: Kandyan period
See also: Portuguese Ceylon, Dutch Ceylon, and British Ceylon period

A 17th-century engraving of Dutch explorer Joris van

Spilbergen meeting with King Vimaladharmasuriya in 1602 A

1595 map of Sri Lanka created by Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius
The early modern period of Sri Lanka begins with the arrival of Portuguese soldier and
explorer Lourenço de Almeida, the son of Francisco de Almeida, in 1505.[90] In 1517, the Portuguese
built a fort at the port city of Colombo and gradually extended their control over the coastal areas. In
1592, after decades of intermittent warfare with the Portuguese, Vimaladharmasuriya I moved his
kingdom to the inland city of Kandy, a location he thought more secure from attack.[91] In 1619,
succumbing to attacks by the Portuguese, the independent existence of the Jaffna kingdom came to
an end.[92]
During the reign of the Rajasinha II, Dutch explorers arrived on the island. In 1638, the king signed
a treaty with the Dutch East India Company to get rid of the Portuguese who ruled most of the
coastal areas.[93] The following Dutch–Portuguese War resulted in a Dutch victory, with Colombo
falling into Dutch hands by 1656. The Dutch remained in the areas they had captured, thereby
violating the treaty they had signed in 1638. The Burgher people, a distinct ethnic group, emerged as
a result of intermingling between the Dutch and native Sri Lankans in this period. [94]
The Kingdom of Kandy was the last independent monarchy of Sri Lanka.[95] In 1595,
Vimaladharmasurya brought the sacred Tooth Relic—the traditional symbol of royal and religious
authority amongst the Sinhalese—to Kandy and built the Temple of the Tooth.[95] In spite of on-going
intermittent warfare with Europeans, the kingdom survived. Later, a crisis of succession emerged in
Kandy upon king Vira Narendrasinha's death in 1739. He was married to a Telugu-
speaking Nayakkar princess from South India (Madurai) and was childless by her.[95]
Eventually, with the support of bhikku Weliwita Sarankara and ignoring the right of "Unambuwe
Bandara", the crown passed to the brother of one of Narendrasinha's princesses, overlooking
Narendrasinha's own son by a Sinhalese concubine.[96] The new king was crowned Sri Vijaya
Rajasinha later that year. Kings of the Nayakkar dynasty launched several attacks on Dutch
controlled areas, which proved to be unsuccessful.[97]

Sri Vikrama Rajasinha of Kandy, the last ruling native Sri

Lankan monarch
During the Napoleonic Wars, fearing that French control of the Netherlands might deliver Sri Lanka
to the French, the British Empire occupied the coastal areas of the island (which they called the
colony of British Ceylon) with little difficulty in 1796.[98] Two years later, in 1798, Sri Rajadhi
Rajasinha, third of the four Nayakkar kings of Sri Lanka, died of a fever. Following his death, a
nephew of Rajadhi Rajasinha, eighteen-year-old Kannasamy, was crowned.[99] The young king, now
named Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, faced a British invasion in 1803 but successfully retaliated. The First
Kandyan War ended in a stalemate.[99]
By then the entire coastal area was under the British East India Company as a result of the Treaty of
Amiens. On 14 February 1815, Kandy was occupied by the British in the second Kandyan War,
ending Sri Lanka's independence.[99] Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, the last native monarch of Sri Lanka,
was exiled to India.[100] The Kandyan Convention formally ceded the entire country to the British
Empire. Attempts by Sri Lankan noblemen to undermine British power in 1818 during the Uva
Rebellion were thwarted by Governor Robert Brownrigg.[101]
The beginning of the modern period of Sri Lanka is marked by the Colebrooke-Cameron reforms of
1833.[102] They introduced a utilitarian and liberal political culture to the country based on the rule of
law and amalgamated the Kandyan and maritime provinces as a single unit of government.
[102]
An executive council and a legislative council were established, later becoming the foundation of
a representative legislature. By this time, experiments with coffee plantations were largely
successful.[103]
Soon, coffee became the primary commodity export of Sri Lanka. Falling coffee prices as a result of
the depression of 1847 stalled economic development and prompted the governor to introduce a
series of taxes on firearms, dogs, shops, boats, etc., and to reintroduce a form of rajakariya,
requiring six days free labour on roads or payment of a cash equivalent.[103] These harsh measures
antagonised the locals, and another rebellion broke out in 1848.[104] A devastating leaf
disease, Hemileia vastatrix, struck the coffee plantations in 1869, destroying the entire industry
within fifteen years.[105] The British quickly found a replacement: abandoning coffee, they began
cultivating tea instead. Tea production in Sri Lanka thrived in the following decades. Large-scale
rubber plantations began in the early 20th century.

British appointed Kandyan chief headmen in

1905.
By the end of the 19th century, a new educated social class transcending race and caste arose
through British attempts to staff the Ceylon Civil Service and the legal, educational, engineering, and
medical professions with natives.[106] New leaders represented the various ethnic groups of the
population in the Ceylon Legislative Council on a communal basis. Buddhist and Hindu revivalism
reacted against Christian missionary activities.[107][108] The first two decades in the 20th century are
noted by the unique harmony among Sinhalese and Tamil political leadership, which has since been
lost.[109]
The 1906 malaria outbreak in Ceylon actually started in the early 1900s, but the first case was
documented in 1906.
In 1919, major Sinhalese and Tamil political organisations united to form the Ceylon National
Congress, under the leadership of Ponnambalam Arunachalam,[110] pressing colonial masters for
more constitutional reforms. But without massive popular support, and with the governor's
encouragement for "communal representation" by creating a "Colombo seat" that dangled between
Sinhalese and Tamils, the Congress lost momentum towards the mid-1920s.[111]
The Donoughmore reforms of 1931 repudiated the communal representation and
introduced universal adult franchise (the franchise stood at 4% before the reforms). This step was
strongly criticised by the Tamil political leadership, who realised that they would be reduced to a
minority in the newly created State Council of Ceylon, which succeeded the legislative council.[112]
[113]
In 1937, Tamil leader G. G. Ponnambalam demanded a 50–50 representation (50% for the
Sinhalese and 50% for other ethnic groups) in the State Council. However, this demand was not met
by the Soulbury reforms of 1944–45.