Sinhalese History & Sri Lanka History - Pre-history of Sri Lanka, Garden of Eden & Adam's Bridge of Sri Lanka, Recorded History of Sri Lanka, Modern History of Sri Lanka

125,000 years ago
Palaeolithic human settlements by 125,000 year old people using quartz tools

34,000 years ago
Balangoda people; Mesolithic hunter gatherers lived in caves

28,000 years ago
According to some expert archaeologists, humans lived in Lanka. Unexcavated caves belonging to Pahurakanda temple bear evidence to this.

20,000 years ago
Prehistoric skeletal remains have been unearthed & there are two sites in Sigiriya, which have continuous sequence for around 20,000 years according to archaeologist Dr. Senaka Banadaranayake.

Circa 10,000 BC
The first Stone Age culture emerges in Sri Lanka, & is related to early settlers in Australia, the Nicobar Islands & Malaysia, etc. Stone age factory in Bandarwela, Hill country uses fire to shatter quartz to make tools (microliths).

According to Sir James Emerson Tennant Galle was the "Tarshish" referred to in the Bible as the port where ships trading with King Soloman obtained their Elephants, Peacocks & Gemstones.

Circa 6000 BC
Beginnings of Neolithic settlements-Sumeria, Egypt & Indus Valley
Sun dried brick houses, domestication of cattle, agriculture, and Copper known

Circa 4000 BC
Invention of the potters' wheel

Circa 300O BC
Epic mythological war of India's Prince Rama, an incarnation of Hindu god Vishnu against Lankadipa's demon king Ravana; Ram'a quest to save his abducted wife Sita, from Ravana. Righteous Vibishana, a brother of King Ravana, takes the side of Lord Rama & wage war against his brother. Rama conquers Lanka & returns the throne to Vibhishana & claims no tribute.

Circa 2500 BC
Beginnings of the astronomical observations takes place in India.

Circa 1500 BC
The emergence of Indian Astrology in India- an Ancient Science

Indian Astrology is considered to be one of the oldest, most accurate and consistent form of astrology all over the world. It is a natural cosmic science based on real astronomy. In India, where Astrology is taken very seriously, it is one of the most important gifts to the Indian culture. Indian Astrology is generally regarded to be very predictive in nature and hence, it can help you to face the future in a better way, evading any misfortunes or obstacles that might be laid down in your path to success.

The ancient Vedas which are said to be the oldest religious literature available has references to this science. "Jyothisha or Astrology" is one of the limbs of the "Vedas" which date back to 1500 B.C. Hindus were the original masters who had the thorough knowledge of astronomy and many rituals and religious rites were related to the position of planets and their motions.

Long before Keppler, Copernicus, Brahe, Galilio and other galaxy of astronomers were born, the Hindu sages had already gained much knowledge on the stellar or planetary universe.

Indian Astrology has been divided into three main branches of study: Siddanta, Samhita & Hora.

Siddantas are those who devote to astronomical study of celestial bodies Samhitas deal with mundane astrology, earth quakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, rainfall, weather conditions economic conditions and effects of sunspots.The next and the very important branch is the Phalitha Jyothisha branch which concentrates on the system of predictions. And this branch has six sub-divisions, namely, Jathaka, Gola, Prasna, Nimitta, Muhurta and Ganitha.

Apart from these schools of planetary interpretations, Indians have what they call Nadi system which gives pen pictures of life and destiny patterns of people born at 12,24,48 seconds intervals. These have been written on palm leaves. Only very few experts can read and understand these, but the results and predictions are found to be amazingly accurate.

Indian Astrology - In a nut-shell

The Indian astrology study consists of 27 constellations, in 12 lunar mansions. The movements of two luminaries Sun and Moon, five major planets (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mercury) and the two nodal points of the Moon i.e., Rahu and Ketu are considered and their positions are marked. The extra Saturnine planets like Pluto, Neptune and Uranus are not recognized by the Indian Astrology Above all, Moon is taken as very important planet for predictions though it is satellite of earth. The Moon, at the time of birth is found in a particular position or in a particular star and it will be taken as the star of the person born. This star will be used for finding out the major and sub-periods of the person in his life.

Indian Astrology - Utility
To predict the future events.
To match the birth-charts of the couple at the time of marriage for a successful married life.
To provide a Life reading containing issues of a person's personal life.
To find out the Muhurath (best time) to start any auspicious ceremony.
To determine which stars are affecting one's life.
To provide a remedy for your problems.
To determine the right Gemstone to be used to become successful in life.

Circa 1500 BC
Aryan immigration into India: Indo-Aryans reaches Assyria in the west & the Punjab in the east. Iron arrives, Vedic age in India, composition of the Rig Veda. The bearers of the Vedic civilization, as sometimes called Vedic Aryans or Indo-Aryans were the precursors to modern Hinduism. The term derives from the Sanskrit word "Arya". Sanskrit language is described as "the language of the Gods". Sanskrit has unparalleled depth & unique richness among all languages of the world. Indo-Aryans are the ethno-linguistic descendants of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranians. It is also argued that prior to Indo-European language Sanskrit, there existed a still older language (Proto-Indo-European) from which all the Indo-European languages descended.

The spread of Indo-Aryan languages has been connected with the spread of the chariot in the first half of the second millennium BC. Most of the languages of the North India belong to a single language family, the indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European family of the languages. The languages of South India belong to a different language family, the Dravidian languages.

Dr. Max Muller's Indo-Aryan theory is contested, albeit unconvincingly, by Dr. David Frawley with his"Out of India" theory. It is not claimed that India is the Urheimat (original homeland) of the Indo-Europeans, but rather that "the Aryans could just as well have been native to India for several millennia, deriving their Sanskritic language from earlier Indo-European dialects. According to Frawleys's faulty theory, the history of Sri Lanka runs another couple of millenniums into the past. However the recorded & well substantiated history of Sri Lanka begins in 543 BC.

Present-day Indo Aryans (population: 500 million)
Gujarati people,Jats, Punjabis, Kashmiris, Sindhi people, Marwaris, Marathas, Biharis, Bengalis, Assamese, Oriyas, Roma, Sinhalese, Chhettris, Kalasha.

Circa 1000 BC
Aryan expansion, Gangetic plains, composition of the Brahmans

Circa 900-800 BC
Epic Age, creation of Ramayana & Mahabharata

Circa 877 BC
The twenty third tirthankar (prophet or founder of the path) was born in a royal family at Varanasi. Having renounced the world at an early age, he practices austerities & finally attained the Kaivalya or the supreme knowledge. His teachings in seventy years had tremendous impact on the society & he is often viewed as the real founder of Jainism.

Tirthankars are liberated souls who were once in bondage but became free, perfect, & blissful through their own efforts: they offer salvation by way of three jewels, i.e. right path, right knowledge & right conduct, from the ocean of phenomenal existence & the cycle of rebirths.

Circa 599 BC
The twenty-fourth & the last among the tirthankaras of the present age, Mahavira was born in the royal family of Kundalgrama in 599 B.C. He was given the name of Vardhamana because with his birth the prosperity, fame & merit of his family increased. From his childhood, Mahavira was inclined to humanize the society by wiping out the inequality, exploitation, autocracy & injustice. To begin with, he renounced the world subsequent to 30 years of aristocratic living & went through the life of an ascetic. He used to starve his body but his soul feasted through meditation & spiritual advancement, Following 12 years of austerity he attained Kaivalya or the supreme knowledge under a Sal tree on the banks of Rijupallika river in Giridih. Thereafter, he became a Kevatin or the repository of supreme knowledge, capable of propagating the truth he knew.

Besides incorporating the principles laid down by Parsvanath, Mahavira brought in the doctrines of Brahmacharya (total chastity) by preaching self-purification, he gave a new & firm direction to the faith propounded by his predecessors.

Among his well known teachings are Syadvada, the art of appreciating other's point of view, & Karmavada, importance of self in shaping one's destiny. Jainism, in the same tradition as that of Buddhism, dismisses the interference of so called Supreme Being: it recognizes no supreme deity.

Running against the grain to Hinduism, Jainaism upholds the cause of an individual whose status in the society is determined by his labour & not by his birth. It also recognises that efforts & dedication could bring about perfection. Yet like its parent sect, Brahmanism, the Jainism admits in practice the institution of caste & a group of 16 essential rites, called samskaras, prescribed for the first three varna (castes) of Hindus & recognizes some of the minor deities of the Hindu pantheon: nevertheless, Jainism, like Buddhism, is essentially atheistic.

Jainsim teaches fourteen stages in the evolution of the soul from impurity to purity or complete liberation. For Jains, the path towards their goal consists of adhering to three spiritual jewels- right knowledge, right faith & right conduct.

The most notable feature of Jain ethics is its insistence on non-injury to all forms of life. Jainism find that every kind of thing has a soul; therefore strict observance of precept of non-violence (ahmisa) requires extreme caution in all activity to prevent living beings being killed.

Circa 563-483
Prince Siddhartha, attained eternal & total enlightenment following a prolonged meditation by means of middle path (golden means), having given up means of austerities which failed to achieve the ultimate objective of end to all suffering. The emergence of Budhism, an essentially atheistic & profound religion that recognizes no supreme deity.

Circa 550 BC
Composition of Upanishads in India

1802
Ceylon becomes a Crown Colony

1813
The American Mission founds the Batticotta Seminary (later Jaffna College) in Tamil speaking Jaffna. The establishment of these Christian schools was a means of spreading Christianity in Sri Lanka.
Education & employment in Colonial Sri Lanka was restricted to Christians.
Buddhist Sinhalese & Hindu Tamils had to become Christians to advance themselves within the colonial administration.
This situation resulted in, at the independence in 1948 ( population then 8 million), 49 out of 103 schools were in the Tamils populated North & the Tamil populated East servicing an almost exclusively Tamil population: 12% of the population, the Tamils had access to 50% of the education institutions which translated into public sector employment.
At independence in 1948, 42% of the beurocracy Ceylon consisted of minority Tamils.

In effect successive European Colonial administrators relied heavily on the Tamil minority, local & immigrant from South India, to administer the country, since the bulk of the Sinhalese majority were opposed to European rule. This was compounded by the European colonial powers encouraging millions from South India to settle in Sri Lanka as a means of cheap labour to work in the tobacco plantations (Portuguese) in Jaffna & coffee, tea & rubber plantations in the central hills. Tea plantations (British) alone had over a million Indian labourers in the island, which at independence in 1948 had a population of only 8 million. This was a deliberate colonial policy to dilute & weaken majority Sinhalese who resisted colonial rule.

1815
Sinhalese chieftains in Kandy, who despised king Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, voluntarily submitted to the British in 1815 by signing a pact with British at "Magul Maduwa" which stands to date close to "The Holy temple of Tooth Relic" by the Kandy lakeside.
Last Kandyan king deposed & exiled in Madras.
Soon the island was dotted with coffee, cinnamon & coconut plantations & a network of roads & railways was built to handle to new economic revolution. English became the official language of the rulers.

1826
Ceylon's Rosetta stone was found; ola parchment at Mulgirigala that led to deciphering of classical Pali scripts, & the translation of the Mahawamsa.

1833
Colebrooke Report (1831-32) was an important document in the history of the island. G.C. Mendis, considered by many to be the doyen of modern Sri Lankan history, considers the Colebrooke-Cameron reforms to be the dividing line between the past and present in Sri Lanka.
Under Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms, English becomes the language of administration.

1869
A devastating leaf disease--hemleia vastratrix struck the coffee plantations and spread quickly throughout the plantation district, destroying the coffee industry within fifteen years. Climatic conditions for the cultivation of tea were excellent in Sri Lanka, especially in the hill country. By the end of the century, tea production on the Island had risen enormously.
The British were unable to persuade the Sinhalese to work cheaply & willingly on the plantations, so they imported large number of Dravidian labourers from India

1871
The first official census conducted by the the Briish rulers: total population 2.8 million

1886
Ruins of Polonnaruwa discovered

1891
Sri Lanka's Anagarika Dharmapala founded the Mahabodhi Society & launch "Save Bodh Gaya" campaign. Bodh Gaya (Bihar), one of holiest of holy Buddhist sites in the world was threatened with irrecoverable devastation.
It was at Uruvela ( modern Maha Bodhi) that Prince Siddhartha, then an ascetic, attained eternal & total enlightenment following a prolonged meditation by means of middle path (golden means), having given up means of austerities which failed to achieve the ultimate objective of end to all suffering.

Bodh Gaya, today is one of the five most famous Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India. Other four sites are Lumbini, near the Shakyan capital of Kapilavastu in the southern region of Nepal where Buddha was born; Deer Park at Saranath (Uttar Pradesh), just north of Varanasi the place of his first sermon; Kushinara, where Buddha left the world & eternal suffering.

1908
"The Sinhalese people are not, in my opinion, happier or better than they were in the eighteenth century. Talk of progress, & the reality, are not the same. Civilzation is supposed to advance by the creation of new desires, to gratify which the individual must endeavour to improve his position. But in reality it is not quantity, but quality of wants that may be taken as evidence of progress in the Art of Living. No one acquainted with modern Sinhalese taste will pretend that it gives evidence of any improvement in the quality of wants. Indeed, it is sufficiently obvious that quantity, variety, & novelty are not really compatibale with quality."
Mediaeval Sinhalese Art : Sri Lankan Tamil scholor Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy comparing the period prior to British rule with the period of British rule

1918
The Jaffna Association of Jaffna Tamils submits 50-50 representation formula for the Legislative Council in memo.

15th Aug. 1921
Tamil political party, Tamil Mahajan Sabha, once again takes up call for 50-50 representation. Herein a 12% of Tamil minority in Sri Lanka demands 50% representation in the legislative council. This would leave majority Sinhalese -70% of the population- with only 50% representation in the legislative council.

1922
H. W. Codrington, B. A.(Oxon.) F. R. N. S. of Ceylon Civil Service publishes "Ceylon currency & coins"

1926
H. W. Codrington publishes "Short history of Ceylon" history till year 1833 in about 50,000 words.
A Tamil scholor Mudaliyar C. Rasanayagam's "Ancinet Jaffna" is published. In the final chapter on page 384 he mentions that the Sinhalese occupied Jaffna before the Tamils & goes on to give his reasons.

1931
Universal franchise granted by the Donoughmore Constitution. No leader of Ceylon had agitated for it in the legislative Council. At best there were lone voices of the Lablour leader A. E. Gunasinghe & George E. de Silva, the Member of Kandy. Nowhere in British Empire was the experiment carried out in the decade of the nineteen thirtees.
The first General Election in Ceylon under universal franchise held in 1931 was boycotted by four electorates of Jaffna peninsula: Jafna, Kankesanturai, Kayats & Point Pedro giving unmistakable message Tamil predominant Jaffna peninsula was opposed to universal franchise.

1935
The Jaffna Association repeats its demand for 50-50 representation: 50% for the Sinhalese who consists 70% of the population of the island, 25% for the Tamils, 25% for the other minorities.

1937
G. G. Ponnambalam of Ceylon Tamil Community clamours for "fifty-fifty" representation in the state council with parity status with the Sinhalese speaking majority & All Tamil speaking minorities.
All Tamil speaking minorities, The Ceylon Tamils (descendants of invaders who later became settlers), the Indian Tamil (brought in to the island by the British colonialists for the tea plantations) & the Muslims put together accounted for only 30.1% of the population whereas the Sinhalese accounted for 69.2%. The exact parallel today is that the Ceylon Tamils demanding for two-thirds of the coastline of the entire nation & one third of the landmass, while accounting only one-eighth of the population.

1941
Unlike India, where nationalists demanded a guarantee of independence as recompense for their support in the war effort, Sri Lanka committed itself wholeheartedly to the Allied war effort. Although the island was put under military jurisdiction during the war, the British and the Sri Lankans maintained cooperative relations. Sri Lankan pressure for political reform continued during the war, however, and increased as the Japanese threat receded and the war neared its end. The British eventually promised full participatory government after the war.

1946
Soulbery Commission of the British Colonialist rulers rejects proposal of fifty-fifty presented by the all powerful All Ceylon Tamil Congress.