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Anuradhapura Kingdom

South AsiaHeartland today: Sri Lanka

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The first long-lived kingdom of Sri Lanka, ruled from Anuradhapura for about 1,300 years. It took Buddhism from Ashoka's India and kept a Bodhi tree cutting there until Chola invasions in the early 11th century ended it.

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Key events

  1. Anuradhapura becomes the capital of the island's first kingdom, and the chronicles credit King PandukabhayaDisputed

    The date (377 BCE) comes from the Mahavamsa, written centuries later, and is not independently confirmed. Wikipedia's article carries a factual-accuracy warning and its infobox gives 437 BCE, so the date is uncertain.

  2. – Mahinda, son of Ashoka, brings Buddhism to the island, and a cutting of the Bodhi tree brought by Sanghamitta is planted at AnuradhapuraDisputed

    Wikipedia dates Mahinda's arrival to 247 BCE; Britannica dates the planting of the Bo tree branch to about 245 BCE. Other chronologies differ by a few decades.

  3. Dutugemunu defeats the Tamil king Elara at Anuradhapura and takes control of the whole islandDisputed

    The date (161 BCE) is the chronicle tradition, which Wikipedia follows (reign 161–137 BCE). Britannica gives his reign as 101–77 BCE and notes uncertainty over the dating. The Mahavamsa was written in the Buddhist monastic community some centuries afterwards and treats Elara as a just ruler who was nonetheless a foreigner.

  4. Sri Lankan monks write down the Pali Buddhist canon for the first time, under King Vattagamani AbhayaDisputed

    The Mahavamsa says the monks wrote the canon down in Vattagamani Abhaya's reign; Wikipedia places the writing at Aluvihara near Matale. Wikipedia gives 29–17 BCE for the writing (following Norman and the Dipavamsa) but dates the king's reign to 103 and c. 89–77 BCE, so the sources disagree by several decades.

  5. – Kassapa I, who took the throne from his father Dhatusena, builds a fortress palace on Sigiriya rock

    Britannica gives his reign as 477–495, ending in defeat.

    Sources

  6. A Pandya army under Srimara Srivallabha sacks Anuradhapura, and King Sena I withdraws to the hill countryDisputed

    The invasion is generally dated to about 846, early in Sena I's reign; the reign itself is dated 833–866 or 846–866, so the year is approximate. Both sources are Wikipedia articles, which cite the Culavamsa and Pandyan copper-plate inscriptions.

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  7. – Chola invasions from 993 end with the capture of the island's king, Mahinda V, in 1017, and the Sinhalese capital moves away from Anuradhapura

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