The following is a list of Sri Lankan monarchs since 543 BC.2 The main source for many of these monarchs are the chronicles of the island maintained by monks, known as the Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa, Chulavamsa and the Rajaveliya. This list should be used with the following factors kept in mind. Firstly the dates provided for the earliest monarchs are difficult to objectively verify; those which are particularly difficult to know have been denoted with a (?) mark. Secondly in terms of succession it is difficult to divide the monarchs into 'houses' or 'dynasties' as often the throne was passed around amongst related individuals within a particular clan; especially in medieval times there were no articulated rules of succession and whoever was in possession of the sacred Tooth Relic had a good claim to being called king, which was around the times of the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa to the Kingdom of Kandy. Thirdly the list only includes monarchs who had possession of most of the island and the power at any one time, therefore monarchs from kingdoms and sub kingdoms such as Ruhuna, Maya Rata, Dhakkinadesa and the Jaffna kingdom are not on this list. Also the island of Sri Lanka has been invaded by many foreign powers over its 2500 year history, mainly from South India, and some even seizing the throne making the island part of its empire. Most notable is the Cholas in 985 and British in 1815. The Portuguese and the Dutch however did not seize the Kandyan throne but only occupied territory within the island.
It should be borne in mind that there is controversy about the base date of the Buddhist Era, with 543 BC and 483 BC being advanced as the date of the parinibbana of the Buddha. As Wilhelm Geiger pointed out, the Dipawamsa and Mahawamsa are the primary sources for ancient South Asianchronology; they date the consecration (abhisheka) of Asoka to 218 years after the parinibbana. Chandragupta Maurya ascended the throne 56 years prior to this, or 162 years after the parinibbana. The approximate date of Chandragupta's ascension is known to be within two years of 321 BC (from Megasthenes). Hence the approximate date of the parinibbana is between 485 and 481 BC - which accords well with the Mahayana dating of 483 BC.3
According to Geiger, the difference between the two reckonings seems to have occurred at sometime between the reigns of Udaya III (946–954 or 1007–1015) and Pârakkama Pandya (c. 1046–1048), when there was considerable unrest in the country.3 However, mention is made of an embassy sent to China by Cha-cha Mo-ho-nan in 428. The name may correspond to 'Raja (King) Mahanama', who (by the traditional chronology) reigned about this time.4
Furthermore, the traveller-monk Xuanzang, who attempted to visit Sri Lanka about 642, was told by Sri Lankan monks (possibly at Kanchipuram that there was trouble in the kingdom, so he desisted;5 this accords with the period of struggle for the throne between Aggabodhi III Sirisanghabo, Jettha Tissa III and Dathopa Tissa I Hatthadpath in 632–643.
Recent indological research has indicated that the Parinibbana of the Buddha may be even later than previously supposed. A majority of the scholars at a symposium held in 1988 in Göttingen regarding the problem were inclined towards a date of 440–360 BCE. However, their calculations were based on the chronology of Tibetan Buddhism, preferred over that of the Dipavamsa/Mahavamasa; the modified chronology, in order to work, needs to identify the Indian ruler Kalasoka, son of Susunaga, with the Emperor Asoka, son of Bindusara.67 It should be noted that the Sri Lankan chronicles are based on even earlier works and that the Buddhist canon was first put into writing in Sri Lanka. The chronology of the following list is based on the traditional Therevada/Sri Lankan system which is based on 543 BC, or 60 years earlier than the Mahayana calendar. The dates after c. 1048 are synchronous.
Note on ordering
The monarchs on this page are ordered firstly according to the state in which they ruled and secondly the house or dynasty from which they came from, this is so up until the Kingdom of Dambadeniya to the Kingdom of Kandy. During the time of the Kingdom of Dambadeniya to the Kingdom of Kandy] the island of Sri Lanka was under great upheaval and house or dynasty is very hard due to lack of information and sources.
*Eldest child of Sihabahu and Sinhasivali
*Grandson of Suppadevi
*Great Grandson of the king of Vanga and daughter of the king of Kalinga
*Great Great Grandson of the king of Kalinga
After the invasion of Kalinga Magha with the intent of ruling the whole island the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa was sacked which saw the massive migration of the Sinhalese to the south and west of the island. Unable to capture the whole island Kalinga Magha establishes the Jaffna kingdom becoming its first monarch. The Jaffna kingdom is situated in modern northern Sri Lanka while the Kingdom of Dambadeniya was established by Vijayabahu III on the rest of the island in around 1220.8
In 1796 British gained control of the coastal areas from the Dutch and in 1815 the entire island. The Kandyan Convention of 1815 recognized the King of England as the King of Kandy, hence the British Monarchs from 1796 to 1948 was the Monarchs of Ceylon.
^ S G M Weerasinghe, A history of the cultural relations between Sri Lanka and China: an aspect of the Silk Route, Colombo: Central Cultural Fund, 1995, ISBN 955-613-055-1, p.40)
^ Stephen Spencer Gosch, Peter N. Stearns, Premodern Travel in World History, Routledge, 2008; ISBN 0415229405, p.93
