A Brief History of Sri Lanka

The resplendent island known to be Sri Lanka in its native language Sinhala continues to live up to its definition to be gleaming and brilliant. Perhaps the earliest inhabitants in this splendid country were the forefathers of the aboriginal group of people called Veddas who came as early as prior to 6th century B.C. before they were besieged by the next inhabitants. In between the 6th and 5th century B.C. came a large group of indo-Aryan ethnic people from the north of India called to be the Sinhalese which now comprise about three-fourths of the population. Sri Lanka is a neighbouring country of India therefore emigrations most likely came from different ethnic groups of different parts of India. Another ethnic group of people now emerged, emigrating from the Tamil region at the south of India forming the second largest group of inhabitants in the island, known as the Tamils. From these two major ethnicities bloomed the official language of the island – Sinhala and Tamil. From accounts, it was believed that they arrived sometime between the 3rd century B.C. and A.D. 1200.

In the 16th century, presumably 1505, the Portuguese settled in the land until the Dutch took over by trading spice in the 1658 to 1796. The English took over in 1796, translated the formerly Portuguese-named Celião into the English word Ceylon and claimed the country as their colony, where they developed the land from its produce, its government to its educational system. The native people arose during the World War I to claim their freedom, and its primary success was through the constitution of 1931. On February 4, 1946 Ceylon was recognized as a self- governing country in the Commonwealth of Nations. The name Ceylon was later changed into Sri Lanka on May 22, 1972 and at present it is now officially known as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.