The following is a list of Sri Lankan monarchs since 543 BC 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 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
the throne was often 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 seized the throne and made the island part of their empires. Most notable are 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.
.....to be cont....
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