The Inhabitants: A Journey Through Sri Lanka’s Human Heritage

Sri Lanka’s human story is a tapestry woven from myth and archaeology, wandering hunters and kings, foreign seafarers and indigenous tribes. This small island off the southern tip of India has been home to humans longer than many realise. Archaeologists working in the island’s limestone caves have uncovered quartz and chert tools that push human occupation back to at least 125,000 years ago. By 34,000 years ago the caves at Fa Hien Lena were home to Balangoda Man, anatomically modern humans who fashioned some of the world’s earliest geometric microliths and hunted forest animals. Excavations at Batadomba Lena and Belilena have revealed similar artefacts, while the skeleton of a child dated to around 30,000 years ago ties these ancient people to Sri Lanka’s present-day Veddas.

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Echoes of the Mesolithic: The Vedda and early graves

The descendants of these hunter-gatherers are widely regarded as the Vedda, a small indigenous community who still dwell in Sri Lanka’s forests. Genetic studies indicate that the Vedda are a distinct but ancient group, with ancestors arriving roughly 40,000–35,000 years ago. In folklore they are linked to the Pulinda, descendants of the mythical Yaksha princess Kuveni, but archaeology grounds them in the island’s deep past. At the Ibbankatuwa burial site near Dambulla, pottery urns filled with cremated remains and jewellery have been carbon-dated to 700–450 BCE, making this one of Sri Lanka’s oldest proto-historic cemeteries. Beads of carnelian, onyx and agate found there were imported from the Indian subcontinent, hinting that trade links pre-dated written history.

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Myths, tribes and the first kingdoms

Long before written records, legends told of supernatural tribes inhabiting Lanka. The Raksha and Yaksha were said to be fearsome beings; Ramayana describes the Raksha ruler Ravana, while the Mahāvamsa tells how Prince Vijaya slew a Yaksha king and married the Yaksha princess Kuveni. Their children were called Pulinda, and later chronicles associated them with the Vedda. Folklore also speaks of the Naga, a serpent-like people, and of the tiny, elusive Nittaewo, whom the Vedda claimed to have exterminated. Whether rooted in memory or myth, these stories reflect an early awareness of cultural diversity on the island.

The historical narrative begins with Anuradhapura, founded as a capital by Pandukabhaya in the fourth century BCE. According to the Mahāvamsa, he delineated village boundaries, built hermitages and irrigation tanks, and unified much of the island. His kingdom was influenced by both South Indian and indigenous traditions. A few decades later King Devanampiya Tissa met the Indian monk Mahinda at Mihintale; this encounter converted the king to Buddhism, and he donated his royal park to establish the Mahāvihara monastery. The nun Sanghamitta soon arrived with a sapling from the Bodhi tree, founding an order of Buddhist nuns. Over time three monastic centres—Mahāvihara, Abhayagiri and Jetavana—emerged, reflecting different doctrinal leanings: the Mahāvihara upheld orthodox Theravāda, while Abhayagiri and Jetavana embraced Mahāyāna and Tantric influences. Kings patronised different monasteries; King Mahasena even suppressed the Mahāvihara while supporting Abhayagiri and Jetavana.

Religion intertwined with politics. The arrival of the tooth relic of the Buddha during King Kithsirimevan’s reign became a symbol of legitimate kingship. Kings like Dutthagamani built monumental stupas and unified the island; Mahasena and Vasabha expanded irrigation networks with massive reservoirs and canals, feats of engineering that still support agriculture. In the fifth century, King Kashyapa I fled to the rock fortress of Sigiriya, where he built a magnificent palace with ramparts, moats, terraced gardens and an ingenious hydraulic system still functioning today. Frescoes of ethereal maidens and a polished mirror wall remain as testaments to his reign.

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A mosaic of peoples

Sinhalese and Tamils

Most Sri Lankans trace their ancestry to the Sinhalese and Tamils. The Sinhalese emerged from Indo-Aryan migrants who arrived on the island around the fifth century BCE and intermarried with indigenous groups like the Yaksha. The Sri Lankan Tamils share linguistic roots with Tamil and Malayalam speakers of southern India. Scholars suggest they have lived in northern Sri Lanka since at least the 13th century, developing a distinct culture shaped by isolation and interaction with the Sinhalese; their social systems often resemble those of the Sinhalese more than those of Indian Tamils. Many Sri Lankan Tamils consider themselves a unique community, separate from later Indian Tamil migrants who were brought to work on plantations during the British period.

Vedda

The Vedda maintain a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in Sri Lanka’s forests. Though small in number, they represent the island’s deepest human roots. The Vedda preserve oral traditions linking them to the Pulinda and early tribes, while genetic studies confirm their antiquity.

Muslims and Burghers

Islam arrived through trade. Arab merchants began visiting Sri Lanka’s ports around the 9th century and some settled permanently, marrying local Tamil and Sinhalese women. Later South Indian Muslims also migrated to the island. Portuguese colonisers applied the term “Moors” to these Muslim communities; the Tamil word “Sonakar” and the Sinhala “Yonaka” derive from “Yona,” meaning Greek or Arab. Today’s Sri Lankan Muslims descend from a blend of Arab, Persian, Dravidian and Malay ancestry, with the Indian element predominant due to centuries of intermarriage.

A more recent addition to the mosaic is the Burgher community—descendants of Portuguese, Dutch and British settlers who married local women. Their forebears were Portuguese and Dutch soldiers, traders and administrators who settled in coastal towns from the 16th century onward. Under Dutch rule they were called “Burghers,” derived from the Dutch word Burger (citizen). This Eurasian group developed its own creole languages and customs, with Portuguese-Burgher communities still present in Batticaloa today.

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Colonisation, conflict and independence

Sri Lanka’s strategic location along Indian Ocean trade routes attracted European powers. Portuguese sailors arrived in 1505 to buy cinnamon and spices; within decades they were entangled in local politics, installing client rulers and seizing territory. In 1638 the Kandyan king Rajasinghe II enlisted the Dutch East India Company to expel the Portuguese. The Dutch captured forts and expelled the Portuguese by 1658 but then retained the coastal provinces for themselves, violating their promise to return lands to the Kandyan king.

The Dutch period ended when European wars weakened their grip; Britain captured coastal Ceylon during the Napoleonic wars and in 1815, after the Kandyan nobility signed the Kandyan Convention, the last independent kingdom was ceded to the British. This ended more than 2,300 years of Sinhalese monarchy. Under British rule the island became a plantation economy, and Indian Tamils were brought to work on tea estates. The British introduced railways, schools and Western governance but also fostered ethnic divisions.

In the early 20th century, an educated Sri Lankan middle class launched a non-violent independence movement. Political parties and trade unions pressed for reform, and after World War II Britain agreed to constitutional devolution. On 4 February 1948 the Dominion of Ceylon gained independence as a member of the Commonwealth. The nation later declared itself a republic on 22 May 1972. Modern Sri Lanka inherited a complex legacy: ancient irrigation tanks and rock fortresses, multi-ethnic communities bound by history and myth, and the ongoing challenge of forging unity in diversity.

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Understanding the present through the past

Sri Lanka’s inhabitants are not a single people but a constellation of stories. Hunter-gatherers left beads and tools in caves; legends conjured Yakshas and Nagas; monks carried sacred relics and seeds of Buddhism; Arab traders exchanged spices and languages; European colonisers built forts and plantations; activists negotiated independence. These layers of history are not just academic facts but living threads that shape Sri Lanka’s art, food, rituals and politics. Appreciating this rich heritage fosters empathy across communities and reminds us that the island’s strength lies in its diversity.