Parlance, the English were brought in by the Kandyans to establish "human Himself is presented as a cruel `Malabar Ruler' in the treaty. Tamil' (andara demala, Telegu) was a language of Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe's court,Īnd as many as 1/3 of the Adigars (Chiefs) signed in Andra-Tamil. Of the Kandyian kingdom use the name Sinhalé therein. The 1815 treaty between the English and the `Adigars' The name "Sinhalé" was used when Kandasamy was crowned Of 1681 uses the name Ceylon and Conde Uda to refer to the kingdom The Frenchman Sier Sanson's 1652 map uses 'Ceylan'. Zeilon, and Ceylon are adapted from "Serendib". Subsequent names, e.g., 'Ceilao', "Ceilan", `Ceylam', Ceylan', Arab traders (circa 7th century) used the name
The Romans used names like Salendiv (Cerendiv) closely related to the `Taprobane' isīelieved to be derived from `Tambapanni', a name allegedly given to the island byįounder-Prince, Vijaya, because of the golden brown sands of the coast near The name Salaka was also used in Greek, at the time. The 1st-2nd century CE the country was known to the West as Taprobane. Ptolemy's map used the name Taprobane, establishing that in The name Taprobana is attributed to Megasthenes in the 4thĬentury BCE. The early Pali writings of Sri Lanka also mention similar names for kingdoms located in the Kalin(g)kam, vaṅkam, kaṅ- kam, makatam, kaṭāram, kavuṭam, koklam, tamilakam Kutakam, konkanam, kanna-tam, kollam, telin(g)kam, "cinkalam" from "Tamlaak(h)am", viz., cimkaḷam, This is further clarified by noting thatĮighteen countries are mentioned in early Tamil literature, clearly distinguishing Similarly, the name Lanka → Ilankai was adapted during the Cankam period into Sinhala Prakrit itself became known as "Elu", or "Hela-basa" හෙලබස. Thus the form Lanka → Helanka හෙලංකා appears in Sinhala Prakrit Was adopted in to Prakrit with the addition of a leading vowel which could be "a, e, (h)e, or i". The name Lanka, used in the Epic chronicles, Sri Lanka was called Lanka, ලංකා Tambapanni, Sinhalé etc., in ancient times. Cologne-Sanskrit-Tamil-English dictionaries.Our etymological, historical, antiquarian, technical Use of the material for scholarly and academic purposes with due acknowledgment is welcome. The material in all pages of this website is copyright material, and reproducing it and/or extracting material for commercial purposes or web-republication, without due permission and acknowledgment are considered an infringement. Or click the letter to go directly to a place name:Ī B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z To search this table of place-names, simply use the "search" function of your browser (e.g, use "Edit", then "Find" or Ctrl+F) and type in the place name ( n.b., many spellings possible, e.g., Vaddukkodai, Vadukoddei, வட்டுக்கோட்டை, Batakotte, බටකෝට්ටෙ), or any word (e.g., Pattini) you are looking for in the dialogue box that opens up: Traditional Sinhala place names in Sri Lanka and their Tamilized forms.īandu Silva's comments on the Mahavamsa, 2011 Mahavamsa chapter by chapter Codrington's history of Ceylon on-line TRADITIONAL SINHALA PLACE NAMES OF TOWNS IN THE NORTH AND EAST SRI LANKA