Chapter 4a - Saga of foreign domination in the Island (introduction)

Sri-Lankā is one of the most famous islands in the world and kept its fame up down the centuries. It was known in Europe as Taprobane and in Arabic writings as Serendib. It is described as Laṅkā in Ramayana. Sri-Lankā is mentioned in the edicts of Mauryan emperor Aśoka of India, as a country to which he bestowed benevolent services, in the third century B.C. It appears from the chronicles that the nation had been founded at least two centuries before these inscriptions.

It appears from the archeaological evidences that the history of the Island began several centuries earlier before the coming of the Aryan. When the Aryans arrived in the Island, they saw the aborigins like Yakkhas and Nāgas who had their own material culture.