ANURADHAPURA GREAT MONASTIC CITY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

The city of Anuradhapura is situated tow hundred and five kilometers north of Colombo in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka on the bank of the Malwathu Oya. Founded in the 4^th Century BC it was the capital of the Anuradhapura Kingdom till the beginning of the 11^th century AC. During this period it remained one of the most stable and durable centers of political power and urban life in South Asia. It was also a wealthy city which created a unique culture and a great civilization. Today this ancient city of Sri Lanka, which is sacred to the Buddhist world, with its surrounding monasteries covers an area of over forty square Kilo Meters (16 Sq Mils) and is one of the worlds major archeological sites.

According to the “Mahawansa” the great Chronicle of the Sihalese , the city of Anuradhapura was named after a minister called Anuradha who founded this area as village settlement by the Malwathu Oya (Maluwathu River) where water was readily available in the second half of the 6^th century BC. He was one of the ministers who had accompanied King Vijaya from India who, according to tradition, landed in Sri Lanka and founded the Sinhala race. Some years later, a prince of the same name become overlord in that village and built a reservoir and a residence. The Chronicle says that a place was called Anuradhagama (Anuradha’s Village) because it had served as dwelling two Anuradhas and also because it was founded under the constellation Anuradha.

It is said that King Pandukabhaya made it his capital in the 4^th century BC, and that he also laid out the town and its suburbs according to the well organized plan.He constructed a reservoir named “Abhayavapi”.  The tradition that king pandukabhaya made Anuradhapura the capital city of Sri lanka as early as the 4^th century BC had been very important. The administrative and sanitary arrangement he made for the city and the shrines he provided indicate that over the years the city developed according to an original master plan. His son Mutasiva, succeeded to the throne. During his reign of sixty years, He maintained Anuradhapura as his capital and further laid out the Mahamegawana Garden which was to play an important role in the early history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.It was a period of his successor, his son Devanampiya Tissa, that Buddhism was first introduced to this island 236 years after the passing away of the Buddha. A contemporary of Devenampiya Tissa was Emperor  Asoka in India. Historically this period considered to extend from 250 to 2010 BC. This is the point at which a Kingship began and a civilitation developed based on one of the greatest religions of South Asia, Buddhism.

Recent excavation carried out at the citadel Of Anuradhapura reveals much valuable information about the very early inhabitants of this city, one of the most ancient and most prosperous cities of South Asia. The said excavation revealed details of the existence of a proto-historic habitance. The protohistoric Iron age is considered to be from ca. 900-600 BC. This period is marked by the appearance of iron technology, pottery which is Black & Red ware (BRW), the horse, domestic cattle and paddy cultivation. It is now evident that by ca. 700-600BC, the protohistoric settlement at Anuradhapura had extended over an area of at least 50 he, designated a town. Its location, equidistant from a major ports of the northwest & northeast, surrounded by irrigable and fertile earth and defensible against invaders with its deep burrier of forests suggest a deliberate selection of the locus by a centerlised authority.