Polonnaruwa Era

Polonnaruwa lies in the dry zone of Sri Lanka's North Central Province. The Central Cultural Fund records that its history reaches back well before it was a capital. A Brahmi inscription of the 2nd century BCE on a cave shelter there records a gift to Buddhist monks, and during the Anuradhapura period the town served as a provincial capital that was important to the security of the kingdom.

UNESCO describes Polonnaruwa as the second capital of Sri Lanka after the destruction of Anuradhapura in 993. The Chola conquerors from southern India governed from here. A Library of Congress country study explains the choice of site: it was near the Mahaweli river, could be defended, and had irrigation works and storage tanks in the vicinity, including the Minneriya tank. When King Vijayabahu I drove out the Cholas in 1070, he too ruled from Polonnaruwa.

The Central Cultural Fund names three rulers whose work made the city: Vijayabahu I, Parakramabahu I and Nissanka Malla. The ICOMOS evaluation for UNESCO notes that after 1070 the city was covered with Buddhist sanctuaries, among them the Atadage, the Temple of the Tooth Relic.

Parakramabahu I, who reigned from 1153 to 1186, created a garden city inside a triple wall. ICOMOS dates to his reign the Lankatilaka, a very large brick structure that preserves a colossal image of the Buddha, and the Gal Vihara with its rock sculptures. Nissanka Malla followed him and built the Rankot Vihara, a stupa whose plan recalls those of Anuradhapura. The seven-storeyed palace of Parakramabahu, which the chronicles say had a thousand rooms, is preserved to a height of two storeys.

The Central Cultural Fund calls the Polonnaruwa period the golden age of agriculture in Sri Lanka. It credits Vijayabahu I with restoring irrigation works damaged during the invasions at the end of the Anuradhapura era, and Parakramabahu I with building the reservoir named Parakrama Samudra, the Sea of Parakrama. In this period, it says, Sri Lanka was able to export rice to many lands.

Encyclopaedia Britannica gives the scale of the reservoir: a storage area of more than 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) for the irrigation of 18,000 acres (7,300 hectares). The Library of Congress study describes the reign of Parakramabahu as the last major period of Sinhalese hydraulic engineering. Britannica adds that a grain tax, water dues and trade in surplus grain were major sources of the king's revenue, and that this income made widespread religious building possible.

Builders at Polonnaruwa worked in brick where Anuradhapura had widely used stone, and the Central Cultural Fund notes that this made it possible to put up many buildings in a comparatively short time. The vaulted brick image houses of Lankatilaka, Tivanka and Thuparama are examples. The Vatadage, a circular stupa shrine, has stone carvings on its plinth and slender stone pillars that once carried a roof.

The city also holds Hindu shrines. UNESCO lists the Brahmanic monuments built by the Cholas as part of the site, and the stone Siva Devales follow South Indian architectural traditions. Finds point to wider contacts. Chinese coins of the Sung dynasty from the 12th century and Chinese ceramics have been found here, and the Central Cultural Fund links the city's foreign relations to its nearness to the harbour of Trincomalee and to the Mahaweli river.

After Nissanka Malla died in 1196 the kingdom was weakened by a succession of ineffective rulers, as Britannica relates. In 1214 Magha of the Kalingas invaded with an army of mercenaries and took control, and his rule lasted until 1255. Sinhalese rulers then set up new capitals to the south-west, and the population gradually followed. The Library of Congress study names Parakramabahu III, who reigned from 1278 to 1293, as the last king to rule from Polonnaruwa.

The ruins drew antiquarian interest in the mid-19th century. The Archaeological Department was established in 1890, and work began to recover the monuments. UNESCO inscribed the Ancient City of Polonnaruwa on the World Heritage List in 1982. The Central Cultural Fund has carried out conservation, management and archaeological research at the site since 1980.