source for many of these monarchs are the chronicles of the island maint-
ained by monks, known as the Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa, Chulavamsa and the
Rajaveliya. This list should be used with the following factors kept in mind.
Firstly the dates provided for the earliest monarchs are difficult to objectively
verify; those which are particularly difficult to know have been denoted with
a (?) mark. Secondly in terms of succession it is difficult to divide the mona
rchs into 'houses' or 'dynasties' as often the throne was passed around
amongst related individuals within a particular clan; especially in medieval
times there were no articulated rules of succession and whoever was in
possession of the sacred Tooth Relic had a good claim to being called king,
which was around the times of the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa to the Kingdom
of Kandy. Thirdly the list only includes monarchs who had possession of most
of the island and the power at any one time, therefore monarchs from kingdoms
and sub kingdoms such as Ruhuna, Maya Rata, Dhakkinadesa and the Jaffna
kingdom are not on this list. Also the island of Sri Lanka has been invaded by
many foreign powers over its 2500 year history, mainly from South India, and
some even seizing the throne making the island part of its empire. Most not
able is the Cholas in 985 and British in 1815. The Portuguese and the Dutch
however did not seize the Kandyan throne but only occupied territory within
the island.
Source : Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia
