Though the roles ancient
monarchs came to play in Sri Lankan history is a much discussed subject, an equal
attention has not been paid to observe the role of their female counterparts.
What is noteworthy in this regard is though infrequently, women have advanced
to power more commonly owing to a critical political condition mostly followed
by an assassination of a king, when the kingdom has fallen in to decline.
However, while some queens in power acted with altruistic intentions, some
other queens’ actions were driven by egoism which made them strikingly
different from each other. Therefore it is observable that while the former
operated in favor of the common well-being, the latter functioned overwhelmed by
sheer desire for power. Therefore history of Sri Lanka is made of women of both
kinds, generous and vicious. Unlike certain countries in the world’s history,
in ancient Sri Lanka, women were allowed to lay hold of power. But it should be
noted that by tradition, the kingship passed by inheritance which was passed
either from father to the elder son or from the elder brother to the younger brother.
According to this tradition peculiar to ancient Sri Lankan monarchical period,
women had no opportunity to become a ruler. However as revealed in history, depending
on the circumstance women had the chance to take hold of power. For instance queen
Anula of Anuradhapura was able to seize power owing to the death of her husband,
king Choranaga
