The invasion of Kalinga Magha and the fall of the Polonnaruwa kingdom.

 It is commonplace that the disunity among the natives inevitably makes a state vulnerable, as it keeps them occupied in their internal struggles which has the result of drawing their attention from possible external conquests. A similar event occurred in ancient Sri Lanka, to be more specific, during the Polonnaruwa kingdom. Sri Lanka was marked by the Kalinga Magha invasion in 1215 AD which led to the fall of the Polonnaruwa kingdom along with several other factors which were equally undesirable to the continuity of the kingdom. However, the other reasons aside, the Magha invasion alone can be looked on as a climax point of Sri Lankan history due to two reasons. Firstly, it operated as the immediate cause among a number of long term causes for the collapse of the Polonnaruwa kingdom. Secondly it marked a striking change of the capital of Sri Lanka which was transferred from Polonnaruwa to Dambadeniya.

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Feminine role in politics and war in ancient monarchical Sri Lanka with special attention to Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa period.

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

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