370 - 455 CE “The exclamation mark (!), known informally as a bang or a shriek, is used at the end of a sentence or a short phrase which expresses very strong feeling.” University of Sussex Guide to Punctation Buddhadasa’ death in 370 CE left

16. Back to the Future

Oct 18th, 2023 9m 22s

254 – 370 CE “Peace and love, peace and love!” Ringo StarrGathabhaya, the third of the three Lambakarna family plotters, seized the kingdom in 253 or 254 CE. For 14 years he ruled it with the proverbial rod of iron. A man of deeply conservat

15. Overkill

Oct 18th, 2023 8m 59s

193 - 253 CE “Where's Papa going with that axe?” Charlotte's Web After 126 years so stable and propitious as to suggest they might never end, the Lambakarnas settled down to that great pastime of the late Vijayan kings – regicide. The preoccu

14. Years of Plenty

Oct 18th, 2023 14m 13s

67 CE – 193 CE Go buy us pizza. With extra cheese, Richie Rich." Maggie StiefvaterOvercaution, on behalf of the last (albeit fraudulent) Vijayan king, propelled the new Lambakarnan dynasty and its first king to the throne.The soothsayers had

13. The Guardians

Oct 18th, 2023 6m 42s

67 CE “We did not choose to be the guardians of the gate, but there is no one else.” Lyndon B. JohnsonIn 1929, as Wall Street crashed and the roaring twenties came to an abrupt end, archaeologists digging in faraway Trincomalee uncovered the r

12. The Final Curtain

Oct 5th, 2023 10m 47s

21 CE – 66 CE “By blood a king, in heart a clown.” Alfred Lord Tennyson King Amandagamani Abhaya's ascent to the throne in 21 CE was both fair and orderly. Even so, the dynastic DNA had long before morphed into a penchant for regicide, and

11. Deadly Love

Oct 5th, 2023 5m 31s

77 BCE – 21 CE “Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.” Back When We Were Grownups, Anne Tyler It took over barely 40 years for the penultimate Vijayan kings to lay out the full and final road

10. Musical Chairs

Oct 5th, 2023 8m 6s

103 BCE – 77 BCE “And then there were none” Agatha Christie With the murder of Khallata Naga, the Anuradhapuran Kingdom made the leap to regularizing regicide as if it was no more unusual than brushing one’s teeth. Valagamba – the rightful he

9. Rise and Fall

Oct 5th, 2023 6m 15s

161 BCE – 103 BCE “There is a great deal of ruin in a nation.” Adam Smith For a glorious, albeit extended moment, it seems as if the Vijayan good times had returned. Dutugemunu's nature, clear from his early childhood, was naturally geared t

8. The Just King

Oct 5th, 2023 6m 28s

205 BCE – 161 BCE“The sword of justice has no scabbard.” Antione De Riveral Invaders are rarely liked and often forgotten. But the 44 year reign of the Tamil king, Ellalan, merits much more than a modest footnote in the island’s story. Unlik

7. Line of Attack

Oct 5th, 2023 6m 19s

367 BCE – 205 BCE “What goes up must come down” Isaac Newton The death of Sri Lanka’s visionary king, Devanampiya Tissa, ushered in a period of unnerving calm. All seemed fine with the state – and yet something, somewhere, was going fata

6. The Moment of Truth

Oct 3rd, 2023 9m 34s

367 BCE - 205 BCE “When a defining moment comes along, you define the moment, or the moment defines you.” Kevin Costner A modest mystery immediately greets the hard pressed historian on encountering the death of Sri Lanka’s first and poss

5. The Kingdom Maker

Aug 21st, 2023 8m 36s

437 BCE – 367 BCE. "It was the nearest thing to heaven." An Affair to Remember. Barely 100 years into their first royal dynasty, Sri Lanka had the great good fortune to encounter Pandu Kabhaya’s - one of its greatest kings. Inheriting,

4. Rough Weather

Aug 21st, 2023 5m 52s

505 BCE – 437 BCE. “No matter how rough the sea, I refuse to sink.” Unknown. Prince Vijaya’s greatest achievement, apart from surviving, was less what he did than what he left behind – a dynasty that ran (ignoring regnal interruptions) for

3. The Time of Kings

Aug 21st, 2023 8m 56s

543 BCE – 505 BCE. “All I say is, kings is kings, and you got to make allowances.” Mark Twain. The country’s first recorded king was to found a dynasty that would last 600 years – though its first 100 years were anything but plain sailing.

2. Travellers from the North

Aug 21st, 2023 9m 31s

1,500,000 BCE to 543 BCE. “Wide open and unguarded stand our gates.” Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Adam’s Bridge was a bridge crying out for repair, even before the great storm of 1470 shattered it forever. Unpredictable, and uneven, sailing had l

1. Prologue 1470

Aug 21st, 2023 4m 52s

1470. ”Storms make trees take deeper roots.” Dolly Parton. A no-nonsense prologue to Sri Lanka’s story might carefully begin 1.5 million years ago. But 1470 offers a much more iconic, and intriguing date. The year is laden with symbolism;

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