ABSTRACT
We wish to emphasize that this chapter is designed with particular reference to Buddhist education, as there are chapters in other sections dealing with Hindu and Islamic Education which were also revived after the colonial era and absorbed into the Sri Lankan unified system. As Sri Lanka has been known by different names in the past, it is useful to begin with this. Over 3,000 years ago, Mahabharata referred to the island as “Lanka.” In the sixth century BC when North Indian settlers—the forefathers of the contemporary Sinhalese—arrived, they referred to it as “Lanka” and “Thambapanni.” Arabs called it “Serendib.” In Sanskrit, it was called Sinhala-Dweepa and in Pali, Sinhala-Deepa, meaning the island inhabited by the Sinhalese. Early Chinese visitors in the fourth century AD referred to it as “Sinhale.” After Buddhism was introduced in the third century BC, it was also called “Dharmadvipa.” After the arrival of the Portuguese in 1505, as it was difficult for them to pronounce “Sinhale” they called it “Zeilan.” After the Dutch arrived in 1657, they continued to use this name, and when the British came in 1796, they called it “Ceylon.” However, its original name was always “Lanka” (Codrington 1939), and when the country was made a republic in 1972, the term “Sri,” meaning blessed, was added to this, for its current name of “Sri Lanka.”
