ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses urbanism in Sri Lanka during the latter part of the first millennium BCE. The chapter focusses on two regions - one in the north central dry zone and the other in the southern and southeastern dry zone - which became foci of urbanism in Sri Lanka. It is argued that the agro-pastoral settlements in the north central dry zone witnessed a rapid turn towards urbanism because of the growth of maritime trade based on the port city of Anuradhapura from the mid first millennium BCE. The other locale of urban settlement in the south and southeastern dry zone did not go through a similar phase of maritime activity. In this chapter, Somadeva seeks to explore the origin of urbanism in that part of the country focusing three specific problems: (i) why did the area under study become urban?, (ii) which were the causative factors of this urban transformation?, and (iii) how did those factors interact among themselves, leading ultimately to a mature phase of urbanism?
