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In 2009, three decades of conflict came to an end in Sri Lanka. The final six months of the war between state forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam saw extensive violence against the Tamil population of the Vanni region. Informed by discourse analysis and qualitative interviews conducted in Sri Lanka, this thesis examines the manufacture of consent for a military solution under the current Rajapaksa government and the suppression of Tamil political agency post-war. After the end of the civil war, a national security state was established in Sri Lanka, incorporating a militant and anti-minority Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist ideology. This thesis provides an analysis of triumphant and antagonistic processes of post-war ‘Sinhalisation’ in the nascent Tamil Eelam. It demonstrates Sri Lanka’s rejection of liberal conceptions of peace-building and transitional justice, and reveals the state’s actions and rhetoric in this regard as strategic performances, designed to avoid accountability and international censure. Engaging themes of language, power and nationalistic performativity, I explore political discourse, state terror and state-corporate collusion, and the authorship of a ‘national story’ for the post-war nation-building project. I provide a genealogy of the country’s competing nation-building processes and attendant political violence – both state-orchestrated and Tamil, and the historical expansion of mechanisms of social and discursive control. The draconian laws introduced to tackle ‘Tamil terrorism’ have persisted beyond the end of the civil war, as have extra-legal practices designed to terrorise the population. I examine the various ways in which the Sri Lankan state relies heavily on state denial and the manipulation and reinterpretation of events, often facilitated by public-relations companies. By describing militarisation, the post-war detention and surveillance of the Tamil community, and state-run projects designed to politically neutralise and culturally erase Tamil life, I examine the post-conflict reconfiguration of Tamil political agency and the potential of the newly established Tamil-led Northern Provincial Council.

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The present thesis attempts to critically examine the rise, decline and effects of Coḷa rule over the northern half of Ceylon during the first three quarters of the eleventh century. The short introduction explains the need for a comprehensive investigation into many of the more important aspects of those critical years. It also stresses the need for a closer examination of the motives "behind the sudden expansion of Coḷa power outside India. This is followed by a chapter (i) on the Sources pertaining to our study. The main study begins with Chapter II with an account of the relations between Ceylon and South India up to the tenth century. Chapter III traces the rise of the Coḷa Vijayalaya line in South India and its impact on Ceylon. This becomes evident with the accession of Parantaka I (906-955 A.C.). But in spite of his attempt to conquer Ceylon the position remained unchanged till the accession of Rajaraja I (985-955 A.C.). There is also a conflicting account of an Indian invasion of the north of Ceylon in the time of Mahinda IV (956-972 A.C.). Chapter IV is devoted to the Coḷa occupation of Rajarattha in the time of Rajaraja I, and the consolidation of their power during the reigns Rajendra I and Rajadhiraja I. Chapter V covers the vital phase of the struggle between the Sinhalese and the Coḷas. Taking advantage of the difficulties of the Coḷas following the death of Virara-jendra the Sinhalese under the leadership of Vijayabahu I were able to overthrow the power of the Coḷas in Ceylon. Thus their power in Ceylon came to an end, but the relations between the Sinhalese and the Coḷas continued to be unfriendly for over another hundred years. Chapter VI is devoted to a study of the administration of Rajaratha (Anuradhapura kingdom) and its economic conditions under the Coḷas. What we have undertaken here is the first serious survey of its kind. The last chapter (VII) discusses the effect of the Coḷa occupation on the society and religion in Ceylon. The more important results of our investigations are summarised in a Conclusion.

With the emegence of an empire, many of the devices and instruments adopted for the governance of England, were extended beyond the seas to the colonies. One such device was royal commissions of inquiry. Royal commissions, the origins of which in England have been traced as far back as the time of the Norman Conquest, were utilised by the administration in England from time to time to investigate particular problems in colonies, and suggest ways and means of solving them. In the first empire, the American settlements received bodies of somewhat similiar nature on some occasions, but their true value was displayed only when the second empire was being founded. During the turbulent years of the French and Napoleonic wars the empire was continuously extended, but only after peace was established did it become possible for the ministers in England to take stock of the empire which had been acquired. What were the purposes of the empire, what were the nature and the conditions of the colonies conquered, in what manner should this new empire of a diverse and amorphous character be governed, were some of the numerous questions which faced them through the following years. These clearly emphasised above all the need to obtain information about the colonies. The information provided by their Governors did not prove to be adequate, and there was no possibility of officials at home acquiring the much needed information. To resolve the problem, they fell back upon the age old method: royal commissions of inquiry.

This thesis is an attempt to reconstruct the state of society in Ceylon depicted by the Saddharma-ratnavaliya and other contemporary Sinhalese literature - that is, the society of roughly the thirteenth century A.D. Though piecemeal studies have been undertaken by different scholars at different times, hardly any attempts have been made to study, as a whole, the life and institutions of Ceylon. Thus our task is all the more difficult. Many points had to be left undecided owing to lack of evidence, and will have to remain so until further light is shed by future research. In making a study of this period one is made aware of the beginnings of the decline of Sinhalese culture. Whatever the field, whether art, architecture, or sculpture, little development can be seen. Perhaps Ceylon never recovered from the destruction and ruin caused by the alien foe during this period. The Saddharma-ratnavaliya, Pujavaliya, Vi?uddhi- marga-sannaya and Kav-silumina are the sources of our study. Other works of the preceding and succeeding periods have also been examined whenever it was necessary to find corroborative evidence. In this respect, the Maha-vamsa, Cula-vamsa, Saddharmalamkaraya and the inscriptions have proved of immense value and have been liberally quoted in support of our views. The material has been dealt with under different heads for convenience of treatment and the whole thesis is divided into three sections - Political, Religious and Social. It is needless to say that, though the material has been thus presented, in real life there was no such hard and fast compartmentalisation. All spheres of activity were vitally connected with each other and were deeply influenced by religious thought. We cannot speak of an ancient Sinhalese culture without realising how vitally Buddhistic it was. It is our hope that this thesis will prove some contribution to the understanding of the life and institutions of our ancient people.

This thesis presents an independent, sediment-based record of landscape change within an agricultural hinterland. Established historical and archaeological sequences document the primary occupation of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka’s ancient capital, beginning ca. 400 BC and lasting until it was largely abandoned in AD 1017. Anuradhapura is located in the island’s dry zone, which depends almost completely on the unpredictable Northeastern Monsoon for water. Oral history and historical narratives have long held that large-scale irrigated rice cultivation took place in the hinterland to produce an agricultural surplus that sustained the urban and monastic populations. However, until the onset of the Anuradhapura Hinterland Project in 2005, the archaeological record of the hinterland was undocumented, leaving existing narratives untested. The geoarchaeological research presented here was undertaken as part of the Hinterland Project, in order to document the chronology and cultural and environmental processes that contributed to the formation of this irrigated landscape. Optical dating of sediments demonstrates that the onset of large-scale irrigation began ca. 400 BC, and the construction of new works continued until Anuradhapura’s late occupation period. Sampled reservoirs and channels began to infill, indicating widespread disuse, within ca. 100 years of Anuradhapura’s abandonment. Soil micromorphology and bulk sediment characterisation document hinterland habitation, water management, and cultivation activities prior to the establishment of large-scale irrigation. This work illustrates the coping strategies that people employed to deal with the vagaries of the dry zone environment and demonstrates that hinterland land use changed throughout the primary occupation period. Although largescale irrigation works infilled relatively rapidly, cultural activity and land use re-emerged following this period of disuse.