Polonnaruva

Polonnaruva was a great royal city of Sri Lanka, set beside reservoirs on the island’s northern plain. After the decline of Anuradhapura it became the seat of rulers who built palaces, Buddhist shrines and extensive irrigation works. The city also contains monuments from the Chola period, recalling the south Indian power that once ruled this part of the island. Its sacred precinct sheltered the tooth relic of the Buddha, a central symbol of royal authority.

In the twelfth century Parakramabahu I transformed Polonnaruva into a splendid capital. He built the vast reservoir known as Parakrama Samudra, or the Sea of Parakrama, to supply the cultivated country. Within the citadel stood his palace and council chamber; beyond it were monasteries and shrines, including the richly ornamented Sacred Quadrangle. The city’s fortunes declined after invasions and political struggles in the thirteenth century, and later kings established their courts farther southwest. Even after the royal seat moved, the great reservoir and stone monuments preserved the scale of the earlier kingdom’s achievement.