Home Region:  Southern South Asia (South Asia)

Dambadaneiya

1232 CE 1293 CE

G SC PT New SEA  sl_dambadeniya

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Preceding Entity: Add one more here.
[continuity, elite migration; Polonnaruva] [elite replacement]   Update here

Succeeding Entity:
No Polity found. Add one here.

No General Descriptions provided.

General Variables
Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Hierarchical Complexity
Professions
Bureaucracy Characteristics
Law
Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Transport Infrastructure
Special-purpose Sites
Information / Writing System
Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Information / Money
Information / Postal System
Information / Measurement System
Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Fortifications
Military use of Metals
Projectiles
Handheld weapons
Animals used in warfare
Armor
Naval technology
Religion Tolerance Coding in Progress.
Human Sacrifice Coding in Progress.
Crisis Consequences Coding in Progress.
Power Transitions Coding in Progress.

NGA Settlements:

Year Range Dambadaneiya (sl_dambadeniya) was in:
Home NGA: None

General Variables
Identity and Location
Utm Zone:
44 N

Original Name:
Dambadaneiya

Capital:
Dambadaneiya

“Polonnaruva was abandoned after Māgha’s rule, and the next three kings ruled from Dambadeṇiya. One ruler made Yāpahuva his royal residence.” [1]

[1]: (De Silva 1981, 82) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection


Temporal Bounds
Duration:
[1232 CE ➜ 1293 CE]
 

"Though Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa kingdoms survived for a long period of time, Dambadeniya was held as a kingdom only for about forty years from 1232 to 1272 A.D. Even within this short epoch Dambadeniya acquired a prominent place as a centre of royalty." "After Parakramahahu’s death his son Yijayabahu, who had already been in control of the administration for many years, succeeded to the throne and ruled from Jambuddoni for a brief two years at the end of which his reign came to a tragic end. 3 His successor Bhuvanekabahu I (1272-84) remained at Jambuddoni for a few years but later moved to Subhagiri where he set up his seat of authority. Among the latter’s successors, Parakramahahu III (1287-93) reigned at Polonnaruva for a brief period, and after that this ancient city is never mentioned again in the Culavamsa and had evidently passed into oblivion." THESIS 409


Political and Cultural Relations
Succeeding Entity:
Second Pandyan Empire

Relationship to Preceding Entity:
continuity

“Polonnaruva was abandoned after Māgha’s rule, and the next three kings ruled from Dambadeṇiya. One ruler made Yāpahuva his royal residence.” [1]

[1]: (De Silva 1981, 82) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection

Relationship to Preceding Entity:
elite migration

“Polonnaruva was abandoned after Māgha’s rule, and the next three kings ruled from Dambadeṇiya. One ruler made Yāpahuva his royal residence.” [1]

[1]: (De Silva 1981, 82) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection


Preceding Entity:
continuity, elite migration; Polonnaruva [elite replacement]    Update here
 

“Polonnaruva was abandoned after Māgha’s rule, and the next three kings ruled from Dambadeṇiya. One ruler made Yāpahuva his royal residence.” [1]

[1]: (De Silva 1981, 82) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection


Language
Linguistic Family:
Indo-European

Language:
Sinhala

Religion
Religious Tradition:
Buddhism

"Dambadeniya rulers worked tirelessly for the development of Buddhism as the state religion."


Religion Family:
Theravada Buddhism


Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Hierarchical Complexity
Professions
Bureaucracy Characteristics
Law
Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Irrigation System:
present

"Until the 13th century AD the economy of the dry zone depended on the system of irrigation developed by the past kings. Although the seat of administration shifted to the South-west with the establishment of the Dambadeniya kingdom economic conditions of the county did not undergo a radical change."


Utilitarian Public Building:
present

Irrigation systems. "Until the 13th century AD the economy of the dry zone depended on the system of irrigation developed by the past kings. Although the seat of administration shifted to the South-west with the establishment of the Dambadeniya kingdom economic conditions of the county did not undergo a radical change."


Symbolic Building:
present

Viharas. "[T]he city of Polonnaruva as well as the civilisation of which it had become the centre had suffered severe adversities. [...] Vijayabahu, however, applied himself energetically to recreate even partially the lost splendour of the former capital. [...] We are told that the city was adorned with viharas which were provided with their characteristic complements such as parks, bathing ponds, mandapas and pasadas." 395-396 “The Gal Vihāra sculptures (in the reign of Parākramabāhu I) are the glory of Polonnaruva, and the summit of its artistic achievement. The four great statues of the Buddha which comprise this complex, representing the three main positions—the seated, the standing and the recumbent, are cut out in a row from a horizontal escarpment of streaked granite. Each of these statues was originally sheltered by its own image house. The consummate skills with which the peace of the enlightenment has been depicted, in an extraordinarily successful blend of serenity and strength, has seldom been equalled by any other Buddha image in Sri Lanka. Of similar nobility of conception, and magnitude is the colossal figure (of a sage, as some scholars would have it, or a monarch, as others insist) overlooking the bund of Tōpāväva.” [1]

[1]: (De Silva 1981, 74-75) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection


Entertainment Building:
present

"[T]he city of Polonnaruva as well as the civilisation of which it had become the centre had suffered severe adversities. [...] Vijayabahu, however, applied himself energetically to recreate even partially the lost splendour of the former capital. [...] We are told that the city was adorned with viharas which were provided with their characteristic complements such as parks, bathing ponds, mandapas and pasadas." 395-396


Transport Infrastructure
Port:
present

"The ports of Uruvela, Kalpiya and Colombo, which later acquired great importance for foreign trade, were also within the territory of Mayarattha." THESIS 229


Bridge:
present

"Parakramabahu II had devoted attention to this region when his minister Devapatiraga founded Viharas and improved the lines of communications by the construction of bridges across the streams, on behalf of the pilgrims to Samantakuta." THESIS


Special-purpose Sites
Mines or Quarry:
present

"Apart from these, Mayarattha had important areas such as Ratnapura in the Sabaragamuva Province, well known for gems and other precious stones." THESIS 228


Information / Writing System
Phonetic Alphabetic Writing:
present

“Sinhala has its own script. Its alphabet is known as hoodiya. Only Sinhala is written with the letters of the Sinhala hoodiya. The Sinhala writing system is largely phonetic in that one can understand how words are pronounced simply by looking at their spelling.” [1]

[1]: (Chandralal 2010, 21) Chandralal, Dileep. 2010. Sinhala. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AC8BQ53V/collection


Non Phonetic Writing:
absent

“Sinhala has its own script. Its alphabet is known as hoodiya. Only Sinhala is written with the letters of the Sinhala hoodiya. The Sinhala writing system is largely phonetic in that one can understand how words are pronounced simply by looking at their spelling.” [1]

[1]: (Chandralal 2010, 21) Chandralal, Dileep. 2010. Sinhala. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AC8BQ53V/collection


Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Sacred Text:
present

Buddhist and Hindu texts.


Religious Literature:
present

Buddhist and Hindu texts.


Information / Money
Information / Postal System
Information / Measurement System

Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Fortifications
Military use of Metals
Projectiles
Handheld weapons
Animals used in warfare
Armor
Naval technology

Human Sacrifice Data
Human Sacrifice is the deliberate and ritualized killing of a person to please or placate supernatural entities (including gods, spirits, and ancestors) or gain other supernatural benefits.
Coding in Progress.
Coding in Progress.
Power Transitions