Sources
Everything cited across this archive, and which pages rely on it.
Several claims about caste origin and rank are disputed between communities. Citing a source records where a statement comes from; it does not make the statement uncontested.
Chronicles
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Geiger, Wilhelm (trans.). The Mahāvaṃsa, or the Great Chronicle of Ceylon. Pali Text Society. 1912.
The principal Pali chronicle of Sri Lanka, compiled from the 5th century CE. A religious and dynastic chronicle rather than a modern history; its early sections are traditional narrative.
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Geiger, Wilhelm (trans.). Cūḷavaṃsa: Being the More Recent Part of the Mahāvaṃsa. Pali Text Society. 1929.
The continuation of the Mahavamsa, covering the later Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Kandyan periods.
Books
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Blackburn, Anne M. Buddhist Learning and Textual Practice in Eighteenth-Century Lankan Monastic Culture. Princeton University Press. 2001.
Detailed study of Weliwita Saranankara and the eighteenth-century monastic revival.
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Brohier, R. L. Ancient Irrigation Works in Ceylon. Ceylon Government Press. 1934.
The foundational survey of the island's reservoir and canal systems.
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Dewaraja, Lorna. The Kandyan Kingdom of Sri Lanka 1707–1782. Lake House. 1988.
On Kandyan administration, the Radala service nobility and the offices of Adigar and Dissawa.
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Gombrich, Richard and Obeyesekere, Gananath. Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Princeton University Press. 1988.
Covers the modern Buddhist revival, including Anagarika Dharmapala.
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Gunawardana, R. A. L. H. Robe and Plough: Monasticism and Economic Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka. University of Arizona Press. 1979.
On monastic landholding, irrigation and the organisation of agrarian labour.
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Jiggins, Janice. Caste and Family in the Politics of the Sinhalese 1947–1976. Cambridge University Press. 1979.
Analyses the role of caste and kinship networks in post-independence Sinhalese politics.
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Malalgoda, Kitsiri. Buddhism in Sinhalese Society 1750–1900: A Study of Religious Revival and Change. University of California Press. 1976.
The standard account of the Siyam Nikaya, the 1764 restriction of higher ordination, and the founding of the Amarapura and Ramanna fraternities.
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Obeyesekere, Gananath. The Cult of the Goddess Pattini. University of Chicago Press. 1984.
Includes extended treatment of Sinhalese social organisation and ritual status.
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Peebles, Patrick. Social Change in Nineteenth Century Ceylon. Navrang. 1995.
On the Mudaliyar class and the colonial reshaping of native administration.
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Pieris, Nevan. The Community: A Historical Account of the Mudaliyar Class Goyigama Family Combine.
Documents, among much else, the community's traditional visual convention of dark green and gold � the basis of this site's colour identity, adopted on the guidance of Anuru de Silva.
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Roberts, Michael. Caste Conflict and Elite Formation: The Rise of a Karāva Elite in Sri Lanka, 1500–1931. Cambridge University Press. 1982.
Documents the rise of the Karava elite and treats caste ranking as historically contested rather than fixed.
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Ryan, Bryce. Caste in Modern Ceylon: The Sinhalese System in Transition. Rutgers University Press. 1953.
The standard mid-century sociological study of the Sinhalese caste system.
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de Silva, K. M. A History of Sri Lanka. Penguin. 2005.
General single-volume history of the island.
Articles & papers
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Leach, Edmund. Hydraulic Society in Ceylon. Past & Present 15. 1959.
Challenges the idea that large-scale irrigation implies a single centralised managerial class.
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Rogers, John D. Caste as a Social Category and Identity in Colonial Lanka. Indian Economic and Social History Review 41(1). 2004.
Argues that much of the fixed caste ranking recorded in Sri Lanka was shaped and hardened by colonial administrative practice.