ANURADHAPURA

city, north-central Sri Lanka (Ceylon). It is situated along the Aruvi Aru River. The old section of Anuradhapura, now preserved as an archaeological park, is the best known of Sri Lanka's ancient ruined cities; in the immediate vicinity are huge bell-shaped dagobas (Buddhist commemorative shrines, or stupas) built of small sun-dried bricks, as well as temples, sculptures, palaces, and ancient drinking-water reservoirs. The city also contains an ancient pipal tree that is believed to have originally been a branch of the Bo tree at Buddh Gaya, under the shade of which Gautama attained to buddhahood. The Bo tree branch was planted at Anuradhapura about 245 BC, and it may be the oldest tree in existence of which there is any historical record. Anuradhapura was founded in the 5th century BC and was the Sinhalese capital of Sri Lanka from the 4th century BC until the 11th century AD, when invasions from South India forced the shifting of the capital. The city was abandoned and overrun by jungle; in the 19th century the British rediscovered it, and it became a Buddhist pilgrimage centre. The revival of the city began in earnest in the 1870s. The contemporary city, much of which was moved during the mid-20th century to preserve the site of the ancient capital, is a major road junction of northern Sri Lanka and lies along a railway line. The headquarters of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon is in Anuradhapura. Pop. (1990 est.) 37,000. Sinhalese kingdom centred at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) from about the 3rd century BC to the early 10th century AD. Beginning in the 2nd century BC the kingdom of Anuradhapura was plagued by invasions from South India, which increased in later centuries. The South Indians gained actual control of the kingdom several timesin the 2nd century BC, in the 5th century AD, and most notably in the late 10th century, after which Anuradhapura was finally abandoned as the Sinhalese capital in favour of the city of Polonnaruva. In addition to the South Indian invasions, the kingdom was often beset with internal strife among warring Sinhalese clans, each wishing to establish its own dynastic line. In these struggles the insurgent clan frequently sought alliance with a South Indian kingdom or hired South Indian mercenaries. The most prominent Anuradhapuran dynasties were the Vijayan (3rd century BC1st century AD) and the Lamakanna (1st4th century AD and 7th10th century). During the more than 1,000 years of its existence, the kingdom of Anuradhapura developed a high degree of culture, especially manifest in its art and architecture. Because of its geographic situation in the northern dry zone of Ceylon, it developed a remarkably complex system of irrigation, considered by many scholars to be its major achievement.