List of rulers of Sri Lanka

King of the Sinhala Kingdom
Royal Standard of the King of Kandy in 1815
Vijaya, the first Sinhalese King
Details
First monarch	Vijaya
Last monarch	Sri Vikrama Rajasinha
Formation	543 BC
Abolition	1815 AD
Residence	Tambapanni, Anuradhapura, Pulatthinagara,Polonnaruwa, Dambadeniya, Gampola, Kotte, Kandy

The Sinhalese monarchy was established in 543 BC with Prince Vijaya founding the Kingdom of Tambapanni and ended with Sri Vikrama Rajasinha of Kandy in 1815. This a list of all those who have reigned, in each of the successive Sinhala Kingdoms. The list is based on the traditional list of Sinhalese monarchs as recorded in the chronicles of the island such as the Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa, Culavamsa and the Rajaveliya. This is not a list of ethnically Sinhalese monarchs; it contains all Sinhalese and foreign rulers who have ruled chronologically and in succession under the Sinhalese monarchy.

This list should be used with the following factors kept in mind. Firstly, the dates provided for the earliest monarchs are difficult to objectively verify; those particularly difficult to know have been denoted with a (?) mark. Also, the island of Sri Lanka has been invaded by many foreign powers over its 2500-year history, mainly from South India, and some seized the throne and made the island part of their empires. Most notable are the Cholas in 985 and British in 1815. The Portuguese and the Dutch, however, did not seize the Kandyan throne but only occupied territory within the island.

It should be borne in mind that there is controversy about the base date of the Buddhist Era, with 543 BC and 483 BC being advanced as the date of the parinibbana of the Buddha. As Wilhelm Geiger pointed out, the Dipawamsa and Mahawansa are the primary sources for ancient South Asian chronology; they date the consecration (abhisheka) of Ashoka to 218 years after the parinibbana. Chandragupta Maurya ascended the throne 56 years prior to this, or 162 years after the parinibbana. The approximate date of Chandragupta's ascension is within two years of 321 BC (from Megasthenes). Hence the approximate date of the parinibbana is between 485 and 481 BC—which accords well with the Mahayana dating of 483 BC.