Names of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka (Sinhalese: ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Lankā; Tamil: இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai), officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island in the Indian Ocean which has been known under various names over time. Under British rule, the island was known as Ceylon from 1815-1948.

Lanka was the classical name bestowed on the island by the Ramayana, an ancient Indian epic. A possible theory is that the name Lanka is derived from the Tamil word "ilanku" (இலங்கு), which means "to shine" or "to glitter", thus making Lanka a name that means "that which glitters". It earned this name on account of the glittering of the gold and gems found on its surface.

Another theory states that the word Lanka simply means any island. It is still widely used by the aborigines of Central and Eastern India to mean an island and especially an islet in a river. The word is considered as belonging to Austro-Asiatic languages. The Veddas, the aborigines of Sri Lanka who might be of Austro-Asiatic origin, might have rendered the name Lanka to the island. As it is the biggest island in the South Asian context, Lanka probably became an exclusive term for it.

Lak-vaesiyaa in Sinhala means an inhabitant of the island of Lanka. Lak-diva in E'lu (old Sinhala) means the island of Lanka. Another traditional Sinhala name for Sri Lanka was Lakdiva, with diva also meaning "island". A further traditional name is Lakbima.Lak in both cases is derived again from Lanka. The same name could have been adopted in Tamil as Ilankai; the Tamil language commonly adds "i" before initial "l".

The name of Sri Lanka was introduced in the context of the Sri Lankan independence movement, pushing for the independence of British Ceylon during the first half of the 20th century. The name was used by the Marxist Lanka Sama Samaja Party, which was founded in 1935. The Sanskrit honorific Sri was introduced in the name of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Sinhalese: ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය Sri Lanka Nidahas Pakshaya), founded in 1952. The Republic of Sri Lanka was officially adopted as the country's name with the new constitution of 1972, and changed to "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka" in the constitution of 1978.

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