Sri Lanka (; ) is a country in the northern Indian Ocean which has been known under various names over time.
The oldest name of Sri Lanka is Tamraparni (= Taprobana).
Then 6 centuries before Christ, it was called Silam (pronunciation of Sihalam ).
In the Dipavaṃsa (the Buddhist oldest historical record of Sri Lanka, 3rd to 4th century CE), it's written that the island was formerly named Sihala .
Around the 9th century, Silam and Sihala became Sailan, Siyalan, Silan.
Lanka appears later and in parallel, between the 10thand the 12th centuries after Christ.
Before 6th century BC : Taprobana, Tamraparni
Tamraparni is the oldest name of Sri Lanka. According to some legends, Tamraparni is the name given by Prince Vijaya when he arrived on the island. The word can be translated as "copper-coloured leaf", from the words Thamiram (copper in Sanskrit) and Varni (colour). Another scholar states that Tamara means red and parani means tree, therefore it could mean "tree with red leaves". Tamraparni is also a name of Tirunelveli, the capital of the Pandyan kingdom in Tamil Nadu. The name was adopted in Pali as Tambaparni.
The name was adopted into Greek as Taprobana, used by Megasthenes in the 4th century BC. The Greek name was adopted in medieval Irish (Lebor Gabala Erenn) as Deprofane (Recension 2) and Tibra Faine (Recension 3), off the coast of India, supposedly one of the countries where the Milesians / Gaedel, ancestors of today's Irish, had sojourned in their previous migrations.
The name remained in use in early modern Europe, alongside the Persianate Serendip, with Traprobana mentioned in the first strophe of the Portuguese national epic poem Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões.
John Milton borrowed this for his epic poem Paradise Lost and Miguel de Cervantes mentions a fantastic Trapobana in Don Quixote.
From 6th century BCE to 10th/12th century CE : Silam, Sihala, Sailan
Six centuries before Christ, it was called : Silam, pronunciation of Sihalam transliterated in other languages by : Simhalam or Sihalan in Pali , Sinhale in Sinhala, Ilam in Tamil [= Silam without sibilant]
In the Dipavaṃsa (the Buddhist oldest historical record of Sri Lanka, 3rd to 4th century CE), it's written : The island of Lanka was formerly called Sihala. Sihala means lion's abode(from Siha = lion)
On the 2nd century CE, Ptolemy callsthe inhabitants Salai . Salai has its source
in Sihalam (pronounced Silam).
The Buddhist monk Faxian (3rd and 4th century CE) calls it Sinhala (or the Lion kingdom). He stayed 2 years in Sinhala and visited it all.
Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century CE) names it Σιελεδίβα : Sielediba or SieleDiva (Diva, Dwipa meaning Island). Siele has also its source in Sihalam (pronounced Silam)
From Silam came the forms Sailan, Saylan (mentioned on the 9th century CE(Ilam in Tamil), Siyalan and Silan (mentioned on the 10th century CE), etc.
Marco Polo, in 1298 CE, names it Seilan.
During the 13th and 14th centuries, we found a large usage of the forms Sailan, Sílán , Sillan, Seyllan, etc.
From the 16th century, the original local name Silam (pronunciation of Sihalam, 6 centuries BCE) has been translated into Ceilão in Portuguese (from 1505), into Zeilan or Zeylan in Dutch (from 1640), into Ceylon in English (from 1796) ; and also Ceilán in Spanish, Ceylan in French.
Serendip, Sinhal-dvip
The names Serendip, Seren-dip, Sinhal-dvip, Sarandīp are Persian and Arab translations based on the words Sinhala-dvipa (dvipa, dipa meaning Island), which is also used in the Culavamsa as a name for the island.
From 10th/12th CE to 16th centuries : Lanka
The name Lanka comes from the Hindu text the Ramayana, where Lanka is the abode of King Ravana.
From the most recent scientific research, we know that :
the Ramayana Lanka began to be considered as the present-day Sri Lanka between the 10thand the 12th centuries after Christ, and that this assertion that the Ramayana Lanka is the present-day Sri Lanka became part of the Sinhalese Buddhist mysthistorical imagination on the 16th century
According to many recent scientists, the Ramayana Lanka is not the present-day Sri Lanka.
Another traditional Sinhala name for Sri Lanka was Lakdiva, with diva also meaning "island". A further traditional name is Lakbima. In both cases, Lak is derived from Lanka. The same name could have been adopted in Tamil as Ilangai; the Tamil language commonly adds "i" before initial "l".
Sri Lanka
The name of Sri Lanka was introduced by the Marxist Lanka Sama Samaja Party founded in 1935.