Ceylon in the context of "Sri Lankan Tamils"

The Ptolemy world map is a map of the world known to Greco-Roman societies in the 2nd century. It is based on the description contained in Ptolemy's book Geography, written c. 150. Based on an inscription in several of the earliest surviving manuscripts, it is traditionally credited to Agathodaemon of Alexandria.

Notable features of Ptolemy's map is the first use of longitudinal and latitudinal lines as well as specifying terrestrial locations by celestial observations. The Geography was translated from Greek into Arabic in the 9th century and played a role in the work of al-Khwārizmī before lapsing into obscurity. The idea of a global coordinate system revolutionized European geographical thought, however, and inspired more mathematical treatment of cartography.

Colonial India was the part of the Indian subcontinent that was occupied by European colonial powers during and after the Age of Discovery. European power was exerted both by conquest and trade, especially in spices. The search for the wealth and prosperity of India led to the colonisation of the Americas after Christopher Columbus went to the Americas in 1492. Only a few years later, near the end of the 15th century, Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama became the first European to re-establish direct trade links with India by being the first to arrive by circumnavigating Africa (c. 1497–1499). Having arrived in Calicut, which by then was one of the major trading ports of the eastern world, he obtained permission to trade in the city from the Saamoothiris (Zamorins). The next to arrive were the Dutch, with their main base in Ceylon. Their expansion into India was halted after their defeat in the Battle of Colachel to the Kingdom of Travancore, during the Travancore–Dutch War on the hands of Marthanda Varma.

Trading rivalries among the seafaring European powers brought other coastal powers from the empires of Europe to India. The Dutch Republic, England, France, and Denmark–Norway all established trading posts in India in the early 17th century. As the Mughal Empire disintegrated in the early 18th century, and then as the Maratha Empire became weakened after the third battle of Panipat, many relatively weak and unstable Indian states which emerged were increasingly open to manipulation by the Europeans, through dependent Indian rulers.

Syed Alaol (Bengali: সৈয়দ আলাওল; 1607–1680) was a Bengali poet of the 17th century. He is referred to as a "bard of Middle Bengali literature, and is regarded as one the greatest poets of medieval Bengal. His most famous work, Padmavati, recounts the story of Padmavati, a princess from Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). Because his poetry often blended emotion with intellectualism, he earned the title Pandit Kabi (Scholar of Poets). In his honor, a major Bangladeshi literary award—the Alaol Sahitya Puroshkar is named after him.

The influence and imperialism of the West peaked in Asian territories from the colonial period beginning in the 16th century, and substantially reduced with 20th century decolonization. It originated in the 15th-century search for trade routes to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, in response to Ottoman control of the Silk Road. This led to the Age of Discovery, and introduction of early modern warfare into what Europeans first called the East Indies, and later the Far East. By the 16th century, the Age of Sail expanded European influence and development of the spice trade under colonialism. European-style colonial empires and imperialism operated in Asia throughout six centuries of colonialism, formally ending with the independence of Portuguese Macau in 1999. The empires introduced Western concepts of nation and the multinational state.

European political power, commerce, and culture in Asia gave rise to growing trade in commodities—a key development in the rise of the free market economy. In the 16th century, the Portuguese broke the monopoly of the Arabs and Italians in trade between Asia and Europe by its discovery of the sea route to India around the Cape of Good Hope. The ensuing rise of the rival Dutch East India Company gradually eclipsed Portuguese influence in Asia. Dutch forces first established independent bases in the East and between 1640-60 wrested Malacca, Ceylon, some southern Indian ports, and the lucrative Japan trade from the Portuguese. The English and French established settlements in India and trade with China and their acquisitions surpassed the Dutch. After the Seven Years' War in 1763, the British eliminated French influence in India and established the East India Company as the most important political force on the Indian subcontinent.

Suvarṇabhūmi (Sanskrit: सुवर्णभूमि, IPA: [suʋɐrɳɐbʰuːmi]; Pali: Suvaṇṇabhūmi, IPA: [suʋɐɳːɐbʰuːmi]; lit. 'golden land') is a toponym that appears in many ancient Indian literary sources and Buddhist texts such as the Mahavamsa, some of the Jataka tales, the Milinda Panha and the Ramayana.

Though its exact location is unknown and remains a matter of debate, Suvarṇabhūmi was an important port along trade routes that run through the Indian Ocean, setting sail from the wealthy ports in Basra, Ubullah, and Siraf, through Muscat, Malabar, Ceylon, the Nicobars, Kedah and on through the Strait of Malacca to fabled Suvarṇabhūmi.

Ove Gjedde (alternatively spelled Giedde; 27 December 1594 – 19 December 1660) was a Danish nobleman and Admiral of the Realm (Danish: Rigsadmiral), who established the first Danish colony in Asia.

Born in Tomarps (Tommerup), Denmark–Norway, in 1594 to Brostrup Gjedde and Dorthe Ulfeldt, Ove Gjedde went to Sorø Academy from 1609 to 1612 and studied thereafter at various German universities. In 1616, Gjedde was employed in the Danske Kancelli (Danish Chancellery) and was ordered by King Christian IV of Denmark to lead an expedition to the East Indies in 1618. Gjedde arrived in Ceylon in May 1620 and negotiated trade agreements with Senarat of Kandy and Raghunatha Nayak, ceding the coastal towns of Trincomalee and Tranquebar to the Danish East India Company.

Upāli (Sanskrit and Pāli) was a monk, one of the ten chief disciples of the Buddha and, according to early Buddhist texts, the person in charge of the reciting and reviewing of monastic discipline (Pāli and Sanskrit: vinaya) on the First Buddhist Council. Upāli belongs to the barber community. He met the Buddha when still a child, and later, when the Sakya princes received ordination, he did so as well. He was ordained before the princes, putting humility before caste. Having been ordained, Upāli learnt both Buddhist doctrine (Pali: Dhamma; Sanskrit: Dharma) and vinaya. His preceptor was Kappitaka. Upāli became known for his mastery and strictness of vinaya and was consulted often about vinaya matters. A notable case he decided was that of the monk Ajjuka, who was accused of partisanship in a conflict about real estate. During the First Council, Upāli received the important role of reciting the vinaya, for which he is mostly known.

Scholars have analyzed Upāli's role and that of other disciples in the early texts, and it has been suggested that his role in the texts was emphasized during a period of compiling that stressed monastic discipline, during which Mahākassapa (Sanskrit: Mahākāśyapa) and Upāli became the most important disciples. Later, Upāli and his pupils became known as vinayadharas (Pāli; 'custodians of the vinaya'), who preserved the monastic discipline after the Buddha's parinibbāna (Sanskrit: parinirvāṇa; passing into final Nirvana). This lineage became an important part of the identity of Ceylonese and Burmese Buddhism. In China, the 7th-century Vinaya school referred to Upāli as their patriarch, and it was believed that one of their founders was a reincarnation of him. The technical conversations about vinaya between the Buddha and Upāli were recorded in the Pāli and Sarvāstivāda traditions and have been suggested as an important subject of study for modern-day ethics in American Buddhism.