‘Ceylon’ to change ‘Sri Lanka’

30 December 2010 03:08 am Views - 17560

The Government has decided to change the names of all public enterprises that begin as ‘Ceylon’ with the word ‘Sri Lanka, the government information department announced.

Currently there are several public enterprises with the name of Ceylon, such as Bank of Ceylon, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, Ceylon Electricity Board, Ceylon Tourist Board etc.

In ancient times, Sri Lanka was known by a variety of names: ancient Greek geographers called it Taprobane and Arabs referred to it as Serendib (the origin of the word ‘serendipity’). Ceilão was the name given to Sri Lanka by the Portuguese when they arrived in 1505, which was transliterated into English as Ceylon. As a British crown colony, the island was known as Ceylon, and achieved independence under the name Dominion of Ceylon in 1948.

In Sinhala the country is known as ශ්රී ලංකා śrī laṃkā and the island itself as ලංකාව. In Tamil they are both இலங்கை (ilaṅkai). The name derives from the Sanskrit श्री लंका śrī (venerable) and lankā (island),[19] the name of the island in the ancient Indian epics Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
In 1972, the official name of the country was changed to ‘Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic of Sri Lanka’. In 1978 it was changed to the ‘Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka’.