The Kingdom of Polonnaruwa succeeded Anuradhapura as Sri Lanka's seat of power, reaching its height under Parakramabahu I, whose massive hydraulic engineering projects and Buddhist temple complexes mark the classical peak of Sinhalese civilization.
The Kingdom of Polonnaruwa effectively ended in 1215 CE when the invader Kalinga Magha seized the capital and began 21 years of destructive rule; after his expulsion in 1236 CE, Vijayabahu III moved the capital to Dambadeniya, Polonnaruwa was abandoned, and the island fragmented into rival successor kingdoms with no further unified rule from Polonnaruwa.
The standard one-volume history of Sri Lanka, covering the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa kingdoms in the long sweep from settlement to the present.
De Silva's revised single-volume history is the standard scholarly account of the island from antiquity to the present.