She worked for Marg, a quarterly Indian journal on traditional and modern art, and was co-editor of the children's magazine Toycart.
Her father, George E. de Silva, was a Sinhalese Buddhist who became a politician, was President of the Ceylon National Congress, and also served as a Minister of Health.
In January 1947 Marg published an exclusive edition covering the heritage of Sri Lanka, its arts, culture and life.
This later inspired her to write and publish The Life of the Buddha Retold From Ancient Sources in 1955, a book which incorporated illustrations of as many as 160 art works from various parts of Asia.
[10] In 1958 de Silva planned an all-woman expedition to China, which at the time did not allow people from the West to visit, to study the cave paintings in Dunhuang (Tun-huang) and Maijishan (Maichisan) in Gansu province.
[9] Her team was composed of Romila Thapar as research assistant, Dominique Darbois as photographer, and Mingo Wong, a Chinese woman translator.
Their two books based on their research focused on China's Buddhist heritage at a time when British imperialism and Christianity were prevalent in the country.
While on retirement, at 83 years of age she wrote and published the book This Moste Highe Prince: John of Gaunt, 1340-1399, related to the son of Edward III, father of Henry IV.