Furthermore, King Dutugamunu left the Magam Kingdom with the lion flag ahead for the battle to unite the country.
The flag is a picture of a yellow lion on a red blood colour background.
It was decided to use the same for the Southern Province flag mixture of colours and the standard to represent all communities in Galle, Matara, and Hambantota and four bo leaves (Metta, Karuna, Muditha, Upeksha) of the national flag.
The small sword (iluk Koolaya) is the symbol of control, but it does not reflect terror or suppression.
The combination of colours around the flag depicts the existence of Southern Sri Lanka, victorious war history, religion and patriotism, mutual cooperation and harmony The flag that was gifted to Uva Province by the King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe who ruled the kingdom of Kandy during the period 1798–1815 can be seen even today at the National Museum ( Courtesy: Book entitled “Uva Ithihasaya” by Panditha Naulle Dhammananda Thero )