Periodization of Sri Lanka history: A partial consolidation of Chola power in Rajarata had succeeded the initial season of plunder.

With the intention to transform Chola encampments into more permanent military enclaves, Saivite temples were constructed in Polonnaruva and in the emporium of Mahatittha.

[1] According to the Culavamsa and Karandai plates, Rajendra Chola led a large army into Anuradhapura and captured Mahinda V's crown, queen, daughter, vast amount of wealth and the king himself whom he took as a prisoner to India, where he eventually died in exile in 1029.

[5] Vijayabāhu launched a successful two-pronged attack upon Anuradhapura and Polonnaruva, when he could finally establish a firm base in southern Sri Lanka.

[3][6] Virarajendra Chola was forced to dispatch an expedition from the mainland to recapture the settlements in the north and carry the attack back into Rohana, in order to stave off total defeat.

He crowned himself in 1055 at Anuradhapura but continued to have his capital at Polonnaruwa for it being more central and made the task of controlling the turbulent province of Rohana much easier.

[9] Aside from leading the prolonged resistance to Chola rule Vijayabāhu I proved to be outstanding in administration and economic regeneration after the war and embarked on the rehabilitation of the island's irrigation network and the resuscitation of Buddhism in the country.

The south of India also hosted settlements of these Arab merchants, and they would become a dominant influence on the country's external trade, but by no means was a monopoly.

His successors proved unable to consolidate power plunging the kingdom into a period of civil war, from which Parākramabāhu I (1153–1186), a closely related royal emerged.

[15] Parākramabāhu I established control over the island and secured his recognition as Vijayabāhu's heir by obtaining the Tooth and bowl relics of the Buddha, which by now had become essential to the legitimacy of royal authority in Sri Lanka.

[18] Parākramabāhu's reign is memorable for two major campaigns – in the south of India as part of a Pandyan war of succession, and a punitive strike against the kings of Ramanna (Myanmar) for various perceived insults to Sri Lanka.

His reign gave the country a brief decade of order and stability before the speedy and catastrophic break-up of the hydraulic civilisations of the dry zone.

The conspicuous lack of restraint, especially that of Parākramabāhu, in combination with an ambitious and venturesome foreign policy, and an expensive diversion of state resources towards public works projects, sapped the strength of the country and contributed to its sudden and complete collapse.

[23] The factional struggle and political instability attracted the attention of South Indian adventures bent on plunder, culminating in the devastating campaign of pillage under Māgha of Kalinga (1215–1236), claiming the inheritance of the kingdom through his kinsman who reigned before.

His reign saw the massive migration of the Sinhalese people to the south and west of Sri Lanka, and into the mountainous interior, in a bid to escape his power.

[27][28] A second poilitical center emerged in the north of the island where Tamil settlers from previous Indian incursions occupied the Jaffna Peninsula and the Vanni.