Women's participation in Ancient Sri Lankan politics: By literary and archaeological sources

Abstract

Organizations aimed at building a society with equal opportunities have emerged in different countries of the world as well as in Sri Lanka, and a number of different programs are also being implemented. When focusing on Sri Lanka, it is important to investigation how ancient societies dealt with giving women an important status in society. The problem of this research is whether the woman had an important position like the man in the political affairs of ancient Sri Lanka ? The aims of this research are to briefly investigation the status of women in ancient Sri Lankan society, women's participation in political affairs, and whether women were given an important position in political affairs as well as men. The non-field method was used this research and according to the qualitative research method, the library research method was used to collect data by using primary and secondary sources, analyze the data and draw conclusions. Women's participation can be identified in many cases related to the political affairs of ancient Sri Lanka. Since the beginning of kingship and state development, women have held various powers like men and joined many political affairs. After kingship and state development, women have become indispensable in political affairs in various sectors. Women have also held important positions in politics and used various epithets. It can be clearly identified that women are even in the kingship, which is the highest stage of politics; they are above the king by giving advice to the king, leading the king, sometimes over men, acting as they want, etc. Because of this, it can be recognized that in the political affairs of ancient Sri Lanka, women were directly and indirectly involved in political affairs and were able to make a significant impact on political affairs, and for this, the position they held in society was very helpful.