Professor Sinnappah Arasaratnam (20 March 1930 – 4 October 1998) was a Sri Lankan academic, historian and author, born during

British colonial rule The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts est ...

. Known as 'Arasa', he was a lecturer at the

University of Ceylon The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Unive ...

University of Malaya The University of Malaya ( ms, Universiti Malaya, UM; abbreviated as UM or informally the Malayan University) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest and highest ranking Malaysian institution of highe ...

and

University of New England (Australia) The University of New England (UNE) is a public university in Australia with approximately 22,500 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern central New South Wales. UNE was the fir ...

Early life and family

Arasaratnam was born on 20 March 1930 in Navaly in Northern Province of British Ceylon. He was educated at

Jaffna College __NOTOC__ Jaffna College is a Education in Sri Lanka#Private schools, private school in Vaddukoddai, Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1871 as a successor to the Batticotta Seminary which had been established by American missionaries. History In 18 ...

Vaddukoddai Vaddukoddai (also spelt Vattukkottai, Vatukotai, Vattukotai) ( ta, வட்டுக்கோட்டை, si, වඩුකෝඩයි) is small but important town in the minority Sri Lankan Tamil dominated Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka. I ...

. After school he joined the

in 1947 from where he graduated in 1951 with a

First Class Honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

BA degree. Arasaratnam married Thanalakshmi (Padma), daughter of Selvathurai. They had two daughters (Sulochana and Ranjana) and a son (Niranjan). They have 7 grandchildren, 2 granddaughters (Meera and Lily) and 5 grandsons (Rohan, Isaia, Arasa, Eamonn, and Aron). Arasaratnam was a practising Christian who attended the

Uniting Church The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Unio ...

Armidale, New South Wales Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 24,504 as of June 2018. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region. It ...

Career

After graduation in 1951 Arasaratnam was appointed an assistant lecturer of history at the University of Ceylon. In 1954 he joined the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

to carry out doctoral research and in 1956 he graduated with a

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in history. On returning to Ceylon Arasaratnam rejoined the University of Ceylon as a lecturer. He was appointed lecturer in Indian Studies at the

in 1961. He was promoted to professor of history in 1968. Arasaratnam was appointed second professor in the Department of History at the

in 1972. He took up the post in 1973. He held the Smuts Fellowship in Commonwealth Studies, Cambridge in 1977. Arasaratnam retired from the University of New England in March 1995.

Death

Arasaratnam died suddenly in Sydney, Australia on 4 October 1998. He was 68.

Works

Arasaratnam was prolific writer — he wrote 15 books and 93 articles/chapters. His literary works were achieved while heavily engaged with activities such as sitting on key bodies such as the Academic Advisory Committee. * ''Dutch Power in Ceylon, 1658-1687'' (1958, Netherlands Institute of Cultural Relations/Djambatan) * ''Ceylon'' (1964, Spectrum/Prentice-Hall) * ''Indian festivals in Malaya'' (1966, University of Malaya) * * ''Maritime India in the seventeenth century'' (1994, Oxford University Press) * ''Ceylon and the Dutch, 1600-1800'' (1996, Variorum) * ''Maritime commerce and English power'' (1996, Variorum)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arasaratnam, S. 1930 births 1998 deaths Academics of the University of Ceylon University of Malaya faculty Alumni of Jaffna College Alumni of the University of Ceylon Alumni of the University of London Australian people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent People from Northern Province, Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Tamil academics Sri Lankan Tamil writers University of New England (Australia) faculty Historians of the Dutch East India Company