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Gurunagar, Jaffna
Gurunagar ( ta, குருநகர், translit=Kurunakar) is a coastal village in Jaffna city in northern Sri Lanka. Gurunagar is also known as ''Karaiyur'' (). The suburb is divided into two village officer divisions (Gurunagar East and Gurunagar West) whose combined population was 3,520 at the 2012 census. The suburb is mainly populated by Catholic Sri Lankan Tamils, engaged in sea activities. The village is known in Jaffna due to its maritime history and also served as the western sector of the Jaffna Kingdom. Etymology Gurunagar, also spelled as ''Kurunagar'' derives its words from ''Kuru'' and ''Nagar'' (Urban centre in Tamil). The word ''Kuru'' is a clans name used by the Karaiyars also known as ''Kurukulam,'' who make up majority of Gurunagar. Karaiyur, as it was earlier known as stems from the Tamil words ''Karai'' (coast) and Ur (village). Karaiyur was marked in the Dutch maps as ''Cereoer.'' History The earliest settlers of Jaffna, were according to lo ...
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Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, and southeast of the Arabian Sea; it is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with India and Maldives. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is its legislative capital, and Colombo is its List of cities in Sri Lanka, largest city and financial centre. Sri Lanka has a population of around 22 million (2020) and is a multinational state, home to diverse cultures, languages, and ethnicities. The Sinhalese people, Sinhalese are the majority of the nation's population. The Tamils, who are a large minority group, have also played an influential role in the island's history. Other long establ ...
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Jaffna Kingdom
The Jaffna Kingdom ( ta, யாழ்ப்பாண அரசு, si, යාපනය රාජධානිය; 1215–1624 CE), also known as Kingdom of Aryachakravarti, was a historical kingdom of what today is northern Sri Lanka. It came into existence around the town of Jaffna on the Jaffna peninsula and was traditionally thought to have been established after the invasion of Kalinga Magha from Kalinga in India.Nadarajan, V. ''History of Ceylon Tamils'', p. 72Indrapala, K. ''Early Tamil Settlements in Ceylon'', p. 16 Established as a powerful force in the north, northeast and west of the island, it eventually became a tribute-paying feudatory of the Pandyan Empire in modern South India in 1258, gaining independence when the last Pandyan ruler of Madurai was defeated and expelled in 1323 by Malik Kafur, the army general of the Delhi Sultanate. For a brief period in the early to mid-14th century it was an ascendant power in the island of Sri Lanka, to which all region ...
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Mandaithivu Sea Massacre
Mandaithivu sea massacre was a civilian massacre of ethnic Tamils by members of the Sri Lankan Navy off the coast of Mandaitivu island of the Jaffna peninsula. 33 civilians, all of them fishermen mostly from Gurunagar, who had been fishing at sea were attacked, tortured and murdered by Sri Lankan Navy personnel. Massacre Mandaitivu is an islet situated off the Jaffna peninsula and is connected to the city of Jaffna by means of a causeway. On 10 June 1986, Sri Lankan Navy personnel clad in black clothes approached a group of fishermen who were in the sea. The fishermen raised their hands to show they were civilians. The Navy however began to attack the fishermen and destroying their boats and nets. All of the fishermen were tortured and brutally murdered. The eyes of some fishermen were dug out. Stomachs of some fishermen were cut open. In all 32 fishermen from Gurunagar and one from Mandaitivu village were killed by the Navy. The only fisherman Mr. Semon Mariyathas (41) w ...
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Land Reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or land fill. In some jurisdictions, including parts of the United States, the term "reclamation" can refer to returning disturbed lands to an improved state. In Alberta, Canada, for example, reclamation is defined by the provincial government as "The process of reconverting disturbed land to its former or other productive uses." In Oceania, it is frequently referred to as land rehabilitation. History One of the earliest large-scale projects was the Beemster Polder in the Netherlands, realized in 1612 adding of land. In Hong Kong the Praya Reclamation Scheme added of land in 1890 during the second phase of construction. It was one of the most ambitious projects ever taken during the Colonial Hong Kong era.Bard, Solomon. ...
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Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization. O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 ''sui iuris'' churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and eparchies located around the world. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the chief pastor of the church. The bishopric of Rome, known as the Holy See, is the central governing authority of the church. The administrative body of the Holy See, the Roman Curia, has its principal offices in Vatican City, a small enclave of the Italian city of Rome, of which the pope is head of state. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The Catholic Church teaches that it ...
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Cankili I
Cankili I ( ta, சங்கிலியன்) (died 1565), also known as Segarasasekaram (Jaga Rajasekharam), is the most remembered Jaffna kingdom king in the Sri Lankan Tamil history. He was very active in resisting Portuguese colonial inroads into Sri Lanka. He also inherited his throne via palace intrigues in which number of heirs apparent died under mysterious circumstances. At the end, he was removed from power by a local uprising that led to his son Puviraja Pandaram taking nominal power from him. Biography His father, Singai Pararasasegaram, had two principal wives and a number of concubines. His first wife, Rajalaksmi, had two sons, Singhabahu and Pandaram. Singai Pararasasegaram second wife was Valliammal, she bore him Paranirupasingham. Cankili's mother had Cankili and a daughter named ''Paravai''. As part of palace intrigues, Cankili was able to ascend the throne. Rule According to a letter by ''Andre de Souza'', ordered Cankili I on November 1544 the murder of h ...
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Nallur (Jaffna)
Nallur ( ta, நல்லூர்; si, නල්ලූර් ) is an affluent suburb in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. It is located 3 km south from Jaffna city centre. Nallur is most famous for Nallur Kandaswamy temple, one of Sri Lanka's most sacred place of pilgrimage for Sri Lankan Hindus. Nallur is also famous for being the historical capital of the old Jaffna Kingdom and birthplace of renowned philosopher and theologian, Arumuka Navalar. Etymology The name Nall-ur was colloquially used by natives in Jaffna to refer to the town as the 'place of high castes'.Pon Kulendiren’s‘Hinduism a Scientific Religion, & Some Temples in Sri Lanka’, page 154 The first part of the word Nallur ( ''Nall'' ) derives from the Tamil word ‘''Nalla''’ which means 'good'. In the past, it was Tamil linguistic tradition to refer to somebody of a higher or more socially upward caste as 'Nalla akkal' (good people). The second part to the name ( ''Ur'' ) means place or region. This loosely used ...
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Ibn Battuta
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah (, ; 24 February 13041368/1369),; fully: ; Arabic: commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Berber Maghrebi scholar and explorer who travelled extensively in the lands of Afro-Eurasia, largely in the Muslim world. He travelled more than any other explorer in pre-modern history, totalling around , surpassing Zheng He with about and Marco Polo with . Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of southern Eurasia, including Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, he dictated an account of his journeys, titled '' A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling'', but commonly known as ''The Rihla''. Name Ibn Battuta is a patronymic literally meaning "son of the duckling". His most common full name is given as Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battuta. In his travelogue, '' the Rihla'', he gives his full name as Shams al-Din Abu’Abdal ...
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Port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manchester and Duluth; these access the sea via rivers or canals. Because of their roles as ports of entry for immigrants as well as soldiers in wartime, many port cities have experienced dramatic multi-ethnic and multicultural changes throughout their histories. Ports are extremely important to the global economy; 70% of global merchandise trade by value passes through a port. For this reason, ports are also often densely populated settlements that provide the labor for processing and handling goods and related services for the ports. Today by far the greatest growth in port development is in Asia, the continent with some of the world's largest and busiest ports, such as Singapore and the Chinese ports of Shanghai and Ning ...
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Aryacakravarti Dynasty
The Arya Chakravarti dynasty ( ta, ஆரியச் சக்கரவர்த்திகள் வம்சம், Sinhalese: ආර්ය චක්‍රවර්තී රාජවංශය) were kings of the Jaffna Kingdom in Sri Lanka. The earliest Sri Lankan sources, between 1277 and 1283, mention a military leader of this name as a minister in the services of the Pandyan Empire; he raided the western Sri Lankan coast and took the politically significant relic of the Buddha's tooth from the Sinhalese capital city of Yapahuwa. Political and military leaders of the same family name left a number of inscriptions in the modern-day Tamil Nadu state, with dates ranging from 1272 to 1305, during the late Pandyan Empire. According to contemporary native literature, such as ''Cekaracecekaramalai'', the family also claimed lineage from the Tamil Brahmins of the prominent Hindu pilgrimage temple of Rameswaram in the modern Ramanathapuram District of India. They ruled the ...
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Harbor
A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a man-made facility built for loading and unloading vessels and dropping off and picking up passengers. Ports usually include one or more harbors. Alexandria Port in Egypt is an example of a port with two harbors. Harbors may be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor can have deliberately constructed breakwaters, sea walls, or jettys or they can be constructed by dredging, which requires maintenance by further periodic dredging. An example of an artificial harbor is Long Beach Harbor, California, United States, which was an array of salt marshes and tidal flats too shallow for modern merchant ships before it was first dredged in the early 20th century. In contrast, a natural harbor is surrounded on several sides of land. Examples ...
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Colombuthurai
Colombuthurai ( ta, கொழும்புத்துறை, translit=Koḻumputtuṟai; si, කොලොම්තර ''Kolomtara'') is a suburb of the city of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka. Colombuthurai means "the port at the bending point" in Tamil and is derived from the Tamil words ''kolu'' (plough point) and ''thurai'' (port). The suburb is divided into two village officer divisions (Colombuthurai East and Colombuthurai West) whose combined population was 3,431 at the 2012 census. Schools * Colombuthurai Hindu College, Jaffna Temples * Colombuthurai Pillayar Kovil Notable people * Yogaswami, Spiritual master * V. Yogeswaran, Politician and former Member of Parliament. * Sarojini Yogeswaran, Former Mayor of Jaffna. * M.K.Eelaventhan, Politician and former Member of Parliament. * Nishan Canagarajah, Pro-vice-chancellors of the University of Bristol, England. * Suresh Canagarajah Athelstan Suresh Canagarajah is a Tamils, Tamil-born Sri Lankan linguist and currently ...
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