History is the systematic study of the past. As an academic discipline, it analyzes and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and why it happened, focusing primarily on the human past. Some theorists classify history as a social science, while others consider it part of the humanities or consider it a hybrid subject. Similar debates surround the purpose of history, for example, whether its primary purpose is theoretical, to uncover truth, or practical, to learn lessons from the past. In a slightly different sense, the term history refers not to an academic field but to the past itself or to individual texts about the past. History is a broad subject that includes many branches. Some focus on specific periods, such as ancient history, while others focus on specific geographical regions, such as the history of Africa. Thematic classifications include political history, social history, and economic history. Branches related to specific research methods include quantitative history, comparative history, and oral history.
Historical research relies on primary and secondary sources to reconstruct past events and validate interpretations. Source criticism is used to evaluate these sources, assessing their authenticity, content, and reliability.
The history of Sri Lanka spans thousands of years. Sri Lanka has a written history of about 2500 years through the Mahavamsa. Similarly, the study of Sri Lankan history reveals the reasons that led to the diverse state of Sri Lankan written history. It is also the hope of the Daraniyagala Foundation to study the political, economic, social, and geographical impact of Sri Lankan history and to create the necessary foundation for a great Sri Lanka in the future through these studies.