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According to the Mahavamsa, the Sinhalese are descended from the exiled Prince Vijaya and his party of seven hundred followers who arrived on the island in 543 BCE.

Vijaya and his followers were said to have arrived in Sri Lanka after being exiled from the city of Sinhapura in Kalinga ( Modern day Orissa ), East India.

Buddhism is then said to have been introduced to the Sinhalese from India by Mahinda, son of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great, during the 3rd century BC.