Jaffna under the rule of Dutch- a study based on the Dutch report-1658.

Abstract

The history of Sri Lankan Administration was changed with several new aspects in the European period. “Administration is a process of systematically arranging and coordinating”. Thus, the administration of a government should be organized and coordinated. It is noted that such administrative system was changed as per the purpose of rule of Portuguese, Dutch and British in accordance with the period of Europeans. Among such Europeans Dutch, ruled from the period 1658 to 1796. Under their administration it was ruled the coastal areas of Ceylon by the three Commanderies namely Colombo, Galle and Jaffna. Among such three Commanderies Jaffna Commandery plays the significant part. The documents belonged to Dutch period help to identify the salient features of Jaffna commandery. The identity of Jaffna Commandery was shown through several reports of Dutch. It can be easily known the political economical religious and social aspects of Jaffna by such reports. So the purpose of this study is to know the importance of Jaffna Commandery from the Dutch Report, published by Rijckloff vanGoens in 1658. This research is carried out based on the primary and secondary data using the historical and descriptive analysis. The research will be useful to reveal the importance of Dutch documents and to expose several aspects which were not exposed before. And it will be supportive to the Jaffna society.