Lanja Tissa
Lanja Tissa (119-109 BC), also known as Lamani Tissa, was an early King of Sri Lanka of the Anuradhapura Kingdom from 119 BC to 109 BC. Lanja Tissa was the eldest son of king Saddha Tissa who ruled in Anuradhapura.
History
According to the customs of the Sinhalese King's at Anuradhapura, Lanja Tissa was the King of the kingdom of Ruhuna, while his father was ruling the Anuradhapura.
When Saddha Tissa died, his younger son Thulatthana became the king of Anuradhapura, with the support of the Bhikkus of Maha Vihara, When Lanja Tissa heard this news, he marched from Ruhuna, with his men to Anuradhapura and removed Thulatthana from the throne, and became the king.
This incident initially upset Lanjatissa with the Bhikkus in his early period of rule, But later on he started to work for the betterment of Buddhism in the country.
Jat clans
In Mahavansa
- Lanja, Sadh - Mahavansa/Chapter 33 tells....While the great king Saddha Tissa (137-119 BC) lived yet in Dighavapi his eldest son Lanja Tissa ( 119-109 BC) built the beautiful vihara called Girikumbhila; and Thulathana, a younger son of this same (king), built the vihara called Kandara. When his father (Saddha Tissa) went to his brother (Dutthagamani at Anurãdhapura) Thulathana went with him, to bestow land for the use of the brotherhood upon his vihãra. (Lanja, Saddha → Sadh)
- Lanja - Mahavansa/Chapter 33 tells....When Saddha Tissa died all the counsellors assembled, and when they had summoned together the whole brotherhood of bhikkhus in the Thuparama, they, with the consent of the brotherhood consecrated the prince Thulathana as king, that he might take the kingdom under his protection. When Lanja Tissa heard this he came hither,' overpowered him, and took the government upon himself. Only for one month and ten days had Thulathana been king.
- Lanja - Mahavansa/Chapter 33 tells....During three years did Lanja Tissa use the brotherhood slightingly and neglect them, with the thought: `They did not decide according to age.' When, afterwards, he was reconciled with the brotherhood, the king built, in atonement, spending three hundred thousand (pieces of money), three stone terraces for offerings of flowers to the Great Cetiya, and then did the lord of the land, with (the expense of) a hundred thousand, have the earth heaped up between the Great Thupa and the Thuparama so that it was level. Moreover, he made a splendid stone mantling to the thupa in the Thuparama, and to the east of the Thupurama a little thupa built of stones, and the Lanjakasana hail for the brotherhood of bhikkhus. Moreover, he had a mantling made of stone for the Khandhakathupa. When he had spent a hundred thousand for the Cetiya-vihara he commanded that at the (consecration) festival of the vihara called Girikumbhila the six garments be distributed to sixty thousand bhikkhus. He built the Arittha-vihara and the (vihara) Kunjarahinaka, and to the bhikkhus in the villages he distributed medicines. To the bhikkhunis he ordered to give rice as much as they wanted. Nine years and one half-month did he reign here.
- Lanja - Mahavansa/Chapter 33 tells....When Lanjatissa (119-109 BC) was dead his younger brother named Khallata Naga (109-104 BC) reigned six years.