Tammana Nuwera hold sa very important place in the Singhalese history, as having been founded by Vijaya, the first in the list of the kings of Ceylon, so far back as 2382 years from the present time, or 5.13 before the Christian era. It bears in pali the name of Tambapanni, which it is surmised the Greeks and Romans corrupted into Taprobane, and applied as an appellation to the island itself. Tambapanni signifies “copper-coloured,” and is said to refer to the reddish colour of the soil in the place, as Albion did to the colour of the chalky cliffs on the southern coast of England.