Sinnappah Arasaratnam (20 March 1930 – 4 October 1998) was a Sri Lankan academic, historian and author, born during

British colonial rule The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts establish ...

. Known as 'Arasa', he was a lecturer at the

University of Ceylon The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Univ ...

University of Malaya The Universiti Malaya (lit 'University of Malaya'; abbreviated UM) is a public university, public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest Malaysian institution of higher education, and was the only university in ...

and

University of New England (Australia) The University of New England (UNE) is a public university in New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1938, it was the first Australian university to be established outside of a state capital. Its main campus is located in the regional city of ...

Early life and family

Arasaratnam was born on 20 March 1930 in

Navaly Navaly ( ; ), also transliterated as Navali, Navaaly or Navaali is a town in the Jaffna District of Sri Lanka and it is located about 6 km from Jaffna, in the northwest of the peninsula of the same name. There are many famous places in the ...

in northern

British Ceylon British Ceylon (; ), officially British Settlements and Territories in the Island of Ceylon with its Dependencies from 1802 to 1833, then the Island of Ceylon and its Territories and Dependencies from 1833 to 1931 and finally the Island of Cey ...

. He was educated at

Jaffna College __NOTOC__ Jaffna College is a private school in Vaddukoddai, Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1871 as a successor to the Batticotta Seminary which had been established by American missionaries. History In 1816 American missionaries founded the Am ...

Vaddukoddai Vaddukoddai (, ) (also spelt Vatukotai, Vaddukkoddai) is small but important town in the minority Sri Lankan Tamil dominated Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka. This place famous to Cultural Dances & Hindu rituals. It became prominent with the foundin ...

. After school he joined the

in 1947 from where he graduated in 1951 with a

First Class Honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

BA degree. Arasaratnam married Thanalakshmi (Padma), daughter of Selvathurai. They had two daughters (Sulochana and Ranjana) and a son (Niranjan). Arasaratnam was a practising Christian who attended the

Uniting Church The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) is a united church in Australia. The church was founded on 22 June 1977 when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost a ...

Armidale Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 23,967 as of the 2021 census. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands reg ...

, New South Wales.

Career

After graduation in 1951 Arasaratnam was appointed an assistant lecturer of history at the University of Ceylon. In 1954 he joined the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

to carry out doctoral research and in 1956 he graduated with a

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in history. On returning to

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Arasaratnam rejoined the University of Ceylon as a lecturer. He was appointed lecturer in Indian Studies at the

in 1961. He was promoted to professor of history in 1968. Arasaratnam was appointed second professor in the Department of History at the

in 1972. He took up the post in 1973. He held the Smuts Fellowship in Commonwealth Studies, Cambridge in 1977. Arasaratnam retired from the University of New England in March 1995. He was elected a Fellow of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australi ...

in 1996.

Death

Arasaratnam died suddenly in Sydney, Australia on 4 October 1998. He was 68.

Works

Arasaratnam was prolific writer — he wrote 15 books and 93 articles/chapters. His literary works were achieved while heavily engaged with activities such as sitting on key bodies such as the Academic Advisory Committee. * ''Dutch Power in Ceylon, 1658-1687'' (1958, Netherlands Institute of Cultural Relations/Djambatan) * ''Ceylon'' (1964, Spectrum/Prentice-Hall) *
Indian festivals in Malaya
' (1966, University of Malaya) * * ''Maritime India in the seventeenth century'' (1994, Oxford University Press) *
Ceylon and the Dutch, 1600-1800
' (1996, Variorum) * ''Maritime commerce and English power'' (1996, Variorum)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arasaratnam, S. 1930 births 1998 deaths Academic staff of the University of Ceylon Academic staff of the University of Malaya Alumni of Jaffna College Alumni of the University of Ceylon Alumni of the University of London Australian people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent People from Northern Province, Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan academics Sri Lankan Tamil writers Academic staff of the University of New England (Australia) Historians of the Dutch East India Company Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities