Stories Behind the Names of Places in Sri Lanka: Kurunegala-by Nimal Sedera
Source:Qld Sri Lankan Newsletter – Dæhæna – May 2026
Today, we look into the name of a well known city, Kurunegala. Inci-dentally, after the British captured our motherland due to their pro-
nouncing difficulties they called Mee-gamuwa, Negambo, Kanda, Kandy, Galla as Galle, ත්රිකුමාම ය as Trin-comalee and ෙෑගල් as Kegalle.
Accordingly they called කුරුමෑග , Kernegalle. By the way, there is an-other popular Sinhala name for Kurunegala. It is ඇතුගල්ුර.
In Sinhala “kuru nae”(කුරුමෑ) refers to a tusker elephant. ග is rock. ඇතා means the tusker.
ඇතුග means the rock in the shape of a tusker. The huge rock that dominates the view of the land is so majestic that it is more suitable to call it ඇතුගල්ුර. However, in the Sri Lanka map and for all geograph-ical purposes, it is officially called Kurunegala.
Kurunegala too means the rock in the shape of an elephant. Further, there is another analysis that the rock is in the shape of a “kuru” ele-phant. “kuru” means, not so tall. A type of not so huge elephants are called,”kuru-alli”.
However it is clear that name Kurunegala has derived from the beau-tiful huge rock that dominates the view of the area and has the shape of an elephant.
I also wish to share a personal experience pertaining to the driveway to this hill.
As my wife was from the vicinity of Kurunegala ,we used to drive up the mountain to the highest possible place whenever possible and admire the view.
I hope it might be an ideal view point to promote among tourists and locals and to build tourist hotels.
