Vallipuram is a village in Vadamarachchi, near Point Pedro in Northern Province, Sri Lanka. The village is an ancient settlement with rich archeological remains. The village is home to the Vishnu temple Vallipuram Aalvar Kovil.

History

A 2nd century gold plate carrying a Prakrit inscription was found under the foundation of the Vishnu Hindu temple at Vallipuram. It mentions about the establishment of a Vihara in Nakadiva by the minister named Isigiraya under the ruler King Vaha who is identified as King Vasabha (67-111 C.E.). The inscription is important as it confirms that King Vasabha was ruling the whole country including Nakadiva (According to Malini Dias, Nakadiva in Old Sinhala is the equivalent of Pali Nagadipa, whilst the use of the phoneme 'k' to represent 'g' reveals Dravidian influence). The language and interpretation of the inscription is disputed. According to Senarath Paranavithana, this is an inscription written in Old Sinhalese. Peter Schalk believes that this inscription is in Prakrit bearing Dravidian influences and that the name Nakadiva is a fiefdom corresponding to modern Jaffna Peninsula, which was ruled under the minister Isikiraya ('raya' being a Tamil form of the word raja, and the place name 'Badakara' (vada karai - Tamil) deriving from the Dravidian 'northern coast'). Vallipuram  was an ancient capital of the Northern Kingdoms of Sri Lanka. Point Pedro is the nearest town. Vallipuram is a part of Thunnalai which is a village in eastern vadamarachi. There are two places in India with similar names. One is near Namakkal and the other one is near Kanchi. As such the people in Jaffna and in India have a long term connection. This place is settled by migrants from a town called Vallipuram near Namakkal which is near Coimbatore.Professor Peter Schalk (University of Uppsala), writes "Vallipuram has very rich archaeological remains that point at an early settlement. It was probably an emporium in the first centuries AD. [...]. The Buddha statue found here was given to King of Thailand by the then British Governor Henry Blake in 1906.

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