JAFFNA, or Jaffnapatam, a town of Ceylon, situated in a peninsula of the same name at the northern extremity of the island. It is a place of 34,684 inhabitants, according to the census of 1871; and, besides the usual administrative buildings of a district-town, it has a college (established in 1872) and a public library. The fort was described by Tennent as “the most perfect little military work in Ceylon—a pentagon built of blocks of white coral.” The European part of the town bears the Dutch stamp more distinctly than any other town in the island; and there still exists a Dutch Presbyterian church. Several of the church buildings date from the time of the Portuguese. The inhabitants, mainly Tamils, are remarkably industrious, and their careful system of cultivation has turned the naturally sandy peninsula into a scene of luxuriant beauty. In 1873 there were fifty-one European cocoa-nut estates in the district.

Jaffna, or, as the natives call it, Yalpannan, was occupied by the Tamils about 204 b.c., and there continued to be Tamil rajahs of Jaffna till 1617, when the Portuguese took possession of the place. As early as 1544 the missionaries under Francis Xavier had made converts in this part of Ceylon, and after the conquest the Portuguese maintained their proselytizing zeal. They had a Jesuit college and a Franciscan and a Dominican monastery. The Dutch drove out the Portuguese in 1658, The Church of England Missionary Society began its work in Jaffna in 1818, and the American Missionary Society in 1822.