Sri Lanka is the first Asian nation to have a female ruler in Queen Anula, who has ruled from 47 BCE.

Anula had initially risen to power as consort of king Chore Naga (also known as 'Coranaga' and 'Mahanaga'), son of king Valagambahu of Anuradhapura; however in her five-year reign she has poisoned her way through at least four other husbands and consorts.

Anula's motives behind killing her husband are not elaborated on.

Coranaga's successor, king Kuda Tissa, is the son of the man who ruled before him, Mahakuli.

'Kuda' means 'little', and thus it is possible that the new king was only a child, and thus effectively under Anula's control.

For four months in 42 BCE, Anula governs Rajarata on her own until her deposition by Mahakuli Mahatissa's second son Kutakanna Tissa.

In her behavior, Anula has broken every single one of the Rajarata elite's conventions: her partners have all been commoners, lower-caste men, or non-aristocratic Tamils, and the one man of high rank whom she married she ejected in favor of independent rule, something which no woman before her had ever held.

The Mahavamsa, on of the two main Buddhist chronicles of the country's history, states that Kutakanna Tissa had Anula burned on a funeral pyre; other sources indicate that Anula was burned alive in the palace within which she had committed her murders.

(She should not be confused with the other famous Anula in Sri Lankan history, king Devanampiyatissa's consort.)