Sumudu Manori Dharmarathna is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of History, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. She earned her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and Master of Philosophy degrees from the University of Peradeniya. Subsequently, she obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Kelaniya, building on research conducted at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and New Delhi, India. Her primary research contributions focus on the history of pre-modern South Asian society, culture, religion, art, and architecture. She was awarded a scholarship by the Indian Council for Cultural Affairs and a research fellowship under the ISE Program Wilhelm Fellowship in 2005. In 1999, she received a university research grant from the University of Peradeniya to conduct archival studies and field research in India as part of her Master of Philosophy degree program. Dr. Dharmarathna served as the coordinator of the joint research project "A Study of the Original Relations Between Theravada Buddhism and Water-Splashing Festivals of China and Sri Lanka" under the Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Peradeniya and Honghe University, China (July 2016 – July 2019). As part of the research team, she visited Buddhist monastic sites in the Yunnan province, gaining valuable insights into the comparative study of religion and culture between China and Sri Lanka. As a research scholar at the International Congress of Bengal Studies, she has collaborated with other scholars on South Asian religion and culture at institutions such as Tokyo University, Japan, and Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. Additionally, in 2001, she contributed to a joint research project between the Department of History, University of Peradeniya, and the Indo-Sri Lanka Foundation, Colombo.