The name of a river and of the district near its mouth in Sri Lanka. The Buddha visited the Kalyāṇi country in the eighth year after the Enlightenment, in company with five hundred monks, on the second day after the full-moon of Vesākha and, seated on the spot where the Kalyāṇi-Cetiya was later built, he taught the Nāgā and their king Maniakkhika, at whose invitation he had come (Sp.i.89; Mhv.i.63, 75 ff; Dpv.ii.42, 53; J.ii.128).

Once a king reigned in Kalyāṇī named Kalyaṇi-Tissa, who had a daughter Vihāradevī. According to the legends connected with her, Kalyāṇī was at one time much further from the sea than it is now. The sea swallowed up several leagues of land (Mhv.xxii.12 ff). King Yatthāla-Tissa built a five-storeyed pāsāda in the town, which was later restored by Parakkamabāhu II (Cv.lxxxv.64).

The Kalyāṇi district formed the fighting base of several campaigns. e.g., Cv.lxi.35, 39; lxxii.151.