Sirima Bandaranaike, who died on October 10th aged 84, not only became the world's first woman prime minister, but went on to head her country's government three times. She altered the face of Ceylon, in many ways controversially, made it a republic, and changed its name to Sri Lanka.
Sirima Bandaranaike was born Sirima Ratwatte, the daughter of a prominent Sinhalese family in Ceylon - a perfect match for the wealthy, low-country family of her future husband. Her marriage, in 1940, to Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, then a brilliant, young, Oxford-educated colonial government minister, was dubbed "the wedding of the century". Both were from the top goyigama caste of landowners, and their horoscopes were found to match perfectly.
Unfortunately, neither knew anything about the country's Tamil minority. It was an omission that often led the couple to ignore the Tamils, or make fatal blunders in dealing with them.
At first, Sirima Bandaranike's public role was that of a dutiful wife. Her eldest child, Sunethra, was born in 1943, followed by Chandrika, and finally a boy, Anura. She was soon to became her husband's valued confidante. It was she who persuaded him to resign from the government and the ruling United National Party (UNP) in 1951. Two months later, he formed the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP), with democratic socialism and Sinhalese resurgence at its heart.
For Sirima Bandaranaike, her husband's assassination in 1959 was a traumatic tragedy. She was given little time to grieve in peace. The following year, she succumbed to the SLFP's desperate pleas to assume the party leadership, and led it to victory on a wave of public sympathy. The world's first woman prime minister took office in triumph.
During the next four years, she forged ahead with the socialist reform programme her husband had initiated - and, indeed, went further. The island was thrust full-tilt into the emerging non-aligned movement; foreign oil companies were nationalised, and all government business was transferred to the state-owned Bank of Ceylon and the new People's Bank, bringing an end to American aid; Soviet aid was sought for industrialisation projects; and education was reformed in favour of the Buddhist Sinhalese.
But she paid a high price. At the end of 1964, under pressure from right-wing Buddhist leaders, some SLFP MPs crossed the floor, and the government collapsed. She lost the next year's elections, but was herself elected to parliament for the first time.
Five years on came sweet revenge. In 1970, the United Left Front, led by the SLFP, won a two-thirds majority in parliament, and the socialist bandwagon set off again at full speed. The government pressed on with land reform, nationalisation of the tea estates and a new republican constitution, which changed Ceylon's name to Sri Lanka and made Buddhism the state religion - to the dismay of the mainly Hindu Tamils.
Sirima Bandaranaike also imposed rigid state control over the economy, which had the now familiar consequences. Her SLFP was routed in the 1977 elections, winning a derisory eight seats. The UNP, led by Julius Jayawardene, secured a 75 per cent majority, which he used ruthlessly to tighten the authoritarian regime his predecessor had imposed in her second term. Jayawardene revised the 1972 constitution and had himself elected executive president, setting up an oppressive state with the mere trappings of democracy. In 1980, he vindictively had Sirima Bandaranaike's civic rights suspended for seven years for abuse of power - a crime of which he himself soon became much more guilty.
Succession to the party leadership became a bone of contention between her son Anura, who was moving to the right, and her daughter Chandrika, who eventually broke away and, with her popular film-star husband Vijaya Kumaranatunga, formed their own left-wing party - one of whose main aims was to seek a rapprochement with the Tamils. But with her civic rights restored in 1985, Sirima Bandaranaike recovered her place as unchallenged leader and the SLFP's fortunes rose again.
After Vijaya Kumaranatunga's assassination in 1988, she eventually rejoined the SLFP and, proving herself a consummate politician, secured the party leadership in 1994 at the expense of Anura, who had angrily crossed over to the UNP. But, said Sirima Bandaranaike consolingly: "He's my son and I love him."
Her last bid for power came in the presidential elections of 1988, and the parliamentary polls of the following year. With the cards stacked so heavily against her by Jayawardene and his successor, Ranasinghe Premadasa, she could hardly win, though despite all the violence and electoral manipulation he used, Premadasa secured only 50.1 per cent of the votes. However, the UNP lost its two-thirds majority in parliament, its chief weapon in manipulating the constitution. What finally broke the government was Premadasa's assassination in 1993.
Reluctant though she was to hand over the reins, age was telling on Sirima Bandaranaike. Impressed by Chandrika's brilliant campaigning, she stepped down just before the parliamentary elections in August 1994. It may have been part of the deal that when Chandrika also won the presidential elections three months later, she appointed her mother prime minister - a symbolic act intended to extirpate Jayawardene's injustice over her civic rights.
Sirima Bandaranaike is survived by her three children.
Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike: born 1916; died, October 2000