Jayawardene remained not out on 103, made from 88 balls as Sri Lanka finished on 274 for six in their 50 overs after captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat first in the All-Asia final of the mega event.
It was Jayawardene's 14th one-day international hundred and it was laced with 13 fours.
Tailenders Nuwan Kulasekara (32 off 30 balls) and Thisara Perera (22 off nine) helped Sri Lanka smash 63 runs in the last five overs of power-play to leave India chasing 5.50 runs an over under lights.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men will begin their reply knowing that seven of the previous nine World Cup finals have been lost by the team batting second.
A sell-out crowd of 33,000, including Indian President Pratibha Patil and Sri Lanka's head of state Mahinda Rajapakse, watched an absorbing contest between bat and ball.
India's left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan dried up the flow of runs at the start and his two wickets made him the tournament's leading bowler alongside Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi with 21 wickets each.
Confusion reigned at the toss, which had to be performed twice after match referee Jeff Crowe did not hear Sangakkara's call when Dhoni threw up the coin.
Zaheer opened with three successive maidens and then struck with the first ball of his fourth over when Virender Sehwag dived to his right in the slips to remove Upul Tharanga for two.
Fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth lifted the pressure by conceding 15 runs in his fifth over that included a no-ball and a warning for running in the danger area in his follow-through.
Sreesanth, who was preferred ahead of spinner Ravichandran Ashwin after Ashish Nehra was ruled out with a fractured finger, was thrashed for 52 runs in his eight overs.
Tillakaratne Dilshan made 33 when he was bowled by off-spinner Harbhajan Singh to make Sri Lanka 60-2 in the 17th over. He became the first batsman to complete 500 runs in the tournament.
Sangakkara and Jayawardene put on 62 for the third wicket in 68 balls when Yuvraj Singh broke through by having the skipper caught behind by wicket-keeper Dhoni for 48.
Thilan Samaraweera (21) added 57 for the fourth wicket with Jayawardene when he was given out leg-before through a TV referral after umpire Simon Taufel had negated bowler Yuvraj's appeal.
India made one change, bringing in fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth in place of the injured Ashish Nehra while Sri Lanka made four changes.
Batsman Chamara Kapugedera, all-rounder Thisara Perera, off-spinner Suraj Randiv and seamer Nuwan Kulasekera replaced Chamara Silva, the injured Angelo Mathews, Rangana Herath and Ajantha Mendis.
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