Part 79 (1/2)

Within thirty years from the decease of Prakrama Bahu, the kingdom was reduced to such an extremity of weakness by contentions amongst the royal family, and by the excesses of their partisans, that the vigilant Malabars seized the opportunity to land with an army of 24,000 men, reconquered the whole of the island, and Magha, their leader, became king of Ceylon A.D. 1211.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, p. 256.]

The adventurers who invaded Ceylon on this occasion came not from Chola or Pandya, as before, but from Calinga, that portion of the Dekkan which now forms the Northern Circars. Their domination was marked by more than ordinary cruelty, and the _Mahawanso_ and _Rajaratnacari_ describe with painful elaboration the extinction of Buddhism, the overthrow of temples, the ruin of dagobas, the expulsion of priests, and the occupation of their dwellings by Damilos, the outrage of castes, the violation of property, and the torture of its possessors to extract the disclosure of their treasures, ”till the whole island resembled a dwelling in flames or a house darkened by funeral rites.”[1]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. lxxix.; _Rajaratnacari_, p. 93; _Rajavali_, p. 256.]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1211.]

On all former occasions Rohuna and the South had been comparatively free from the actual presence of the enemy, but in this instance they established themselves at Mahagam[1], and thence to Jaffnapatam, every province in the island was brought under subjection to their rule.

[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, 257.]

The peninsula of Jaffna and the extremity of the island north of Adam's Bridge, owing to its proximity to the Indian coast, was at all times the district most infested by the Malabars. Jambukola, the modern Colombogam, is the port which is rendered memorable in the _Mahawanso_ by the departure of emba.s.sies and the arrival of relics from the Buddhist countries, and Mantotte, to the north of Manaar, was the landing place of the innumerable expeditions which sailed from Chola and Pandya for the subjugation of Ceylon.

The Tamils have a tradition that, prior to the Christian era, Jaffna was colonised by Malabars, and that a Cholian prince a.s.sumed the government, A.D. 101,--a date which corresponds closely with the second Malabar invasion recorded in the _Mahawanso_. Thence they extended their authority over the adjacent country of the Wanny, as far south as Mantotte and Manaar, ”fortified their frontiers and stationed wardens and watchers to protect themselves from invasion.”[1] The successive bands of marauders arriving from the coast had thus on every occasion a base for operations, and a strong force of sympathisers to cover their landing; and from the inability of the Singhalese to offer an effectual resistance, those portions of the island were from a very early period practically abandoned to the Malabars, whose descendants at the present day form the great bulk of its population.

[Footnote 1: See a paper on the early History of Jaffna by S. CASIE CHITTY, _Journal of the Royal Asiat. Society of Ceylon, 1847_, p. 68.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1235.]

After an interval of twenty years, Wijayo Bahu III., A.D. 1235, collected as many Singhalese followers as enabled him to recover a portion of the kingdom, and establish himself in Maya, within which he built a capital at Jambudronha or Dambedenia, fifty miles to the north of the present Colombo. The Malabars still retained possession of Pihiti and defended their frontier by a line of forts drawn across the island from Pollanarrua to Ooroototta on the western coast.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. lx.x.x. lx.x.xii.; _Rajaratnacuri_, pp. 94, 94; _Rajavali_, p.258.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1266.]

Thirty years later Pandita Prakrama Bahu III, A.D. 1266, effected a further dislodgment of the enemy in the north; but Ceylon, which possessed

”The fatal gift of beauty, that became A funeral dower of present woes and past,”

was destined never again to be free from the evils of foreign invasion; a new race of marauders from the Malayan peninsula were her next a.s.sailants[1]; and these were followed at no very long interval by a fresh expedition from the coast of India.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, pp. 256, 260. A second Malay landing is recorded in the reign of Prakrama III., A.D. 1267.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. lx.x.xii.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1303.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1319.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1347.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1410.]

Having learned by experience the exposure and insecurity of the successive capitals, which had been built by former sovereigns in the low lands, this king founded the city of Kandy, then called Siriwardanapura, amongst the mountains of Maya[1], to which he removed the sacred _dalada_, and the other treasures of the crown. But such precautions came too late: to use the simile of the native historian, they were ”fencing the field whilst the oxen were within engaged in devouring the corn.”[2] The power of the Malabars had become so firmly rooted, and had so irresistibly extended itself, that, one after another, each of the earlier capitals was abandoned to them, and the seat of government carried further towards the south. Pollanarrua had risen into importance in the eighth and ninth centuries, when Anaraj.a.poora was found to be no longer tenable against the strangers.

Dambedenia was next adopted, A.D. 1235 as a retreat from Pollanarrua; and this being deemed insecure, was exchanged, A.D. 1303, for Yapahu in the Seven Corles. Here the Pandyan marauders followed in the rear of the retreating sovereign[3], surprised the new capital, and carried off the dalada relic to the coast of India. After its recovery Yapahu was deserted, A.D. 1319. Kornegalle or Kurunaigalla, then called Hastisailapoora and Gampola[4], still further to the south and more deeply intrenched amongst the Kandyan mountains, were successively chosen for the royal residence, A.D. 1347. Thence the uneasy seat of government was carried to Peradenia, close by Kandy, and its latest migration, A.D. 1410, was to Jaya-wardana-pura, the modern Cotta, a few miles east of Colombo.