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Founding
Founding of Kingdom of Kandy
political entity
- 1469
- Kandy
- South Asia
Founding
political entity
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
The Kingdom of Kandy (මහනුවර රාජධානිය) was the last Sinhalese monarchy on the island of Sri Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in the late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century.
Kandy was the last independent kingdom of the Sinhalese monarchy, administrative system, traditional martial culture and Theravada Buddhism against European Colonial powers for over three centuries, specifically the Portuguese and Dutch, before eventually falling to the British through the Kandyan Convention on March 2, 1815 at the Magul Maduwa, ending over 2,300 years of independent native rule.
Over the years, the Kingdom of Kandy has been known by many names. These include:
Much of the Kandy Kingdom's territory was in Sri Lanka's mountainous and thickly forested interior, with mountain passes to the capital providing plenty of opportunities for defenders to stage ambushes. Routes to the city were kept secret, and spreading information concerning them could often result in death. Many routes into the hill country became impassable during the annual monsoon, and malaria was rife. Throughout its existence Kandyan forces used the land to their advantage, engaging in guerrilla warfare against invading forces, and evacuating major urban centres when enemy forces drew near – a tactic used with particular effect during the Kandyan Wars. Though the kingdom had intermittent access to the port of Batticaloa it had no naval forces and could not prevent the Portuguese and Dutch from maintaining a strong presence in lowland areas.
The city of Senkadagalapura (Kandy) may have been founded as early as the mid-14th century during the reign of Vikramabahu III (1357–1374). Central Sri Lanka was ruled by the kings of Kotte from the early 15th to late 16th centuries; with Kotte's weakening in the face of Portuguese influence the area developed into an autonomous domain with Senkadagalapura at its capital. Following the Vijayabā Kollaya in 1521, and the subsequent partition of the kingdom of Kotte, Kandy asserted its independence and emerged as a serious rival to the eastern and southern kingdoms.
Following the Spoiling of Vijayabahu in 1521, the kingdom of Kotte split into three competing states – Sitawaka, Raigama, and Bhuvanekabahu VII's kingdom of Kotte. Of these Sitawaka, under the dynamic leadership of Mayadunne, posed the greatest threat to the autonomy of the other states. In 1522, the Kandyans secured Portuguese protection against Sitawaka, but any potential for alliance ended in 1546 when Portuguese and Kotte forces invaded the kingdom. Kandy subsequently lent aid to the Jaffna Kingdom against the Portuguese in 1560.
The Kingdom of Kandy was invaded twice during the 1570s and 1580s—first in 1574 and again in 1581—by Rajasinghe I of Sitawaka, who had recently ascended the throne. Rajasinghe, already renowned for his decisive victory over the Portuguese at the Battle of Mulleriyawa, succeeded in annexing Kandy outright. The Kandyan king, Karalliyadde Kumara Bandara (also known as Jayavira III), fled north to the Jaffna Kingdom with his daughter, Kusumasana Devi (later known as Dona Catherina of Kandy), and her husband, Yamasinghe Bandara. Both eventually converted to Christianity under Portuguese influence, adopting the names Dona Catherina and Don Philipe respectively. Meanwhile, the Portuguese also pressed their claim to Kandy, citing Dharmapala's donation of 1580 as a precedent
Sitawakan rule over Kandy proved difficult to maintain. Rajasinghe's appointed viceroy, Wirasundara Mudiyanse, rebelled soon after the initial conquest, though his uprising was swiftly suppressed. Another revolt broke out in 1588. Resistance eventually crystallized around Konnappu Bandara, Wirasundara's son, who had fled to Portuguese territory following his father's murder at the hands of Rajasinghe's agents. Between 1591 and 1594, Konnappu Bandara returned, seized the Kandyan throne under the name Wimaladharmasuriya I, and married Dona Catherina. His victories over both the Sitawakans and the Portuguese—who briefly occupied Kandy in 1592—secured his authority.
The strategic situation in Sri Lanka changed dramatically during Wimaladharmasuriya's rise to power. To the north, the Portuguese deposed the king Puviraja Pandaram of the Jaffna Kingdom in 1591 and installed his son Ethirimana Cinkam as client king. In 1594, Rajasinghe I died and the kingdom of Sitawaka disintegrated. Kandy remained the sole native polity outside of European dominance. In 1595, Wimaladharmasuriya brought the sacred Tooth Relic – the traditional symbol of royal and religious authority amongst the Sinhalese to Kandy, and Kandy entered a long period of attritionary warfare with the Portuguese, starting with the Campaign of Danture.
Hostilities between the Portuguese and the Kandyans continued throughout the rest of Wimaladharmasuriya's reign. The Kandyans lent aid to a rebellion led by Domingos Corrêa and later Simão Corrêa, Sinhalese subjects of Dharmapala, between 1594 and 1596. A Portuguese incursion in 1604 saw them capture Balane, but dissent amongst their Lascarin troops forced a withdrawal back to the coast.
Relations between the Dutch Republic and the Kandyans were initiated on 2 June 1602 when Dutch explorer Joris van Spilbergen arrived at Santhamuruthu on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Later that year the Dutch East India Company despatched Sebald de Weert to Kandy in an attempt to negotiate a treaty. The visit ended in disaster when the visitors offended their Kandyan hosts with their behaviour and in the ensuing fracas, de Weert and several of his entourage were killed.
Vimaladharmasuriya I died in 1604, and the throne passed to his cousin, Senarat. At the time of the king's death, Senarat was an ordained Buddhist monk, but he disrobed, married Dona Catherina, and assumed the kingship. Kuruvita Rala, the Prince of Uva of the Karava lineage, launched raids against the Kandyan Kingdom and temporarily forced Senarat out of his capital. In 1611, Portuguese forces, acting in the name of the pretender Mayadunne of Uva, captured Kandy and once again set the city ablaze. Further north, in 1619, Cankili II was deposed and the Jaffna Kingdom absorbed into the Portuguese Empire. Despite these setbacks, Senarat survived as the king and in 1612 had even concluded a treaty with the Dutch East India Company (VOC). When help came, it was in the form of Danish East India Company whose fleet arrived in 1620, but failed to secure Trincomalee and was expelled by the Portuguese.
The Portuguese strengthened their position throughout the 1620s, building forts at Kalutara, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and in Sabaragamuwa, and upgrading fortifications in Colombo, Galle, and Manikkadawara. A disastrous defeat at the Battle of Randeniwela on 2 August 1630 in which Portuguese captain-general Constantino de Sá de Noronha was killed resulted in large parts of Portuguese Ceilao being overrun by the Kandyans. Internal instability yet again prevented the Kandyans from securing their acquisitions, and by the time of Senarat's death in 1635 lowland Sri Lanka was once again under Portuguese control.
The throne now passed to Senarat's son Rajasinha II, who led the Kandyans to a major victory over the Portuguese at Gannoruwa on 28 March 1638. The battle was to be the last major military victory for the kingdom of Kandy and succeeded in severely weakening the Portuguese presence in Sri Lanka. In May of that year he concluded a wide-ranging alliance with the Dutch, who were by now in control of Batavia. Batticaloa and Trincomalee fell in 1639, Galle in 1640, and Kandyan forces seized Portuguese territories further inland.
Relations between the Dutch and the Kandyans had been difficult from the onset and the alliance fell apart in the 1640s. The two sides joined forces again in the 1650s to expel the Portuguese, but a final break occurred in 1656 in the aftermath of the fall of Colombo after a six-month siege and the final expulsion of the Portuguese from Sri Lanka. Rajasinha demanded that the fort be handed over to the Kandyans for demolition; in November, the Dutch refused and drove the king and his army from the vicinity. Rajasinha's hold over his own population was tenuous, and rebellions against him in 1664 and 1671 gave the Dutch the opportunity to seize large parts of Sabaragamuwa in 1665, as well as Kalpitiya, Kottiyar, Batticaloa and Trincomalee. The seizure of the ports was a serious blow to the Kandyan kingdom – not only were Dutch holdings now more or less coterminous with the territory the Portuguese had held, but all Kandyan trade was now in Dutch hands. Rajasinha attempted to negotiate an alliance with France, who seized Trincomalee but were expelled by the Dutch in 1672. Kandyan campaigns in 1675 and 1684 recaptured some territory, but by the time of Rajasinha's death in 1687 neither city had returned to Kandyan control.
Rajasinha's son ascended to the throne as Vimaladharmasuriya II, and his twenty-year reign (1687–1707) proved relatively peaceable. A trade war broke out in 1701 when the Kandyans closed their borders with Dutch territories in order to stimulate trade through the ports of Puttalam and Kottiyar. As a result, the Dutch lost control of the areca nut trade and retaliated; by 1707 Kandyan borders had reopened and both ports were closed. Upon his death Vimaladharmasuriya II was succeeded by his son, who ruled as Vira Narendra Sinha. Several anti-Dutch uprisings occurred in the lowlands during the course of the 1720s and 1730s; the Kandyans in turn declared war on the Dutch in 1736 and seized some territory. Hostilities subsided with the appointment of Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff as Governor, and by 1737 the Dutch and Kandyans were once again at peace.
A succession crisis emerged upon Vira Narendra Sinha's death in 1739. The king had one son – Unambuve Bandara – by a Sinhalese consort. However, succession to the Kandyan throne was reserved exclusively for those of kshatriya ancestry on both their mother and father's side, and Unambuve's mother had been of a lower caste. With the support of the bhikku Weliwita Saranankara, the crown passed to the brother of one of Narendrasinha's senior wives, a member of the Tamil-speaking Nayak house from southern India. He was crowned Sri Vijaya Rajasinha later that year. The Nayak kings were of Telugu origin who practised Shaivite Hinduism and were patrons of Theravada Buddhism. The Nayak rulers played a huge role in reviving Buddhism in the island. They spoke Tamil, which was also used as the court language in Kandy alongside Sinhala.
Relations between the Sinhalese populace, including the Kandyan aristocracy, and the Nayakkars remained fraught throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. As early as Narendrasinha's reign, attempts at appointing Nayakkars to prominent positions in court had caused rebellion, including one in 1732 that the king had only been able to crush with Dutch assistance. The Nayakkar nobility – which tended to be exclusivist and monopolise access to the king – was seen as forming an elite group privileged above the native aristocracy, the powerful adigars. Though Sri Vijaya Rajasinha's reign (1739–1747) proved relatively peaceful, his successor Kirti Sri Rajasinha had to deal with two major rebellions. The first, in 1749, was directed at his father Narenappa; the second, in 1760, was a far more dangerous insurrection which attempted to replace him with a Siamese prince. Despite these tensions, however, the Nayakkar dynasty endured, establishing support by their patronage of Buddhism and Kandyan culture.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Kingdom of Kandy”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.