Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 79

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.

[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 104; _Mahawanso_, ch. lx.x.xiii.]

[Footnote 2: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 82.]

[Footnote 3: A.D. 1303.]

[Footnote 4: Gampola or Gam-pala, _Ganga-siripura_, "the beautiful city near the river," is said in the _Rajaratnacari_ to have been built by one of the brothers-in-law of Panduwaasa, B.C. 504.]

Such frequent removals are evidences of the alarm and despondency excited by the forays and encroachments of the Malabars, who from their stronghold at Jaffna exercised undisputed dominion over the northern coasts on both sides of the island, and, secure in the possession of the two ancient capitals, Anaraj.a.poora and Pollanarrua, spread over the rich and productive plains of the north. To the present hour the population of the island retains the permanent traces of this alien occupation of the ancient kingdom of Pihiti. The language of the north of the island, from Chilaw on the west coast to Batticaloa on the east, is chiefly, and in the majority of localities exclusively, Tamil; whilst to the south of the Dederaoya and the Mahawelli-ganga, in the ancient divisions of Rohuna and Maya, the vernacular is uniformly Singhalese.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1410.]

Occasionally, after long periods of inaction, collisions took place; or the Singhalese kings equipped expeditions against the north; but the contest was unequal; and in spite of casual successes, "the king of the Ceylonese Malabars," as he is styled in the _Rajavali_, held his court at Jaffnapatam, and collected tribute from both the high and the low countries, whilst the south of the island was subdivided into a variety of petty kingdoms, the chiefs of which, at Yapahu, at Kandy, at Gampola, at Matura, Mahagam, Matelle, and other places[1], acknowledged the nominal supremacy of the sovereign at Cotta, with whom, however, they were necessarily involved in territorial quarrels, and in hostilities provoked by the withholding of tribute.

[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, p. 263; _Mahawanso_, ch. lx.x.xvii.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1410.]

It was during this period that an event occurred, which is obscurely alluded to in some of the Singhalese chronicles, but is recorded with such minute details in several of the Chinese historical works, as to afford a reliable ill.u.s.tration of the condition of the island and its monarchy in the fifteenth century. Prior to that time the community of religion between Ceylon and China, and the eagerness of the latter country to extend its commerce, led to the establishment of an intercourse which has been elsewhere described[1]; missions were constantly despatched charged with an interchange of courtesies between their sovereigns; theologians and officers of state arrived in Ceylon empowered to collect information regarding the doctrines of Buddha; and envoys were sent in return bearing royal donations of relics and sacred books. The Singhalese monarchs, overawed by the magnitude of the imperial power, were induced to avow towards China a sense of dependency approaching to homage; and the gifts which they offered are all recorded in the Chinese annals as so many "payments of tribute." At length, in the year 1405 A.D,[2], during the reign of the emperor Yung-lo[3] of the Ming dynasty, a celebrated Chinese commander, Ching-Ho, having visited Ceylon as the bearer of incense and offerings, to be deposited at the shrine of Buddha, was waylaid, together with his followers, by the Singhalese king, Wijayo Bahu VI., and with difficulty effected an escape to his s.h.i.+ps. To revenge this treacherous affront Ching-Ho was despatched a few years afterwards with a considerable fleet and a formidable military force, which the king (whom the Chinese historian calls A-lee-ko-nae-wih) prepared to resist; but by a vigorous effort Ho and his followers succeeded in seizing the capital, and bore off the sovereign, together with his family, as prisoners to China. He presented them to the emperor, who, out of compa.s.sion, ordered them to be sent back to their country on the condition that "the wisest of the family should be chosen king." "_Seay-pa-nea-na_"[4] was accordingly elected, and this choice being confirmed, he was sent to his native country, duly provided with a seal of invest.i.ture, as a va.s.sal of the empire under the style of Sri Prakrama Bahu VI.,--and from that period till the reign of Teen-shun, A.D. 1434-1448, Ceylon continued to pay an annual tribute to China.

[Footnote 1: See Part v. ch. iii.]

[Footnote 2: The narrative in the text is extracted from the _Ta-tsing-yi-tung_, a "Topographical Account of the Manchoo Empire,"

written in the seventeenth century, to a copy of which, in the British Museum, my attention was directed by the erudite Chinese scholar, Mr.

MEADOWS, author of "_The Chinese and their Rebellions_." The story of this Chinese expedition to Ceylon will also be found in the _Se-yih-ke-foo-choo_, "A Description of Western Countries," A.D. 1450; the _Woo heo-pecu_, "A Record of the Ming Dynasty," A.D. 1522, b. lviii.

p. 3, and in the _Ming-she_, "A History of the Ming Dynasty," A.D. 1739, cccxxvi. p. 2. For a further account of this event see Part v. of this work; ch. iii.]

[Footnote 3: The _Ming-she_ calls the Emperor "Ching-tsoo."]

[Footnote 4: So called in the Chinese original.]

From the beginning of the 13th century to the extinction of the Singhalese dynasty in the 18th, the island cannot be said to have been ever entirely freed from the presence of the Malabars. Even when temporarily subdued, they remained with forced professions of loyalty; Damilo soldiers were taken into pay by the Singhalese sovereigns; the dewales of the Hindu wors.h.i.+p were built in close contiguity to the wiharas of Buddhism, and by frequent intermarriages the royal line was almost as closely allied to the kings of Chola and Pandya as to the blood of the Suluwanse.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, p.261, 262. In A.D. 1187 on the death or Mahindo V., the second in succession from the great Prakrama, the crown devolved upon Kirti Nissanga, who was summoned from Calinga on the Coromandel Coast. On the extinction of the recognised line of Suluwanse in A.D. 1706, a prince from Madura, who was merely a connection by marriage, succeeded to the throne. The King Raja Singha, who detained Knox in captivity, A.D. 1640, was married to a Malabar princess. In fact, the four last kings of Ceylon, prior to its surrender to Great Britain, were pure Malabars, without a trace of Singhalese blood.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1505.]

It was in this state of exhaustion, that the Singhalese were brought into contact with Europeans, during the reign of Dharma Prakrama IX, when the Portuguese, who had recently established themselves in India, appeared for the first time in Ceylon, A.D. 1505. The paramount sovereign was then living at Cotta; and the _Rajavali_ records the event in the following terms:--"And now it came to pa.s.s that in the Christian year 1522 A.D., in the month of April, a s.h.i.+p from Portugal arrived at Colombo, and information was brought to the king, that there were in the harbour a race of very white and beautiful people, who wear boots and hats of iron, and never stop in one place. They eat a sort of white stone, and drink blood; and if they get a fish they give two or three _ride_ in gold for it; and besides, they have guns with a noise louder than thunder, and a ball shot from one of them, after traversing a league, will break a castle of marble."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, Upham's version, p. 278.]

Before proceeding to recount the intercourse of the islanders with these civilised visitors, and the grave results which followed, it will be well to cast a glance over the condition of the people during the period which preceded, and to cull from the native historians such notices of their domestic and social position as occur in pa.s.sages intended by the Singhalese annalists to chronicle only those events which influenced the national wors.h.i.+p, or the exploits of those royal personages, who earned immortality by their protection of Buddhism.

PART IV.