{"id":155949,"date":"2026-04-28T14:35:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=155949"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:35:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:35:35","slug":"the-jaffna-kingdom-1215-1619-ce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/04\/28\/the-jaffna-kingdom-1215-1619-ce\/","title":{"rendered":"The Jaffna Kingdom (1215\u20131619 CE)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by, Professor Nishan C Wijesinha of the German School of Medicine.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Jaffna Kingdom (1215\u20131619 CE) was a major historical Kingdom on the Jaffna Peninsula in the northern part of Ceylon which was popularised by it’s stilts related cultural dancers; within the Peninsular. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of this Mahapabbata ritual was to spread the message of the value of agriculture for a productive and self sustainable economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aryacakravarti dynasty \u2014 the line of kings who ruled the Jaffna Kingdom in northern Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaffna Kingdom Aryacakravarti line of kings…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final ruler Cankili II in Jaffna Kingdom before it’s  Dissolution 1619 by the Portuguese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The illustrations here should be drawn to 4 kings in traditional royal dress with their hands in anjali mudra  pose of Hinduism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here these kings  carried a chakra\/disc weapon, a symbol of the Aryacakravartis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom labels in Tamil:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0baa\u0bb0\u0bbe\u0b9a\u0b9a\u0bc7\u0b95\u0bb0\u0bb0\u0bbe\u0b9a\u0bbe = Pararasasekararasa \/ Pararajasekaram<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0baa\u0ba3\u0bcd\u0b9f\u0bbe\u0bb0\u0bae\u0bcd = Pandaram<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0baa\u0bb0\u0ba8\u0bbf\u0bb0\u0bc1\u0baa\u0b9a\u0bbf\u0b99\u0bcd\u0b95\u0bae\u0bcd = Paranirupasingham<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0b9a\u0b99\u0bcd\u0b95\u0bbf\u0bb2\u0bbf = Cankili \/ Sangili<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key facts about this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaffna Kingdom 1215-1619: Independent Tamil kingdom covering northern Sri Lanka. The Aryacakravartis ruled for \u223c400 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cankili II = The last king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portuguese captured Jaffna in 1619, executed Cankili II in Goa in 1623, and dissolved the kingdom. That ended independent Tamil rule in Lanka until modern times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 4 kings shown: are the last 4 kings before Portuguese conquest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pararajasekaram \u2014 ruled early 1500s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pandaram \u2014 disputed ruler, civil war period<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paranirupasingham \u2014 ruled mid-1500s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cankili I or Cankili II \u2014 Cankili II was the final one in 1619.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by, Professor Nishan C Wijesinha of the German School of Medicine. The Jaffna Kingdom (1215\u20131619 CE) was a major historical Kingdom on the Jaffna Peninsula in the northern part of Ceylon which was popularised by it’s stilts related cultural dancers; within the Peninsular.  The purpose of this Mahapabbata ritual was to spread the message of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155950,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155949\/revisions\/155950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}