{"id":55303,"date":"2016-06-04T23:00:35","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T05:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=55303"},"modified":"2016-06-04T15:50:08","modified_gmt":"2016-06-04T22:50:08","slug":"jaffna-under-foreign-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/06\/04\/jaffna-under-foreign-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"JAFFNA UNDER FOREIGN RULE"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA\u00a0 PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Jaffna was a part of the Sinhala kingdom up to the 12th century .\u00a0 Around\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1247 or so, a Malay (Javaka) ruler, called Chandrabanu from the Buddhist kingdom of Ligor (now Nakon Sri Thammarat in Thailand) \u00a0invaded the Dambadeniya kingdom. He was defeated by Parakrama Bahu II (1236-70). There is reason to believe that Chandrabanu\u00a0 did not return to Malaya but ended up in Jaffna. Chandrabanu\u2019s coins have been\u00a0 found in the north and there are place names such as Chavakaccheri in Jaffna peninsula .<\/p>\n

Around 1258,\u00a0\u00a0 Jatavarman Sundara Pandya from the\u00a0 neighboring Tamil kingdom\u00a0 attacked Chandrabanu\u00a0 and levied tribute. Then in 1263, Jatavarman Vira Pandya invaded, killed Chandrabanu and placed Chandrabanu\u2019s son as a vassal ruler in Jaffna.\u00a0 P.A.T Gunasinghe, researching into this period, said that there is little doubt that a ruler other than the Ariyachakravarti ruled in Jaffna before the last two decades of the 13th century. Gunasinghe also suggested that the Chandrabanu period could be considered a period of Buddhist rule in Jaffna.<\/p>\n

In 1286, the Pandyas invaded again and placed the first of the \u2018Ariyachakravarti\u2019 rulers in charge in Jaffna. The first Ariyachakravarti was believed to be a leader in the Pandya king\u2019s army. Gunasinghe pointed out that unlike most kings, the Ariyachakravarti rulers left no inscriptions. The tradition of leaving inscriptions was there at the time. There was one in Kegalle, but none in Jaffna.\u00a0 The Kegalle inscription indicated that this kingdom was not an independent one but was a part of the\u00a0\u00a0 Pandya kingdom. Jaffna became, according to Vernon Mendis a Pandyan principality\u201d.\u00a0 The Pandya kingdom in\u00a0 India\u00a0 was weakened by Malik Kafur\u2019s\u00a0 Muslim invasion in 1310. Jaffna may also have been affected. In 1344, Ibn Batuta, arriving in the island, was told that Ariyachakravarti of Jaffna was an ally of a Muslim power in south India. The coins of Ariyachakravarti exhibit on one side the bull and on the other the crescent.<\/p>\n

I think that the Pandyas were merely using Jaffna as a base from which to annex the Sinhala kingdom.\u00a0 Ariyachakravarti successfully attacked Vikramabahu III (1359-74) and exacted tribute. Vickramabahu\u2019s powerful minister, Nissanka Alagakkonara defeated Ariyachakravarti and the tribute ended. Historians are definite that the Sinhala kingdom did not go under Jaffna rule \u00a0during this period. Ariyachakravarti invaded again in the reign of Buvanekabahu V (1374-1408) and was defeated.<\/p>\n

Around 1364, the Tamil kingdom in South India was conquered by the Vijayanagara kingdom of Karnataka. Jaffna also, as a Pandya principality was made to pay tribute and when it tried to rebel, Prince Virupaksha invaded and brought Jaffna under Vijayanagara control. This is indicated in his inscription dated 1365 Even in 1507, Jaffna it appears was yet under Vijayanagara. There was a Vijayanagara invasion into the Gampola kingdom,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 which apparently was repelled. There is no record of the Gampola kingdom ever coming under Vijayanagara rule.<\/p>\n

Jaffna went under Sinhala rule for a brief period. Parakrama bahu VI (1412-1467) sent Sapumal Kumaraya to conquer the peninsula. Jaffna became once again a part of the Sinhala kingdom. G.V.P. Somaratne says there were Sinhalese in Jaffna when Sapumal entered. Sapumal kumaraya ruled in Jaffna for 14 years from 1450.\u00a0 Sapumal when he became king as Buvaneka Bahu VI (1469-77) was not interested in retaining Jaffna and Jaffna reverted to its earlier state.<\/p>\n

Jaffna was the weakest and poorest of the\u00a0\u00a0 political units in the island in the 16th century, said K.M. de Silva. It was defended by mercenaries from south India . C.R. de Silva said that both Vijayanagara (Karnataka) and Travancore were claiming Jaffna at this time, and it is possible that Jaffna accepted the nominal over lordship of Vijayanagara. All transactions, whether salaries or trade was in cash, said Abeysinghe..\u00a0 According to a 17 century Portuguese document, its revenue was about one fourth that of Kotte.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese wanted Jaffna only because Jaffna could be used to control the sea route between India and Sri Lanka. In 1560, they forced a treaty on Jaffna ruler Cankili I (1519-61).\u00a0 P.E.Pieris says the treaty was signed in Sinhala and Portuguese. In the same year they also took over Mannar Island. Cankili was deposed by his son, Puviraja Pandaram, who was deposed by another, who was over thrown by a third.\u00a0 Puviraja regained the throne in 1582. He opposed the Portuguese, so the Portuguese replaced him with Ethirimanna Cinkam (1591-1616). Ethirimanna was succeeded by Cankili II who tilted towards the kingdom of Tanjore. Tanjore was a small, weak kingdom inside the former Tamil kingdom of South India.\u00a0 In 1619, the Portuguese packed Cankili off to Goa and took over Jaffna.\u00a0\u00a0 The ruler of Tanjore tried to push the Portuguese out in 1620, but failed.<\/p>\n

Unlike Sitavaka and Udarata who resisted the Portuguese fiercely, Jaffna succumbed to Portuguese rule without much opposition. Jaffna had converted readily to Catholicism\u00a0 and the proportion of Catholics in Jaffna was eventually far greater than in the rest of Sri Lanka. The Portuguese churches selected for inclusion in \u2018The architecture of an island\u2019, (1998) are from Jaffna and Mannar. They are located at Chankanai, Myladdi, Vadukoddai, Paisala and Mannar. Jaffna Catholics supported the Portuguese throughout their period of conquest. They prevented Cankili from getting aid from Tanjore. The Portuguese never had such support from Catholics in Udarata.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese transferred the Jaffna capital from Nallur to Jaffna in 1621. It was easier to defend Jaffna than Nallur. Work on the Jaffna fort started in 1625 and was still continuing in 1637. Kayts also had a fort. Both forts were by the sea. The Udarata king, Senerat invaded Jaffna in 1628. The Udarata army entered Jaffna unopposed and set fire to the churches there. 30 churches were destroyed\u00a0 together with other external symbols of Christianity, such as crosses. The Portuguese regained Jaffna in 1629. Pieris notes that the Portuguese and Dutch never had a good word for the people of Jaffna, unlike for the Sinhalese.\u00a0 D.G.B.\u00a0 de Silva says Jaffna had more foreigners than locals.<\/p>\n

Jaffna and Mannar went under the Dutch in 1658. The Dutch said that Jaffna, Mannar and Vanni had come to them as a direct conquest from Portuguese, who had taken these from the independent ruler of Jaffna. The islands\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 around Jaffna got Dutch names, Karaitivu was Amsterdam, and Neduntivu was Delft. Pieris says that the Dutch missionary Baldeus created a name for Mannar, from two Tamil words signifying sand and river. Dutch got down Tamils from South India for tobacco and indigo cultivation in Jaffna.\u00a0 Portuguese officers were replaced by Tamil mudaliyars.<\/p>\n

The public have been told that there was an indigenous kingdom in Jaffna known as the \u2018Kingdom of Jaffna.\u2019 Jaffna has no historical records which confirm the existence of such a kingdom. S. Pathmanathan in his \u2018Kingdom of Jaffna\u2019 says that the local Tamil chronicles don\u2019t give a clear account of the beginning of the kingdom or its rulers. The main historical source for this bogus \u2018kingdom\u2019 is the \u2018Yalapana Vaipava Malai\u2019 written in 1736 at the request of the Dutch governor. Pathmanathan says that this document is defective in chronology and genealogy. No specific contributions any king is recorded in it.<\/p>\n

Of the ten kings who are said to have ruled till 1450, only 4 are known in sources other than in Yalpana Vaipava Malai.\u00a0 K.M. de Silva gives a list of 17 \u2018Kings of Jaffna\u2019 in his History of Ceylon<\/em>.\u00a0 He is able to give dates only for the last six starting from 1478 but says even these dates are uncertain. He says it is difficult if not impossible to work out who ruled in Jaffna. That is not surprising. Because instead of turning into a \u2018kingdom,\u2019 Jaffna had became a vassal state of the Pandya kings of south India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA\u00a0 PIERIS Jaffna was a part of the Sinhala kingdom up to the 12th century .\u00a0 Around\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1247 or so, a Malay (Javaka) ruler, called Chandrabanu from the Buddhist kingdom of Ligor (now Nakon Sri Thammarat in Thailand) \u00a0invaded the Dambadeniya kingdom. He was defeated by Parakrama Bahu II (1236-70). There is reason to believe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55303","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=55303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}