The Sinhala kings in action

KAMALIKA PIERIS

On several occasions the Sinhala king had to protect his kingdom from external forces. One invasion was by a Malay prince, Chandrabanu. The other challenges were from India. They included invasions by the Rashtrakuta and Vijeyenagar kings. They ruled from Karnataka.

Ruins of the historical buildings constructed by King Parakramabahu.

These invasions were repelled. Muslims from the Coromandel coast of South India, under the leadership of Cader Shar invaded the island in the time of Buvaneka bahu I (1272-1284). They were defeated but many of the soldiers were allowed to remain here. They are said to have settled in the north-western part of the island.

There were many attempts to bring Sri Lanka under the control of the Tamil kings. But the Sinhalese were not prepared to submit to Tamil rule. No Tamil dynasty was allowed to take root.

Whenever Tamil kings or Tamil chiefs occupied Sri Lanka, the Sinhala royalty moved to another part of the island and functioned from there. The Sinhala kings were very determined in this matter. Regardless of how long it took, they watched, waited and eventually pushed the Tamils out.

Dutugemunu, Vattagamani, Dhatusena, Vijayabahu I and Vijayabahu III expelled Tamil invaders. Vijayabahu III, after getting rid of Magha, built fortresses in Wattala, Yapahuwa, Vakirigala and Kurunegala. The confidence with which the Sinhala king handled the Tamil invasions and their repulsion of repeated invasions show that the Sinhala king was not in awe of the Tamils.

The Sinhala king did not hesitate to use aggression to defend his trade rights. Parakrama bahu I had a military strike against Myanmar and Parakrama bahu VI sent a force to Tamilnadu when Sinhala traders were obstructed in their trading activity.

In the time of Dharma Parakramabahu (1489-1513) Arabs headed by the pirate Kadirayana invaded Sri Lanka. They fished for pearls at Chilaw and captured elephants. They were subdued, their vessels destroyed and eighty nine were taken captive by the king’s brothers on the king’s orders. Francois Valentijn writing in 1726 corroborates the Rajavaliya account. Dewaraja remarks that this appears to be a plundering raid by pirates rather than an attempt to take territory.

Superb

I think that as a general rule, the king was expected to use diplomacy in preference to force. The foreign intelligence available to the Sinhala king was superb. He knew of the rise of Islam. In the 7th century, the Sinhala king (probably Aggabodhi III) had sent an embassy to the Prophet Mohammad.

By the time the envoy reached Medina the Prophet as well as the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, had died, so he met the Caliph Umar. On the return journey the envoy also died, and his servant returned to make a report to the Sinhala king. This event has not received the attention it deserves. It shows that the Sinhala king not only had excellent foreign intelligence, he could also gauge the importance of the information he received.

Marriage alliances were used to strengthen the royal position. Marriages were made with the royal houses of south India, the Deccan and occasionally with kingdoms of the north such as Kanauj. Suttamalli, the daughter of Eastern Chalukya king Kullotunga I (1070-1122), married Virapperumal, a Sinhala prince. When Kullotunga inherited the Chola throne, he did not attempt to recapture Sri Lanka.

Mitta, sister of Vijayabahu I was given in marriage to a Pandya prince in preference to a Chola prince. Goonetilaka says that according to G.H. Luce, the rulers of south east Asian countries, specially Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma) were eager to have consorts from Sri Lanka. A Sinhala princess was sent to Cambodia during the time of Parakrama bahu I. According to Glass Palace Chronicle, Burmese king Alaungsithu, visited Sri Lanka, married the Sri Lanka king’s daughter and retuned to Burma. This episode is not mentioned in Sri Lanka sources.

Open invitation

King Vijayabahu III built Yapahuwa fortress to wage war against the enemies. However, today Yapahuwa is considered to be a place of worship for buddhists.

Historians sometimes devalue the Sinhala king when interpreting historical events. Buvanekabahu I sent an embassy in 1283 to the Mamluk court of Egypt. The embassy was led by Al -Haj-Abu- Uthman. He handed over a letter from the king and explained it contents verbally since the letter was in Sinhala. In his letter the king stated that he had rejected an embassy from Yemen in preference to one from Egypt.

He desired an Egyptian ambassador to be sent to Sri Lanka. He extended an open invitation to Egyptian merchants to trade with Sri Lanka. He offered to export many items including pearls, cinnamon, precious stones, hardwoods and elephants. He also offered to build twenty ships per year. The outcome of this embassy is not known, but coins belong to the Babri Mamluks of Cairo have been discovered in Sri Lanka. A number of them belong to Sultan Qulaum (1279-1290) who received the envoy of the Sinhala sovereign.

Historians have suggested that this embassy was initiated by the Muslim traders in Sri Lanka, not the Sinhala king. They say there was a powerful Muslim lobby operating in the Sinhala court. This lobby had wished to restore Sri Lanka’s flagging economy by establishing direct trade relations with Egypt which by this time had superseded Baghdad. This interpretation cannot be accepted. The Sinhala king had been engaged in diplomatic relations for centuries, long before Islam began.

Buvaneka bahu was neither weak nor indecisive. He took the throne after killing the commander in chief of the army, who had usurped it. He also defeated a Tamil invasion by Marvaraman Kulasekhara Pandya. It is unlikely that he would have needed instruction on either diplomacy or trade. The letter to Egypt shows a very confident monarch. The contents of the letter do not indicate a ‘flagging economy’ either. I do not think the Muslims were important in the royal court. When Ibn Batuta visited in 1344, he was not taken before the king. I think that the king would have commanded Uthuman to take the letter to Egypt, not the other way round.

(The writings of M. Azeez, H. Goonetilake, L. Dewaraja, S. Kiribamune, C.W.Nicholas, K.A.Nilakanta Sastri, S. Paranavitana, W.I. Siriweera and S.M.Yusuf were used for this essay).