Nayaks of Kandy
| Kandy Nayak Dynasty නායක්කාර රාජවංශය கண்டி நாயக்கர் வம்சம் | |
|---|---|
| Royal house | |
Sri Vikrama Rajasinha | |
| Estate(s) | Kingdom of Kandy |
| Dissolution | 1815 under the terms of the Kandyan Convention |
History of Kandy |
|---|
 |
| Kingdom of Kandy (1469–1815) |
|
| Colonial Kandy (1815–1948) |
| Kandy (1948–present) |
| See also |
 Sri Lanka portal |
The Nayaks of Kandy (also referred to as the Kandyan Nayak Dynasty,
In total, four Nayak monarchs ruled in Kandy, the last of whom, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, was deposed as a result of the Kandyan nobility's
The stability and power of the Kandyan Nayaks were heavily reliant on the support from the
The Telugu-led dynasty of Kandy was the last dynasty of the island before being fully colonized by the British Crown in 1815.[12] The flag of the Kandy Nayaks based on the ancient Sinhala flags, a yellow lion holding a sword against a red background, is the main feature of the current Sri Lankan flag.[13][14]
Origins
The Nayaks of
They were of
The last king of the Kandy Mahanuwara dynasty, Narendra Sinha, died in 1739 without an offspring from his queen. His queen was a Madurai Nayak princess. Narendra Sinha's had nominated a brother of his Madura queen to succeed him;[19] and he was crowned under the assumed title of Sri Vijaya Raja Sinha.[19] Thus, Sri Vijaya Rajasinha succeeded the throne and established the Kandy Nayak line.
Kandy before the Nayaks
The last king of the Kandy Mahanuwara dynasty was
Thus, the king nominated, as his successor, the brother of his first queen who had remained at the court ever since his sister married him. According to the law of succession that prevailed in
Monarchs
Sri Vijaya Rajasinha 1739–1747
The Brother-in-law of King
The new king, considered to be a man of considerable culture, devoted his entire attention to the furtherance of the majority religion
He married a bride from the Royal family of Madurai.
Marriage alliance with Madurai royal family
When the king ascended the throne he sought a wife from
Sri Vijaya Rajasinha married another Madurai princess in 1747. Each bride brought a contingent of relatives with royal lineage ultimately making Kandy their permanent home.
The king, however, died childless soon after, having nominated as his
Kirti Sri Rajasinha 1747–1782
Kirti Sri Rajasinha was a prince from the Nayaks of Madurai royal family and brother-in-law to Sri Vijaya Raja Singha. He succeeded his brother-in-law to the throne in 1751.
He devoted the first few years of his reign to the advancement of literature and religion. The king, later with the Dutch assistance got down to learning
Attack on Dutch forts
In 1761 King Kirti Sri Rajasinha attacked the Dutch
, completely destroying them, and killing Dutch while some surrendered and ended as prisoners.In order to revenge the humiliation, the new Dutch governor Van Eck had immediate plans to attack Kandy, but the weakness in fortification and garrison forbade the Dutch. Later they did attach in 1764 and in 1765. Hence, in the early part of 1763 the Dutch were only consolidating their positions and gradually expelling Kandyans from the territories taken over from Dutch. Throughout 1763 the King continually sought peace and sent his envoys to discuss terms. The Governor wished the King to cede the three four and seven
Meeting with the British
The King in mid-1762 sought help from
John Pybus, a writer of the
John Pybus in his notes described the King as a man of tolerable stature, reddish in complexion and very brisk in his movements. Pybus was amazed as to how the kandyans had managed to fight a war with Dutch and had captured Matara Dutch Fort. He wrote that "They had put every European to the sword except two officers who are now prisoners of the country."
Marriage
The Kandy King, Kirti Sri Rajasinha (Kirti Sri Maha Raja), married two daughters of Vijaya Manan Naicker, the grandson of Vijaya Raghava Nayaka of Tanjore[21] and also brought some dispossessed Nayaks of Tanjore to live in Kandy.[22] He also married the daughter of one Nadukattu Sami Nayakkar in 1749. He further married three more Nayakkar queens from Madurai, but had no children from them. He had six daughters and two sons by his Sinhalese wife (Yakada Doli), daughter of the late Dissave (Headman) of Bintenna and granddaughter of the blind and aged Mampitiya Dissave. Both his sons survived the king and his daughters' married Nayakkar relatives of the king. Mampitiya's sons claim for the throne was overlooked and the choice fell on the king's brother who was living in court.
The king died on 2 January 1782, of the injuries caused two months before by a fall from his horse after a reign of 35 years which the people saw as a great religious revival, and had a sentimental attachment to the King.
Sri Rajadhi Raja Singha 1782–1798
Brother of Kirti Sri Rajasinha, the new king who ascended the throne as Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha. He came from Madurai as a child along with his brother. Hence he was raised as
He died childless in 1798 without nominating a successor. The burden fell on Pilimatalava, the first Adigar (Prime Minister) Pilimatalawe, an able, ambitious and intriguing chief, to select a successor to the vacant throne. The controversial Adigar was also seen as one of the main reason for the demise of the dynasty.
Sri Vikrama Rajasinha 1798–1815
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The next King who ascended the throne was Prince Kannasamy, the former Kings' nephew, barely 18 years old. He was crowned under the title of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. He would also be the last King of the Kandy Nayakar dynasty and the last of Sri Lanka. During his time the British colony was fully established in other parts of Sri Lanka.
There was a rival claimant to succeed King Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha, the brother of Queen Upendramma, who had a stronger claim. However, Pilimatalawe, the first Adigar (prime Minister) choose the South Indian Prince to the Kandyan throne, with reportedly deep-seated plans to usurp the throne to set a new dynasty of his own. The young King, upon ascending the throne, faced many conspiracies and reigned through one of the most turbulent periods in Sri Lanka's history.
Internal conflict
During his time, the British who had succeeded the Dutch in the Maritime Provinces had not interfered in the politics of the Kandy. But Pilimatalava, the first Adigar of the King, started covert operations with the British to provoke the King into acts of aggression, which would give the British an excuse to seize the Kingdom. The Adigar manipulated the king into beginning a military conflict with the British, who had gained a strong position in the coastal provinces. War was declared and on 22 March 1803 the British entered Kandy with no resistance, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha having fled. The adigar massacred the British garrison in Kandy in June and restored the king to the throne. Pilimitalava plotted to overthrow the King and seize the crown for himself, but his plot was discovered, and, having been pardoned on two previous occasions, he was executed.
The disgraced adigar was replaced by his nephew, Ehelepola, who soon came under suspicion of following his uncle in plotting the overthrow of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. A rebellion instigated by Ehalepola was suppressed, after which he then fled to Colombo and joined the British. After failing to surrender (after 3 weeks of notice), the exasperated king dismissed Ehelepola, confiscated his lands, and ordered the imprisonment and execution of his wife and children. A propagandised account of the execution was widely circulated by sympathisers.
Ehelepola fled to British-controlled territory, where he persuaded the British that Sri Vikrama Rajasinha's tyranny deserved a military intervention. The pretext was provided by the seizure of a number of British merchants, who were detained on suspicion of spying and were tortured, killing several of them. An invasion was duly mounted and advanced to Kandy without resistance, reaching the city on 10 February 1815. On 2 March, the kingdom was ceded to the British under a treaty called the Kandyan Convention.
Exile and death
On the 2nd of March, the kingdom was ceded to the British under a treaty called the Kandyan Convention. Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was captured and sent along with his family and attendants as a royal prisoner by the British to Vellore Fort in southern India. A son was born to him while he was in exile but he died without issue. The King then adopted the son of his daughter as his own son who was titled Alagia Manawala Sinhala Raja.
Sri Wikrama Rajasinha died of dropsy on 30 January 1832 aged 52 years.
Public works
For centuries
The Kandy Nayaks are credited for establishing numerous Vishnu temples in Sri Lanka dedicated to their clan deity Vishnu. In Sinhalese culture, Vishnu, hailed as Upulvan, is said to have been entrusted the task of protection of the island of Lanka by Lord Buddha himself. Thus even after conversion to Buddhism, the kings were devoted to Lord Vishnu as a part of veneration of the protector of the Buddhist island.
See also
- List of monarchs of Sri Lanka
- Mahavamsa
- History of Sri Lanka
References
- ^ a b University of Ceylon review, Volumes 14–16, p.129.
- ^ a b
- A.Ramaswami, ed. (1962). Tamil Nadu District Gazetteers: Salem. Vol. 1. Director of Stationery and Print. p. 129.
They are popularly classed as kota balijas, who are military in origin and claim kinship with the Emperors and Viceroys of Vijayanagar and the Kandyan Dynasty.
- Markus Vink, ed. (2015). Encounters on the Opposite Coast: The Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka State of Madurai in the Seventeenth Century. Brill. p. 75 & 56. ISBN 9789004272620.
- A.Ramaswami, ed. (1962). Tamil Nadu District Gazetteers: Salem. Vol. 1. Director of Stationery and Print. p. 129.
- ^ ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
All four worshipped at Buddhist and Hindu shrines, used Sinhala and Tamil as court languages (though they spoke Telugu), and encouraged their courtiers to take wives from Madurai and Thanjavur.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8248-5375-4.
They spoke Telugu or Tamil rather than Sinhala; they were by origin Vaishnavite Hindus rather than Buddhists, though they fulfilled their key responsibilities as defenders of the Buddhist faith.
- ^ Enemy lines: childhood, warfare, and play in Batticaloa, By Margaret Trawick, p.40-41.
- ^
- G. S. Ghurye, ed. (1969). Caste and Race in India. Popular Prakashan. p. 106.
The Nayak kings of Madura and Tanjore were Balijas , traders by caste
- Eugene F. Irschick, ed. (1969). Politics and Social Conflict in South India. University of California Press. p. 8.
The successors of the Vijayanagar empire, the Nayaks of Madura and Tanjore, were Balija Naidus
- Sheldon Pollock, ed. (2003). Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. University of California Press. p. 413.
.... in the seventeenth century, when warriors/traders from the Balija caste acquired kingship of the southern kingdoms of Madurai and Tanjavur.
- David Shulman, ed. (2020). Classical Telugu Poetry. University of California Press. p. 57.
..... in the Tamil country, where Telugu Balija families had established local Nāyaka states (in Senji, Tanjavur, Madurai, and elsewhere) in the course of the sixteenth century.
- Andhra Pradesh Archives, Andhra Pradesh State Archives & Research Institute, ed. (2007). Itihas. Vol. 33. Director of State Archives, Government of Andhra Pradesh. p. 145.
....It is told that the Nayak Kings of Madurai and Tanjore were Balijas , who had marital relations among themselves and with the Vijaya Nagara rulers
- Muzaffar Alam, ed. (1998). The Mug̲h̲al State, 1526-1750. Oxford University Press. p. 35.
As an arrangement, the Golconda practice in the first half of the seventeenth century was quite similar in crucial respects to what obtained further south, in the territories of the Chandragiri ruler, and the Nayaks of Senji, Tanjavur and Madurai. Here too revenue-farming was common, and the ruling families were closely allied to an important semi-commercial, semi-warrior caste group, the Balija Naidus.
- A. Satyanarayana, Mukkamala Radhakrishna Sarma, ed. (1996). Castes, Communities, and Culture in Andhra Desa, 17th & 18th Centuries, A.D. Osmania University. p. 145.
After the fall of the dynasty several Balija Nayudu chieftains rose into prominence. Tanjore and Madura kingdoms were the most important of such new kingdoms
- G. S. Ghurye, ed. (1969). Caste and Race in India. Popular Prakashan. p. 106.
- ^ The Nayaks of Sri Lanka, 1739–1815: political relations with the British in South India, by Subramanian Gopalakrishnan, p.11-15.
- ^ a b c d Enemy lines: childhood, warfare, and play in Batticaloa, By Margaret Trawick, p.40.
- ISBN 9781526135315.
- ^ Historians, Society of Architectural (1994). Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. The Society. p. 362.
- ^ Sri Lanka and the Maldive Islands, By Chandra Richard De Silva, p.111, p.137.
- ISBN 9781884964046.
- ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
Sri Vikrama Rajasinha's royal standard, a yellow lion holding a sword against a red background, is the main feature of the Sri Lankan flag!
- ^ "The Sri Lankan National Flag". The Sunday Times Sri Lanka. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
- ^ Madras, University of (1986). Annals of Oriental Research. University of Madras. p. 16.
- ^ The Journal of Asian studies. Vol. 53. Issue 1-2. University of California. 1994. p. 14.
- ISBN 9780791456781.
- ^
- C. Rasanayagam, ed. (1993). Ancient Jaffna: being a research into the history of Jaffna from very early times to the Portug[u]ese period. Asian Educational Services. p. 385. ISBN 9788120602106.
- Henry Heras, ed. (1980). South India Under the Vijayanagara Empire. Cosmo. p. 170.
- T. V. Mahalingam, ed. (2003). Readings in South Indian History. B.R. Publishing Corporation. p. 120.
- C. Rasanayagam, ed. (1993). Ancient Jaffna: being a research into the history of Jaffna from very early times to the Portug[u]ese period. Asian Educational Services. p. 385.
- ^ a b Census of Ceylon, 1946, Volume 1, Part 1, p.20
- ^ Contacts Between Cultures: South Asia, by K. I. Koppedrayer, Amir Harrak, p.376
- ^ University of Ceylon review, Volumes 14–16, p.129
- ^ University of Ceylon review, Volumes 14–16, p.127
- ^ Twentieth century impressions of Ceylon: its history, people, commerce, industries, and resources, by Arnold Wright, p.65
Sources
- Robert Binning, A Journal of Two Years' Travel in Persia, Ceylon, etc. Volume 1. (Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1857)
- Horace Hayman Wilson, The history of British India, from 1805 to 1835. (James Madden, 1858)
External links
- Great Dynasty of Sri Lanka
- King Keerthi Sri Rajasinha and British Envoy John Pybus
- Establishment of Madurai Rule in Kandy
- Kandy Rulers
- Last King of Kandy, Sri Wickrama Raja Singha
- Capture and last days of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha
- Transition to British Administration
- Conflicts with the Dutch
- The Last King
- Kings & Rulers of Sri Lanka
- "Lankan legacy". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 8 November 2008. Retrieved 14 June 2008.
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