Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 77

Hiouen Thsang, a Chinese traveller, wno visited India between 629 A.D.

and 645[1], encountered numbers of exiles, who informed him that they fled from civil commotions in Ceylon, in which religion had undergone persecution, the king had lost his life, cultivation had been interrupted, and the island exhausted by famine. This account of the Chinese voyager accords accurately with the events detailed in the Singhalese annals, in which it is stated that Sanghatissa was deposed and murdered, A.D. 623, by the Seneriwat, his minister, who, amidst the horrors of a general famine, was put to death by the people of Rohuna, and a civil war ensued; one result of which was the defeat of the Malabar mercenaries and their distribution as slaves to the temples.

Hiouen Thsang relates the particulars of his interviews with the fugitives, from whom he learned the extraordinary riches of Ceylon, the number and wealth of its wiharas, the density of its population in peaceful times, the fertility of its soil, and the abundance of its produce.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Histoire de la Vie de Hiouen Thsang, et de ses Voyages dans l'Inde depuis l'an_ 629 _jusquen_ 643. _Par_ HOEI-LI _et_ YEN-THSANG, _&c. Traduite du Chinois par_ STANISLAUS JULIEN, Paris, 1853.]

[Footnote 2: "Ce royaume a sept mille li de tour, et sa capitale quarante li; la population est agglomeree, et la terre produit des grains en abondance."--HIOUEN-THSANG, liv. iv. p. 194.]

For nearly four hundred years, from the seventh till the eleventh century, the exploits and escapes of the Malabars occupy a more prominent portion of the Singbalese annals than that devoted to the policy of the native sovereigns. They filled every office, including that of prime minister[1], and they decided the claims of competing candidates for the crown. At length the island became so infested by their numbers that the feeble monarchs found it impracticable to effect their exclusion from Anaraj.a.poora[2]; and to escape from their proximity, the kings in the eighth century began to move southwards, and transferred their residence to Pollanarrua, which eventually became the capital of the kingdom. Enormous tanks were constructed in the vicinity of the new capital; palaces were erected, surpa.s.sing those of the old city in architectural beauty; dagobas were raised, nearly equal in alt.i.tude to the Thuparama and Ruanwelli, and temples and statues were hewn out of the living rock, the magnitude and beauty of whose ruins attest the former splendour of Pollanarrua.[3]

[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 33.]

[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, A.D. 686, p. 31.]

[Footnote 3: The first king who built a palace at Pollanarrua was Sri Sanga Bo II., A.D. 642. His successor, Sri Sanga Bo III., took up his residence there temporarily, A.D. 702; it was made the capital by Kuda Akbo, A.D. 769, and its embellishment, the building of colleges, and the formation of tanks in its vicinity, were the occupations of numbers of his successors.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 640.]

Notwithstanding their numbers and their power, it is remarkable that the Malabars were never identified with any plan for promoting the prosperity and embellishment of Ceylon, or with any undertaking for the permanent improvement of the island. Unlike the Gangetic race, who were the earliest colonists, and with whom originated every project for enriching and adorning the country, the Malabars aspired not to beautify or enrich, but to impoverish and deface;--and nothing can more strikingly bespeak the inferiority of the southern race than the single fact that everything tending to exalt and to civilise, in the early condition of Ceylon, was introduced by the northern conquerors, whilst all that contributed to ruin and debase it is distinctly traceable to the presence and influence of the Malabars.

[Sidenote: A.D. 840.]

The Singhalese, either paralysed by dread, made feeble efforts to rid themselves of the invaders; or fascinated by their military pomp, endeavoured to conciliate them by alliances. Thus, when the king of Pandya over-ran the north of Ceylon, A.D. 840, plundered the capital and despoiled its temples, the unhappy sovereign had no other resource than to purchase the evacuation of the island by a heavy ransom.[1] Yet such was the influence still exercised by the Malabars, that within a very few years his successor on the throne lent his aid to the son of the same king of Pandya in a war against his father, and conducted the expedition in person.[2] His army was, in all probability, composed chiefly of Damilos, with whom he overran the south of the Indian peninsula, and avenged the outrage inflicted on his own kingdom in the late reign by bearing back the plunder of Madura.

[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 35; _Rajaratnacari_, p. 79.]

[Footnote 2: A.D. 858; _Rajaratnacari_, p, 84.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 954.]

This exploit served to promote a more intimate intercourse between the two races, and after the lapse of a century, A.D. 954, the king of Ceylon a second time interposed with an army to aid the Pandyan sovereign in a quarrel with his neighbour of Chola, wherein the former was worsted, and forced to seek a refuge in the territory of his insular ally, whence he was ultimately expelled for conspiracy against his benefactor. Having fled to India without his regalia, his Cholian rival made the refusal of the king of Ceylon to surrender them the pretext for a fresh Malabar invasion, A.D. 990, when the enemy was repulsed by the mountaineers of Rohuna, who, from the earliest period down to the present day, have evinced uniform impatience of strangers, and steady determination to resist their encroachments.

[Sidenote: A.D. 997.]

But such had been the influx of foreigners, that the efforts of these highland patriots were powerless against their numbers. Mahindo III., A.D. 997, married a princess of Calinga[1], and in a civil war which ensued, during the reign of his son and successor, the novel spectacle was presented of a Malabar army supporting the cause of the royal family against Singhalese insurgents. The island was now reduced to the extreme of anarchy and insecurity; "the foreign population" had increased to such an extent as to gain a complete ascendency over the native inhabitants, and the sovereign had lost authority over both.[2]

[Footnote 1: Now the Northern Circars.]

[Footnote 2: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 37.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1023.]

In A.D. 1023, the Cholians again invaded Ceylon[1], carried the king captive to the coast of India (where he died in exile), and established a Malabar viceroy at Pollanarrua, who held possession of the island for nearly thirty years, protected in his usurpation by a foreign army.

Thus, "throughout the reign of nineteen kings," says the _Rajaratnacari_ "extending over eighty-six years, the Malabars kept up a continual war with the Singhalese, till they filled by degrees every village in the island."[2]

[Footnote 1: In the reign of Mahindo IV.]

[Footnote 2: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 85.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1028.]

During the absence of the rightful sovereign, and in the confusion which ensued on his decease, various members of the royal family arrived at the sovereignty of Rohuna, the only remnant of free territory left. Four brothers, each a.s.suming the t.i.tle of king, contended together for supremacy; and amidst anarchy and intrigue, each in turn took up the reins of government, as they fell or were s.n.a.t.c.hed from the hands of his predecessor[1], till at length, on the retirement of all other candidates, the forlorn crown was a.s.sumed by the minister Lokaiswara, who held his court at Kattragam, and died A.D. 1071.[2]

[Footnote 1: TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 39.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. lxi.]

CHAP XI.

THE REIGN OF PRAKRAMA BAHU.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1071.]

From the midst of this gloom and despondency, with usurpation successful in the only province where even a semblance of patriotism survived, and a foreign enemy universally dominant throughout the rest of Ceylon, there suddenly arose a dynasty which delivered the island from the sway of the Malabars, brought back its ancient wealth and tranquillity, and for the s.p.a.ce of a century made it pre-eminently prosperous at home and victorious in expeditions by which its rulers rendered it respected abroad.

The founder of this new and vigorous race was a member of the exiled family, who, on the death of Lokaiswara, was raised to the throne under the t.i.tle of Wijayo Bahu.[1] Dissatisfied with the narrow limits of Rohuna, he resolved on rescuing Pihiti from the usurping strangers; and, by the courage and loyalty of his mountaineers, he recovered the ancient capitals from the Malabars, compelled the whole extent of the island to acknowledge his authority, reunited the several kingdoms of Ceylon under one national banner, and, "for the security of Lanka against foreign invasion, placed trustworthy chiefs at the head of paid troops, and stationed them round the coast."[2] Thus signally successful at home, the fame of his exploits "extended over all Dambadiva[3], and amba.s.sadors arrived at his court from the sovereigns of India and Siam."

[Footnote 1: A.D. 1071.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. lix.; _Rajaranacari_, p. 58; _Rajavali_, p. 251; TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 39.]

[Footnote 3: India Proper.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1126.]

As he died without heirs a contest arose about the succession, which threatened again to dissever the unity of the kingdom by arraying Rohuna and the south against the brother of Wijayo Bahu, who had gained possession of Pollanarrua. But in this emergency the pretensions of all other claimants to the crown were overruled in favour of Prakrama, a prince of accomplishments and energy so unrivalled as to secure for him the partiality of his kindred and the admiration of the people at large.

He was son to the youngest of four brothers who had recently contended together for the crown, and his ambition from childhood had been to rescue his country from foreign dominion, and consolidate the monarchy in his own person. He completed by foreign travel an education which, according to the _Mahawanso_, comprised every science and accomplishment of the age in which he lived, including theology, medicine, and logic; grammar, poetry, and music; the training of the elephant and the management of the horse.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. lxiv.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1153.]

On the death of his father he was proclaimed king by the people, and a summons was addressed by him to his surviving uncle, calling on him to resign in his favour and pay allegiance to his supremacy. As the feeling of the nation was with him, the issue of a civil war left him master of Ceylon. He celebrated his coronation as King of Pihiti at Pollanarrua, A.D. 1153, and two years later after reducing the refractory chiefs of Rohuna to obedience, he repeated the ceremonial by crowning himself "sole King of Lanka."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. lxxi.]

There is no name in Singhalese history which holds the same rank in the admiration of the people as that of Prakrama Bahu, since to the piety of Devenipiatissa he united the chivalry of Dutugaimunu.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1155.]

The tranquillity insured by the independence and consolidation of his dominions he rendered subservient to the restoration of religion, the enrichment of his subjects, and the embellishment of the ancient capitals of his kingdom; and, ill-satisfied with the inglorious ease which had contented his predecessors, he aspired to combine the renown of foreign conquests with the triumphs of domestic policy.

Faithful to the two grand objects of royal solicitude, religion and agriculture, the earliest attention of Prakrama was directed to the re-establishment of the one, and the encouragement and extension of the other. He rebuilt the temples of Buddha, restored the monuments of religion in more than their pristine splendour, and covered the face of the kingdom with works for irrigation to an extent which would seem incredible did not their existing ruins corroborate the historical narrative of his stupendous labours.

Such had been the ostensible decay of Buddhism during the Malabar domination that, when the kingdom was recovered from them by Wijayo Bahu, A.D. 1071, "there was not to be found in the whole island five tirunansis," and an emba.s.sy was bent to Arramana[1] to request that members of this superior rank of the priesthood might be sent to restore the order in Ceylon.[2]