Chandrabhanu

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During the thirteenth century, the declining Sinhalese kingdom faced threats of invasion from India and the expanding Tamil kingdom of northern Sri Lanka. Chandrabhanu was recorded by the Mahavamsa, the historic chronicle of Sri Lanka to have been a Malay chief who invaded Sri Lanka twice once with poison dart blowing Malay soldiers and then he invaded Sri Lanka yet again with the help of Tamil mercenaries from South India. According to Mahawamsa Tambralinga was his country. Taking advantage of Sinhalese weakness, the Tamils secured control of the valuable pearl fisheries around Jaffna Peninsula. During this time, the vast stretches of jungle that cover north-central Sri Lanka separated the Tamils and the Sinhalese. This geographical separation had important psychological and cultural implications. The Tamils in the north developed a more distinct and confident culture, backed by a resurgent Hinduism that looked to the traditions of southern India for its inspiration. Conversely, the Sinhalese were increasingly restricted to the southern and central area of the island and were fearful of the more numerous Tamils on the Indian mainland. The fact that the Hindu kingdom at Jaffna was expending most of its military resources resisting the advances of the expansionist Vijayanagara Empire (1336-1565) in India enhanced the Sinhalese ability to resist further Tamil encroachments. Some historians maintain that it was the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century that prevented the island from being overrun by south Indians.

Foreign rulers took advantage of the disturbed political state of the Sinhalese kingdom, and in the thirteenth century Chandrabhanu, a Buddhist king from Malaya, invaded the island twice. He attempted to seize the two most sacred relics of the Buddha in Sinhalese custody, the Tooth Relic and the Alms Bowl. Chandrabhanu invaded Pollonaruwa twice. His first invasion took place from Trincomalee. king Vijayabahu escaped by running and hiding in Kandy. Chandrabhanu withdrew and settled in Jaffna. He brought mercinaries from Tamil Nadu and attacked Pollonaruwa for a second time. Vijayabahu escaped a second time and established a new capital in Kotte. Chandrabhanu ruled Jaffna for 30 years till his death and eventually his son took over. His son was not popular with Tamils. Arya Chakravarthi, a Pandyan King from Rameshwaram, wanted to replace him. They invaded Jaffna and killed him in a war. Lankan King gave a tacit approval for the new rulers.

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[edit] Early History of Kedah

Early contact between the kingdoms of Tamilakkam and the Malay peninsula had been very close during the regimes of the Pallava Kings (from the 4th to the 9th Century C.E.) and Chola kings (from the 9th to the 13th Century C.E.). The trade relations the Tamil merchants had with the ports of Malaya led to the emergence of Indianized kingdoms like Kadaram (Old Kedah), Langkasugam,[1] Funan, and Champa.[2] Furthermore, Chola king Rajendra Chola I sent an expedition to Kadaram (Sri Vijaya) during the 11th century conquering that country on behalf of one of its rulers who sought his protection and to have established him on the throne.

The Cholas had a powerful merchant and naval fleet in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Three kinds of craft are distinguished by the author of the Periplus – light coasting boats for local traffic, larger vessels of a more complicated structure and greater carrying capacity, and lastly the big ocean-going vessels that made the voyages to Malaya, Sumatra, and the Ganges.[3]

In ancient Kedah there is an important and unmistakably Hindu settlement which has been known for about a century now from the discoveries reported 1840s by Col. James Low and has recently been subjected to a fairly exhaustive investigation by Dr. Quaritch Wales. Dr. Wales investigated no fewer than thirty sites round about Kedah. The results attained show that this site was in continuous occupation by people who came under strong South Indian influences, Buddhist and Hindu, for centuries.[4]

An inscribed stone bar, rectangular in shape, bears the ye-dharmma formula in South Indian characters of the fourth century A.D., thus proclaiming the Budhist character of the shrine near the find-spot (site I) of which only the basement survives. It is inscribed on three faces in Pallava script, or Vatteluttu rounded writing of the sixth century A.D., possibly earlier.[2] One of the early inscription stones discovered by James Low, at Bukit Meriam and in Muda River, mention of Raktamrrtika. The word Raktamrrtika means ‘Red Earth’ (Tanah Merah).

Inscriptions, both in Tamil and Sanskrit, relate to the activities of the people and rulers of the Tamil country of South India. The Tamil inscriptions are at least 4 centuries posterior to the Sanskrit inscriptions, from which the early Tamils themselves were patronizers of the Sanskrit language.[5]

In Kedah an inscription in Sanskrit dated 1086 A.D. has been found. This was left by Kulothunka Cholan I (of the Chola empire, Tamil country). This too shows the commercial contacts the Chola Empire had with Malaya.[5]

[edit] Yazhpanam Kingdom before and after Chandrabhanu

Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan was a Pandyan king who ruled the Pandyan kingdom with Madurai as his capital, from 1251 to 1268. He succeeded Maravarman Sundara Pandyan. It was the time when the might of the Medivial Cholas was fading away and the Muslim invasion of South India had begun. Jatavarman started from a well laid platform for an empire by his predecessor Maravarman. Jatavarman is considered one of the most famous warriors and conquerors of South India. During his reign the medivial Pandyan kingdom attained its greatest splendour. It extended to the river Krishna in the north and the whole of island of Ceylon in the south.

Between 1262 and 1264, on an appeal from a Ceylon minister Jatavarman Vira Pandyan, a prince invaded the island, defeated and killed another. He also received submission of a son of Chandrabhanu of the Malay peninsula who ruled over parts of northern Ceylon.

Currently Tambralinga is located at Nakhon Sri Thammarat' is the second-largest city in the south of Thailand (and is located in a province of the same name. The town was formerly know as Ligor, the capital of the ancient Langkasuka kingdom in the 2nd century A.D. Additionally, it was a bustling Srivijaya center as far back as the 13th century.

Kediri was a Hindu kingdom based in East Java from 1045 to 1221. Most probably all the army of Chandrabhanu came from Kedaram or Kedah in Malaysia as it was a Tamil-Hindu Javanese Kingdom in essence and the army was a Tamil-Javanese hybrid army from Indonesia. The Yazh Tamils and Kandyan Sinhalese look alike Achenese or Balinese and their accent is very Javanese.

In 1045 Airlangga divided Kahuripan into two kingdoms, Janggala (based on contemporary Malang) and Kediri, abdicates in favour of his sons to live the life of an ascetic. He died four years later. In 1068, Virarajendra Chola, the Chola king of Coromandel or Tamil Nadu, conquered Kedah from Srivijaya. The Cholas continued a series of raids and conquests throughout what is now Indonesia and Malaysia for the next 20 years. Although the Chola invasion was ultimately unsuccessful, it gravely weakened the Srivijayan hegemony and enabled the formation of regional kingdoms based, like Kediri, on agriculture rather than trade.

Vijayabahu, the Sinhala king, who had been ruling a tiny southern portion of the island around the Rohana district, sought to extend his power and expel the Chola occupier. Mahavamsa records that Virarajendra sent the Chola army stationed in the island to attack the Rohana district. Vijayabahu then sent for help from the king of Burma who sent ships and soldiers to assist Vijayabahu. With this help Vijayabahu succeeded in creating revolt in the northern provinces of Lanka. Although the Chola forces in the island and reinforcements sent from the mainland could control these revolts, Vijayabahu continued to create revolts and disturbances within the Chola occupied areas of the island for the next few years.

Before during and after the Chola period the Tamils of Yazhpanam became increasingly conscious of their ethnicity, which they sought to assert in terms of culture and religion. Thus the Tamils of Yazhpanam became sources of support for South Indian invaders. Mudaliyar Rasanayagam maintains that from fourth century AD to eighth century AD there were Kings in Jaffna who ruled independently during some periods and at other times under the Kings in Anuradhapura. He also states that from the eighth century AD Kalinga King Ukkirasingan and his descendants ruled some times independently and at other times under the Cholas. The historical validity of these statements remains to be confirmed.

Thirteenth century was the period of Pandyan revival in South India. Under the Pandyan king Maravarman Kulasekharan (AD 1268 - AD 1308) armies were led by one Arya Chakaravarthi who conquered the Sinhalese armies and brought the tooth relic of the Buddha from Ceylon to Madurai. The history around this period is confused by the only recorded South East Asian invasion by a petty King from Malay peninsula Chandrabhanu of Tambaralinga. He ruled for 30 years and after his death Pandyan invasion took place.

However it is well known that Arya Chakaravarthi the leader of the Pandyan Army of invasion was installed as a ruler of Jaffna. When the Pandyan empire in turn collapsed as a result of Muslim inroads into South India, Jaffna became an independent Kingdom under Arya Chakaravarthi.

In the early fifteenth century, the Ming dynasty Chinese interceded on behalf of King Parakramabahu VI (1412-67), an enlightened monarch who repulsed an invasion from the polity of Vijayanagara in southern India, reunited Sri Lanka, and earned renown as a patron of Buddhism and the arts. Parakramabahu VI was the last Sinhalese king to rule the entire island.

[edit] Lanka under Siege

Parakrama Bahu's coronation took place in 1236. His first act was to bring the Tooth Relic and lodge it at the capital. He then turned his attention to the recovery of Polonnaruwa from the Tamils, and achieved this purpose by 1244. In this connection two kings are mentioned, Magha and Jaya Bahu, who had been in power forty years, apparently reckoned from the time of the military rule after Sahasa Malla. As the Tamil war' and the `Malala war' as specifically mentioned by contemporary chronicles the two kings may have held different parts of the country. In the king's eleventh year (1244/5) Lanka was invaded by Chandrabhanu, a Javanese (Javaka) from Tambalinga, with a host armed with blow-pipes and poisoned arrows: he may have been a sea- robber, and though now repulsed descended on the Island later on. The rest of the reign according to the contemporary records was spent in pious works; the king also held a convocation for the purpose of reforming the priesthood, whose discipline had been relaxed during the Tamil occupation. The chronicles make no mention of a great Pandyan invasion which seems to have taken place between 1254 and 1256, in which one of the kings of Lanka was slain and the other rendered tributary. From this it is clear that Parakrama Bahu- never had recovered the north of the Island, which certainly had been held by his great namesake. After reigning thirty-three years he abdicated in favour of his eldest son Bosat Vijaya Bahu IV about A.D.1267/8. The new king occupied himself in works of piety, and in completing the restoration of Polonnaruwa. Chandrabahu again fell upon Lanka with a mixed host of Pandyans, Cholas and Javanese, overran a considerable part of the north of the Island and encamped before Yapahu, where! he was defeated. The names Chavakachcheri, Chavankottai at Navatkuli in the Jaffna Peninsula, and Javakakotte on the mainland possibly record settlements of his followers. Having attended to restorations at Anuradhapura, Vijaya Bahu sent for his father to Polonnaruwa, where he was crowned a second time. The Tooth Relic having been brought, Parakrama. held his ninth ordination festival at Dahastota, and then returned. to Dambadeniya, where he died in his thirty-fifth year, probably in AD. 1269 or early in 1270.[1]

[edit] Place names in Jaffna

In the local Tamil language, all South East Asians are known as Javar or Javanese. There are number of place names in the Jaffna peninsula which pertains to its South East Asian connections.

  • Chavakacheri -> Javanese Settlement
  • Chavahakottai -> Javanese Fort

There are several other names located in Indonesia and Malaya also is seen around eastern Sri lanka. Amban, Mandan, Aru Islands, Banda Sea, Pahlawan, and Seram are littered around the 13000 islands of Indonesis as well as in East of Sri Lanka, Javanese culture is so well spread that it is even part of Madagascar's heritage as well. A small country like Ceylon has no way of resisting Javanese settlements on a perennial basis as Mahawamsa is only a record of Buddhist Sinhala vision and interpretation of events.

[edit] Implications of Chandrabhanu and his Invasion

Anuradhapura was the most suitable place for a capital of Sri Lanka as that was the geographical center of Sri Lanka (closer to Dambulla which is the most probable geographical center). As the Tamil (Pandyan and Chola) kings have to make their 18 miles crossing of Adam's Bridge and walk over only a few more miles to capture Anuradhapura. Pollonaruwa or Sigiriya seems to be a better place as a capital since there is more time to get ready for an Indian invasion. Pollonaruwa is closer to Chinese, Javanese or Malay invasion as seen by the attacks of Chandrabhanu and Cheng Ho.

By attacking Pollonaruwa on a constant basis Javanese and Chinese made the Sinhala king to relocate his capital to Kotte. As such Chandrabhanu pushed the Sinhalese capital to go further down South. Kotte is a few miles from the western seaboard and thus became an easy target for any naval power like Portugal, Holland or England.

Soon the Pandyan kings started attacking Kotte as it was very near to Korkai. After Vijayabahu the Tamil kings started ruling Kotte. Alahakonara or Alahakone was a Tamil name and some how he was ruling Kotte and Arya Chakaravarthi was attacking Kotte.

The only Sinhala king is then left in Kandy. Thus rest of the country became a colony ruled by all kind of foreigners. Thus when the Portuguese came Ceylon became an easy prey.

The Portuguese colonialism was harsh and were liberated by the Dutch invasion in collaboration with the Ceylonese. With the Napoleonic Wars Ceylon became a part of England as the Dutch king had no other choice. Making Kotte as the capital of Ceylon made the country a colony for the next 500 years. Ceylon became a country which was constantly under imperialism.

This had a domino effect on India. The neighboring Hindu kingdoms in India were weakened and run over initially by the Muslims and then by the Imperialism.

[edit] See also

Jaffna Kingdom Sinhala place-names

[edit] References

  1. ^ International Tamil Language Foundation (2000). The Handbook of Tamil Culture and Heritage. Chicago: International Tamil Language Foundation, p. 877. 
  2. ^ a b Sastri, K.A. Nilakanta (1949). South Indian Influences in the Far East. Bombay: Hind Kitab Ltd., pp. 28 & 48. 
  3. ^ Sastri, K.A. Nilakanta [1935] (2000). Cholas, fifth printing, Chennai: University of Madras, pp. 86 & 318. 
  4. ^ Sastri, K.A. Nilakanta (1949). South Indian Influences in the Far East. Bombay: Hind Kitabs Ltd., p. 82 & 84. 
  5. ^ a b Arokiaswamy, Celine W.M. (2000). Tamil Influences in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, p. 41. 
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