Magha (reigned 1215 - 1236), also known as Kalinga Magha (Tamil: கலிங்க மாகன், Sinhala: කාලිංග මාඝ) and Magha the Tyrant, is a medieval king of Sri Lanka who is remembered primarily for his tyrannical and oppressive rule. Magha invaded the country from Kalinga in eastern India, usurping the throne from Parakrama Pandya, in 1215. Magha was the last king to have his seat in the traditional northern seat of native power on the island, known as Rajarata; so comprehensive was his destruction of Sinhalese power in the north that all of the successor kingdoms to Rajarata existed primarily in the south of the island.
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The Culavamsa provides Magha with an impressive and detailed introduction, something which the normally laconic text very rarely does. In Chapter LXXX, we are told that
Nothing is known of Magha before his arrival in Rajarata with an army of 24,000 from Kalinga, nor on what basis he claimed the throne of Lanka. Certainly in the years before his arrival the Sinhalese kingdom had progressed into an advanced state of political decay, making its way through more than nine monarchs in twenty years and suffering at least three invasions. It has been speculated that Magha may have had a claim through the Kalingan dynasty established by Nissanka Malla in 1187[2]. Whatever his pretext however he swiftly lost any potential support amongst the populace by the sheer violence of his invasion.
Rajarata and the Sinhalese had a long history of cultural, religious, and indeed genetic exchange with the kingdoms of southern India; the royal families of the island had, for example, consistently married into the royal families of the Pandyas and Cheras. Invaders such as Anikanga (in 1209) and Parakrama Pandu (in 1212) were often welcomed and accepted. Perhaps the most famous invader had been Elara, around a thousand years previously, who despite conquering the island by force had earned the title of 'dharmaraja' ('Just King') even amongst monks and was regarded as one of the best examples of governance in the history of the country. All these monarchs had incorporated the local nobilities into their rule and shown respect and deference towards the native faith, Buddhism. Thus one of the chief reasons for the particular loathing held by the Culavamsa for Magha was his utter refusal to accommodate either the faith or the culture of the native Sinhalese population.
The Culavamsa notes that during the invasion Magha's troops engaged in theft on a massive scale, wanton destruction of property, kidnapping and torture (the Culavamsa particularly mentions the flogging of children), mutilation and amputation, and took many of Rajarata's nobility as slaves. The voracity of the invaders is particularly apparent in the fate of the incumbent king Parakrama Pandya, who was blinded and executed. Beyond this the army proceeded to systematically desecrate and destroy many of Rajarata's most sacred sites. Dagobas were destroyed and sacred relics lost, books were ripped apart and 'strewn hither and tither', monks were beaten and the treasure of the temples was ransacked[3]. Of particular note were his desecrations of Thuparama, the oldest dagoba in Rajarata, and Dutugemunu's beloved Ruwanveliseya[4].
Having executed Parakrama Pandya and ransacked the temples of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, Magha was consecrated king by his own soldiers and settled in the capital of Pulatthinagara. His priorities in ruling appear to have been to extract as much as possible from the land and overturn as many of the traditions of Rajarata as possible. The Culavamsa again describes how religious places and temples were awarded to his followers as abodes, whatever wealth he could seize was also taken from the hands of the natives, and how much of the populace was forced to work as slaves.
It was during this time that the centre of native power on Lanka began to shift to the south. During Magha's reign the chief priests of Pulatthinagara took two of Rajarata's most sacred relics - the Buddha's alms bowl and the sacred Tooth Relic - and 'on the mountain Kotthumala in a safe region...buried both the relics carefully in the earth and so preserved them'.[5] This was not the first time this had happened; it was, however, to be the last, as neither was ever returned to the north.
Resistance to the invaders began to coalesce around a series of inaccessible towns and fortresses constructed in the mountainous interior of Sri Lanka. The fortress of Yapahuwa was one of the first of these, founded by the Senapathi (nobleman) Subha;[6] another was Gangadoni, founded by the general Sankha, barely 15 miles ('two yojanas') from Magha's capital. From these places the various nobles 'gave as little heed to the infamous army of the Ruler Magha, though...as to a blade of grass and protected without fear that district and the Order [of Buddhist monks]'.[7]
The man who eventually emerged as the leader of the resistance was Vijayabahu III, who the chronicles identify as a descendant of Sirisamghabodhi (242-244 or 251-253)[8], a king of Rajarata, though it is possible that the relationship was through marriage[9]. He appears to have spent an extended period of time in 'inaccessible forest' avoiding the forces of Magha. Sometime in the 1220s however he drove the Tamil and Kalinga forces from Mayarata (Dhakkinadesa) and established his capital at Jambudhoni (Dambadeniya)[10]. Vijayabahu's most emphatic statement of authority however was the recovery of the two sacred relics (around 1222), which he paraded through the lands he controlled and invested in a freshly constructed temple.
Vijayabahu's reign was largely spent reconstructing the shattered Buddhist infrastructure of the Sinhalese in Mayarata, and indeed many of the religious traditions he established were to last into modern times.[11] Occasionally raids into Kalinga-controlled territory were mounted, but it was not until the reign of is son, Parakramabahu II(1234-1267) that a concerted effort was made to drive the invaders out.
Soon after his asccesion the Culavamsa describes how the King 'set about subjugating by the power of his majesty and by the might of his loving spirit...the forces of the foe in Lanka'[12]. It would appear however that Magha had by this point either died or been deposed, as the chronicles make no mention of him taking part in the wars between Parakramabahu and the Kalinga. Instead it names two Damila kings, Mahinda and Jayabahu, as having established fortifications in Polonnaruwa[13]; both are, in due course, defeated by the resurgent forces of Dambadeniya. Magha does not re-appear in the historical record; his fate remains a mystery.
As a catalyst for change, Magha is arguable one of the most significant rulers in Sri Lankan history. His invasion marks the final - cataclysmic - destruction of the kingdom of Rajarata, which had for so long been the heart of native power on the island. The great cities of the ancient kings were now lost and disappeared into the jungle, and were not rediscovered until the 19th century. Native power was henceforth centred on a kaleidoscopically shifting collection of kingdoms in south and central Sri Lanka. The north, in the meanwhile, eventually evolved into the Jaffna Kingdom, which was subjected colonial rule by the Portuguese in 1619.
Magha's geopolitical impact is reflected in the changing language of the Culavamsa as well. The traditional divisions of Sri Lanka, into Rajarata, Dhakkinadesa, and Ruhuna, first undergo a change of names (Rajarata becomes Pathithadesa, Dhakkinadesa becomes Mayarata), and then slip into obsolescence altogether. Their successor kingdoms tended to be geographically smaller and centred on a strong citadel-capital, such as Yapahuwa or Gampola; they also tended to be much short lived, like Sitawaka.
The bitter memory of Magha's invasion also tainted the previously close relationship between the Sinhalese and the Chola, Chera and Pandya inhabitants of southern India. Whereas the great families of Rajarata had invariably been polity-spanning clans, with extensive intermarriage between Indian and Sri Lankan branches, the royal families of the Middle Ages became more distinctive and recognisably Sinhalese in the modern sense of the word. This is not to say however that south Indian influence in Sri Lankan politics ended altogether - witness the Nayakkar dynasty of Kandy. However the age of the great, Indo-Lankan clans like the Moriya and Lambakanna was over.
Native authority on Sri Lanka, already in decline before Magha's invasion, never fully recovered from the invasion; the next three centuries were marked by near-anarchy. This period of Sri Lanka's history ended only with the arrival of a foe that would eventually subsume both the great empires of south India and the kingdoms of Sri Lanka under its authority - the forces of colonial Europe.
| Preceded by Parakrama Pandu (Polonaruwa Kingdom) |
Jaffna Kingdom 1215 –1255 |
Succeeded by Chandrabhanu |
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