Fablewings › Sri Lankan history › Part 5

Polonnaruwa (1070–1236)

In 1070 Vijayabahu I drove the Cholas from Polonnaruwa and made it the capital of a reunited kingdom. Under Parakramabahu I it reached its height, with vast reservoirs, monasteries and wars abroad. After 1186 came quarrelling factions, queens set up by generals, and in 1215 the invasion of Magha, after which the old heartland of the dry zone was slowly abandoned.

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Vijayabahu I and the end of Chola rule

For more than seventy years the north of the island had been a Chola province. This chapter follows the Ruhuna prince who ended that rule, rebuilt the Buddhist order with help from Burma, and faced a mutiny by his own Tamil mercenaries.

c. 1039

A prince called Kitti (Keerthi) was born in Ruhuna, the south-eastern region still outside Chola control. According to Codrington, drawing on the Culavamsa, he defeated the Ruhuna claimant Lokissara when he was about fifteen and became sub-king under the name Vijayabahu at sixteen. These ages come from the chronicle and cannot be checked against inscriptions.

1055

Vijayabahu became ruler of Ruhuna. Modern lists count his reign from this year, though he did not hold Polonnaruwa until 1070. By about 1058, modern accounts say, he had cleared Chola forces from Ruhuna.

What the sources sayThe king list in Wilhelm Geiger's Culavamsa translation gives 1059–1114. Codrington, using later revisions, puts his death about 1111, aged about 72. Most modern accounts give 1055–1110, but these dates may be out by a few years.

1069–1070

A succession crisis in the Chola kingdom ended with the accession of Kulottunga I in 1069 or 1070. Vijayabahu used the moment. Modern accounts say he sent several armies north and besieged Polonnaruwa for about seven months.

The politicsThe Chola grip on Lanka depended on events at home. Codrington links Vijayabahu's success directly to the Chola civil war. Historians therefore see 1070 less as a single heroic victory than as a Lankan prince exploiting a Chola weakness.

1070

Polonnaruwa fell and Anuradhapura was entered, about the fifteenth year of Vijayabahu's reign. The Cholas left the island, ending some 77 years of occupation. The king kept Polonnaruwa, the former Chola base, as his capital. It lay closer to the Mahaweli river and the routes to the east and south than Anuradhapura did.

1071

Buddhism had been weakened under Chola rule. According to the EBSCO Research Starter on Anawrahta, in 1071 Vijayabahu asked the Burmese king for monks. Pagan, which had conquered the Mon kingdom of Thaton in 1057, was a rising Theravada power.

What the sources sayThe Culavamsa says the five fully ordained monks needed for an ordination could not be found, so the king sent to Ramanna. Burmese tradition adds that he sent Anawrahta the Pali scriptures. The fifteenth-century Burmese king Dhammazedi later cited these exchanges as precedents.

1072/1073

Rebellions delayed Vijayabahu's coronation until his eighteenth year. Codrington places it in 1072/3. The ceremony was held at Anuradhapura, the ancient sacred capital, but Polonnaruwa remained the seat of government and lost its Chola name. It was now called Vijayarajapura, the city of King Vijaya.

Vijayabahu's marriages

Vijayabahu married Lilavati, daughter of Jagatipala of Kanauj in North India, and Tilokasundari of the Kalinga royal line. His sister Mitta married a Pandyan prince. The grandson of that marriage was to be Parakramabahu I.

The politicsThese marriages built the factions of the next 150 years. The Kalinga and Pandyan branches of the royal family both drew their claims from Vijayabahu's household. Britannica notes that Kalinga and Pandya factions later fought each other for the throne, each backed by South Indian links.

Rebuilding Buddhism

With monks from Ramanna, ordinations were restored. Vijayabahu repaired temples neglected under Chola rule and had a temple built at the capital for the Tooth Relic, by now treated as a symbol of royal authority. Codrington names his general Nuvaragiri as builder; the Velaikkara inscription credits a minister called Deva Senapati. He also repaired irrigation tanks damaged in the wars.

The Velaikkara revolt (c. 1084–1085)

Vijayabahu sent envoys to the Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI, a Chola rival; the chronicle says the Cholas mutilated them, and he declared war. His Velaikkara mercenaries, ordered to fight the Cholas, whom they saw as kinsmen, mutinied, killed generals and burned the royal palace. The king fled, then returned and crushed the revolt, burning the ringleaders on the pyres of the generals they had killed.

The Velaikkara slab inscription

A Tamil slab found in the Tooth Relic quadrangle at Polonnaruwa, reported by H.C.P. Bell in 1903, records the Velaikkaras' promise to protect the Tooth Relic temple.

What the sources sayThe slab is undated. The Siddham database reports that Wickremasinghe placed it in 1137–1153, probably under Gajabahu II. Either way, it shows Tamil soldiers as sworn guardians of the chief Buddhist relic: Polonnaruwa's court was not divided simply along ethnic lines.

c. 1093 (38th year)

An inscription at Ambagamuwa, dated in the king's 38th regnal year, records rest-houses built on the roads to Adam's Peak (Sri Pada) and the grant of the village of Gilimale to feed pilgrims. It is one of the clearest contemporary records of Vijayabahu's rule. The exact calendar year depends on how his reign is counted.

1110

Vijayabahu died at Polonnaruwa, aged about seventy-one or seventy-two, after a reign of some 55 years counted from 1055. He is remembered as Maha Vijayabahu. He left no clear arrangement for the succession, and his death opened forty years of division.

Myth and correctionPopular memory presents Vijayabahu as a national liberator. The evidence shows a more complex ruler: he relied on South Indian mercenaries, married into Indian royal houses and worked within the Chola–Chalukya rivalry.

Timeline: Vijayabahu I

c. 1039 — Prince Kitti born in Ruhuna

1055 — Becomes ruler of Ruhuna as Vijayabahu

c. 1066 — First attack on Polonnaruwa fails

1070 — Takes Polonnaruwa; Chola rule ends

1071 — Asks Pagan for monks to restore ordination

1072/3 — Crowned; capital named Vijayarajapura

c. 1084–85 — Velaikkara mercenaries mutiny and burn the palace

Forty years of division (1110–1153)

After Vijayabahu, the island split between rival members of his family. Polonnaruwa, the 'King's Country', faced Ruhuna and the south-west, Dakkhinadesa. Out of this struggle came Parakramabahu I.

1110–1111: Jayabahu I

Jayabahu, Vijayabahu's brother or half-brother, was crowned while Vikramabahu, Vijayabahu's son, was away governing Ruhuna. Codrington says the Pandyan faction in the royal family arranged it.

The politicsCodrington explains that this broke custom: the office of heir belonged to the king's brother or son, and the faction promoted its own members as sub-kings. Vikramabahu seized power at Polonnaruwa but never took the crown, so Jayabahu remained the nominal king while retreating to Ruhuna.

1111–1132: Vikramabahu I

Vikramabahu ruled the King's Country from Polonnaruwa. According to Codrington, following the Culavamsa, he seized temple lands and treated monks harshly, so the monks carried the Tooth and Bowl Relics away to Ruhuna.

What the sources sayDates differ. Codrington and most modern lists give 1111–1132; the dating used by Wickremasinghe, reported in the Siddham database, gives 1116–1137. A monastic chronicler was unlikely to be kind to a king who took monastic land.

c. 1123

Parakramabahu was born at Punkhagama in Dakkhinadesa, the son of Manabharana and Ratnavali, according to Britannica and the Culavamsa. His father died soon afterwards, and the boy grew up at the court of his uncles. By about 1140, after his uncle Kitti Sri Megha died, he ruled Dakkhinadesa himself.

1132–1153: Gajabahu II

Gajabahu II, son of Vikramabahu, held Polonnaruwa. His uncles in the south attacked the King's Country but failed. For twenty years the island was in a stalemate between a weak king in the north and ambitious princes in the south.

What the sources sayCodrington gives Gajabahu a 22-year reign ending in 1153; Global Security gives 1132–1153; Wickremasinghe's dating gives 1137–1153. The differences come from adding up chronicle reign lengths, which Codrington warns often ignore overlaps and civil wars.

The young prince at Polonnaruwa

The Culavamsa tells a long story of Parakramabahu leaving his uncle's court in secret, living at Gajabahu's court in Polonnaruwa and quietly gathering information on its weaknesses before returning to Dakkhinadesa.

What the sources sayGeiger, who translated the Culavamsa, notes that the chronicle conceals much and that its long Parakramabahu chapters read like a royal epic. Historians therefore use its stories of youthful daring with care. Where checks exist, such as the Galvihara inscription on monastic reform, the chronicle is confirmed in outline only.

1150s: the war for Rajarata

Parakramabahu annexed Dumbara, attacked the King's Country and stormed Polonnaruwa, capturing Gajabahu. Manabharana, son of Sri Vallabha, then rescued Gajabahu, but Gajabahu turned to Parakramabahu. Britannica says the prince won control only after several battles and counter-revolutions.

1153

Gajabahu abdicated and died at Kantalai. Manabharana was defeated and died in his own land. Parakramabahu became king of the whole island in 1153. Codrington says he was crowned twice. Britannica says he governed with 12 provincial governors, princes, army generals and leading merchants. He allowed Hindus freedom of worship.

Parakramabahu I (1153–1186)

Parakramabahu I is the best-documented and most praised king of the period. The Culavamsa devotes many chapters to him. His reign brought great building and irrigation works, a reformed Sangha and wars in Burma and South India, but historians now also count its costs.

1156–1157

In the king's fourth year a revolt broke out in Ruhuna, led by Sugala, mother of the defeated Manabharana. The Tooth and Bowl Relics were still in Ruhuna. Parakramabahu's armies crushed the revolt, captured Sugala and carried the relics to Polonnaruwa.

The politicsPossession of the Tooth Relic had become a test of legitimacy. Ruhuna's princes had used it against Polonnaruwa since Vikramabahu's time. By seizing it, Parakramabahu ended the south's claim to be the true Buddhist kingdom. Ruhuna rose again in his eighth year, 1160/1.

The Sea of Parakrama

Parakramabahu enlarged the reservoirs near the capital into the Parakrama Samudra, the 'Sea of Parakrama', and opened the Akasaganga channel. The Culavamsa credits him with building or restoring over 165 large tanks.

What the sources sayHistorians accept that Parakramabahu built on a huge scale, but many think the chronicle's list mostly records repairs of older works rather than new ones. Exact sizes of his works vary between modern sources.

A royal city

Polonnaruwa was enlarged with palaces, gardens and monasteries. Codrington lists among his works the Jetavanarama, the Alahana Parivena, the Lankatilaka image house and the Uttararama, now called the Galvihara, with its great rock-cut Buddha figures. These buildings, not the chronicle, are the strongest evidence of the reign's wealth.

The Galvihara

The rock-cut Buddhas of the Uttararama (Galvihara) date from Parakramabahu's reign. An inscription carved here records his reform of the Sangha, confirming the chronicle's account in outline.

1164–1165: the Ramanna expedition

Codrington, following the Culavamsa, says relations with Ramanna in Lower Burma broke down over the elephant trade, the mistreatment of Sinhala envoys and the seizure of a princess being sent to Cambodia. A fleet sailed from Paluvak-tota on the south-west monsoon and stormed Kusumiya on the Pegu river. The army is said to have stayed five months.

The Devanagala inscription

A Devanagala rock inscription of Parakramabahu's twelfth year (1164–1165) records land granted to the general Kit Nuvaragal for an expedition against Ramanna. The Siddham database identifies the Pagan ruler as Alaungsithu.

What the sources sayThe inscription proves an expedition, not its scale. Codrington, following the chronicle, says the Ramanna king was killed. A Sunday Times series reports that Burmese records call the raid minor, with Alaungsithu surviving and making peace through monks. Britannica says it achieved no lasting success.

1165–1166: reform of the Sangha

Parakramabahu brought the monastic fraternities together under the Mahavihara tradition, expelled monks judged lax, and ended what the chronicle calls the Vaitulya heresy. Codrington dates this to 1165/6.

Myth and correctionOlder accounts call this healing a schism. Modern summaries note it imposed one tradition: Mahayana practices were suppressed and Abhayagiri monks expelled or discouraged. The Galvihara inscription confirms the reform in outline.

1167–1169: a call from Madurai

The Pandyan king Parakrama Pandya, besieged in Madurai by his rival Kulasekhara, asked Parakramabahu for help. Modern accounts date the request to about 1167 or 1169. Parakramabahu sent his general Lankapura. By the time the army reached Mahatittha (Mannar), Parakrama Pandya had been killed and Kulasekhara held Madurai.

c. 1169–1173: Lankapura in India

According to the Culavamsa, Lankapura landed after a crossing of a day and a night, took Rameswaram, built a fort called Parakramapura and won several battles. Vira Pandya, son of the dead king, joined him, and General Jagad Vijaya brought reinforcements. Kulasekhara was beaten twice and Vira Pandya was placed on the throne.

c. 1174: the Chola answer

Kulasekhara turned to the Chola king Rajadhiraja II. A Chola inscription of about 1174, reported in the Sunday Times series, records his appeal. Chola forces under Pallavarayan marched on Madurai.

What the sources sayChola inscriptions say Lankapura and Jagad Vijaya were defeated and killed, and their heads fixed on Madurai's gates. The Culavamsa breaks off after the early victories. A Sunday Times series, drawing on the Chola record, says their heads were nailed to the city gates. Historians generally accept the Chola account of the outcome over the chronicle's silence.

The Chola counter-strike

Chola sources say Rajadhiraja II sent Annan Pallavarayan to forestall a Lankan invasion. His forces are said to have destroyed preparations in Lanka and backed a Sinhala prince, Sri Vallabha, as a rival claimant, who raided places such as Pulaicceri and Matottam.

The politicsThe war shows how South Indian and Lankan politics were linked. Each side backed a rival claimant in the other's kingdom: Parakramabahu backed Vira Pandya; the Cholas backed Kulasekhara and a Lankan pretender. Neither side's records tell the whole story.

1181–1182

Codrington says Lankan victories were recorded in 1175/6, but by 1181/2 Vira Pandya had been driven out. Supported by the Chola king Kulottunga III, Kulasekhara's son Vikrama Pandya took Madurai around 1182. Lankan and allied forces kept a hold on Rameswaram for some time, perhaps until 1182.

The cost of greatness

By the end of the reign, wars, armies, a navy and monuments had to be paid for by heavy taxes and compulsory labour (rajakariya). Large gold coins largely disappear late in the reign.

Myth and correctionCodrington judged that constant war and building left the country poorer. Britannica says the wars and monuments depleted the treasury. Liyanagamage (1989), as summarised by Sewwandi (2018), sees the long Pandyan war as laying the foundations of Polonnaruwa's decline. The old image of an unmixed golden age has been qualified.

Timeline: Parakramabahu I

1153 — Becomes king of the whole island

1156/7 — Sugala's revolt; relics brought to Polonnaruwa

1164/5 — Expedition to Ramanna (Devanagala inscription)

1165/6 — Reform and unification of the Sangha

c. 1169–74 — Lankapura's Pandyan campaign; killed by Chola forces

c. 1182 — Vikrama Pandya takes Madurai; Lankan cause lost

1186 — Parakramabahu dies

Nissanka Malla and the Kalinga kings

Parakramabahu died in 1186 without a son by his chief queen. Soon the Kalinga branch of the royal family took the throne. Its strongest ruler, Nissanka Malla, left more inscriptions than any other king of the period and used them to argue his right to rule.

1186–1187: Vijayabahu II and Mahinda VI

Vijayabahu II, known as Pandita (the learned), reigned about a year. Codrington says he was killed by Mahinda after an affair with a cowherd's daughter. Mahinda VI held the throne for only five days before Nissanka Malla, the sub-king, killed him and took power.

1187: Nissanka Malla

According to his Galpota inscription, Nissanka Malla was born around 1157–1158 at Sinhapura in Kalinga, son of King Jayagopa and Queen Parvati. Britannica describes him as the brother of Parakramabahu's Kalinga queen; Codrington calls him Parakramabahu's son-in-law or nephew.

What the sources sayKalinga is usually identified with eastern India, around modern Odisha. Some scholars have placed Nissanka's Kalinga and Sinhapura in Sumatra or in the Jaffna peninsula instead. The question shapes how his 'foreignness' is read.

A Kalinga claim to the throne

Nissanka Malla claimed descent from Vijaya, the legendary first king, and stressed the Kalinga right to the throne. His inscriptions declare that only a Buddhist should rule Lanka.

The politicsNissanka was born abroad. By linking Kalinga to the Vijaya legend and making Buddhism the test of kingship, he turned outsider status into a claim. Historians read these texts as royal ideology, not neutral records.

Lower taxes, gifts to the people

Nissanka's inscriptions say he lifted the heavy taxes of Parakramabahu's reign and gave money, gold, cattle and land to his subjects, explaining that poverty drove people to theft. Wickremasinghe, editing the Galpota, saw this as a deliberate strategy to win confidence and secure an insecure throne.

The Galpota, the 'stone book'

The Galpota is a slab more than eight metres long with 72 lines and over 4,300 letters, the longest known inscription in Sri Lanka. It sets out Nissanka's family, his foreign relations and his ideas of kingship.

What the sources sayA postscript says the stone was brought from Mihintale, over eighty miles away. Wickremasinghe and others thought it more likely came from Sigiriya, about fifteen miles away. Even the inscription's own claims about itself are questioned.

The stone book

The Galpota lies near the Tooth Relic quadrangle at Polonnaruwa. Its three panels of text form Nissanka Malla's longest statement of how a king should rule.

1191 and Dambulla

A dated inscription of 1191 at the Ruwanweli dagaba at Anuradhapura, edited in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, records Nissanka's work there. At Dambulla he had the cave temple gilded, and a statue of the king was placed in one cave.

What the sources sayHis two Dambulla inscriptions give different sums for the work there: one says seven lakhs, another one lakh. Such differences show that his records were royal statements, not accounts.

Claims of conquest

Nissanka's inscriptions claim he invaded the Pandyan country three times and was honoured by South Indian rulers. They also give him credit for works begun by Parakramabahu.

Myth and correctionCodrington called his inscriptions 'bombastic in the extreme'. Modern historians treat the Indian victories as exaggerated, since no Indian records confirm them. His records are valuable for his ideas, but not as proof of what he did.

Queens, generals and puppet kings (1196–1215)

Nissanka died in 1196. For nineteen years afterwards, real power lay with generals and factions. Kings and queens followed one another quickly, several of them set up or removed by soldiers. The dates below follow the Culavamsa as arranged by Codrington.

1196–1197

Nissanka's son Virabahu survived only one night on the throne before he was killed. Vikramabahu II ruled for three months before he too was slain. Codaganga, Nissanka's sister's son, then held power for about nine months, until the general Kitti had him blinded and deposed.

1197–1200: Lilavati's first reign

Kitti placed Lilavati, Parakramabahu's widow and chief queen, on the throne rather than taking it himself. She was the daughter of Sri Vallabha and Sugala, and so belonged to the Pandyan-descended line. The Culavamsa says she ruled three years without mishap.

The politicsA general without royal blood governed through a queen with it. She is usually counted as the fourth woman to rule the island in her own right.

23 August 1200

Sahassamalla, a Kalinga prince and brother of Nissanka Malla, deposed Lilavati and was crowned. He ruled for about two years.

What the sources sayCodrington calls Sahassamalla's coronation the first date in Lankan history that is fixed absolutely, because his inscription dates it in a way that can be converted precisely. Earlier dates in this chapter are reconstructed by counting reign lengths backwards and forwards from such fixed points.

1202–1208: Kalyanavati

The general Ayasmanta deposed Sahassamalla and set up Kalyanavati, a queen of the Kalinga line, who reigned in name for about six years while he governed. The Kalinga line kept the throne, but the general held power.

1208–1209

After Kalyanavati, Ayasmanta crowned Dharmasoka, an infant said to be three months old. Anikanga, Dharmasoka's father, came from the Chola country with an army, killed the young king and Ayasmanta, and held power for seventeen days before the general Vikkantacamunakka killed him.

1209–1212: Lilavati returns

Vikkantacamunakka set Lilavati on the throne again for about a year. Lokissara, arriving with a Tamil army, ousted her and held Polonnaruwa for nine months. The general Parakrama then removed him and restored Lilavati for a third time, about seven months.

1212–1215: Parakrama Pandya

Parakrama Pandya, landing with a Pandyan army, deposed Lilavati and ruled for about three years. Codrington suggests he may have come from the Pandyan branch of the royal family and says he ruled firmly. Lilavati's later fate is not recorded.

Coins of a troubled age

Small copper coins of the 'massa' type, about 20 mm across and weighing about 4.25 g, were struck in the names of Lilavati, Sahassamalla and Dharmasoka, as catalogued by Michael Mitchiner.

What the sources sayCoins provide a check on the chronicle: they confirm that even short-lived rulers such as the child Dharmasoka issued money in their own names. They do not confirm the length of reigns, which rests on the Culavamsa.

Timeline: 1186–1215

1186 — Vijayabahu II succeeds Parakramabahu I

1187 — Nissanka Malla takes the throne

1196 — Nissanka dies; three rulers in a year

1197 — General Kitti crowns Lilavati

1200 — Sahassamalla crowned 23 August

1209–12 — Lilavati restored twice by generals

1212 — Parakrama Pandya seizes Polonnaruwa

Magha of Kalinga (1215–1236)

In 1215 an invader called Magha took Polonnaruwa. The Culavamsa describes his rule as a catastrophe. Historians agree it was a turning point, but debate who he was, how far the chronicle exaggerates, and how his rule relates to the rise of a kingdom in Jaffna.

1215

Magha, said to be from Kalinga, landed with an army that the Culavamsa numbers at 24,000, made up of soldiers described as Keralas, Tamils and Kalingas. He deposed Parakrama Pandya, who Codrington says was blinded, and took Polonnaruwa.

What the sources sayThe Culavamsa and most historians give 1215. Britannica gives 1214. The army figure of 24,000 comes only from the chronicle and should be treated as a round number.

Magha's rule, as the chronicle tells it

The Culavamsa says Magha's soldiers plundered temples, broke stupas and tortured people, and that he gave Sinhala lands and estates to his followers. Geiger's translation calls him an unjust king sprung from the Kalinga line. Britannica describes his rule as a reign of terror that ignored traditional authority and established religion.

Reading the account of Magha

The chronicle's picture of Magha has shaped Sri Lankan memory of him for centuries.

Myth and correctionThe account was written by monks for whom the destruction of temples was the worst of crimes. Codrington, writing in 1926, largely followed it. Later historians accept that the invasion was destructive, but note the vivid language, the lack of other sources, and the way it served later Dambadeniya kings as a contrast to their own piety.

A Sangha in flight

The Tooth and Bowl Relics were hidden at Kotmale in the hills. Codrington says monks scattered, many to the Pandyan and Chola countries. Local leaders in Maya and Ruhuna did not support Magha. A Sinhala court re-formed at Dambadeniya in the south-west, where Vijayabahu III is said to have recovered the relics.

Who was Magha?

Magha's origin is uncertain. Most historians link him to Kalinga in eastern India, perhaps the Eastern Ganga dynasty. Others connect him to the Kalinga branch of the Lankan royal family.

What the sources saySome Jaffna traditions name a ruler, Kulankai Cakravarti; scholars Swami Gnanaprakasar and Mudaliar C. Rasanayagam identified Magha with him. Paranavitana proposed a Malay or South-east Asian connection. None of these theories is proven.

Magha and Jaffna

The relationship between Magha and the later Tamil kingdom of Jaffna is one of the main debates of the period.

What the sources sayHistorians of the north, including K. Indrapala (1965 London thesis on the beginnings of the Jaffna kingdom) and S. Pathmanathan (The Kingdom of Jaffna, 1978), place its emergence in the 13th century, amid the upheaval after Magha's invasion. Others stress the Aryacakravarti line, Pandyan feudatories installed around 1258–1262. The origins remain disputed.

1236

The Culavamsa gives Magha a reign of 21 years, ending around 1236, when Dambadeniya rulers, with Pandyan help, began to push the Kalinga forces back. Magha's co-ruler Jayabahu had fortified Polonnaruwa.

What the sources sayBritannica and the US Library of Congress country study date Magha's rule or death to 1255. Some historians reconcile the two: Magha left Polonnaruwa around 1236 but held power in the north until about 1255. K.M. de Silva's A History of Sri Lanka has him retreating north. His end is not recorded.

Dambadeniya rises

Britannica says Vijayabahu III (r. 1232–1236) and his successors ruled from Dambadeniya, about 110 km south-west of Polonnaruwa. They raided Rajarata at times but did not reoccupy the city permanently. Parakramabahu II (1236–1270) built up Dambadeniya's power and expelled the Kalingas with Pandyan help.

Chandrabhanu of Tambralinga (1247–1262)

The Polonnaruwa order had ended, but the north remained contested. A Buddhist king from the Malay peninsula twice invaded, and Pandyan power grew. These invasions show how the island was now drawn into the politics of the Bay of Bengal.

1230

A Sanskrit inscription at Jaiya (Chaiya) in southern Thailand, dated 1230, names Chandrabhanu as lord of Tambralinga. George Coedès interpreted it in 1918 and 1927. It identifies Tambralinga with the Nakhon Si Thammarat region and gives the Lankan chronicle's 'Javaka' king a firm place in the history of South-east Asia.

1247

The Pujavaliya, composed in 1266 with additions in 1271, says that in the eleventh year of Parakramabahu II a king called Chandrabhanu landed Javaka troops at several ports, claiming to be Buddhists, and was driven away. The Culavamsa adds that the king's nephew Virabahu led the defence.

What the sources sayM. Rohanadeera (1991) shows that the Culavamsa, written under Parakramabahu IV (1302–1326), borrowed from the Pujavaliya. Lankan sources call Chandrabhanu a Javaka chief; the Jaiya inscription shows he was a recognised Buddhist ruler.

c. 1258–1262

According to the Pujavaliya and the Culavamsa, Chandrabhanu returned with Tamil soldiers from the Pandyan and Chola lands, landed at Mantota, won over some Sinhala troops and marched on Yapahuwa, demanding the Tooth Relic, the Bowl Relic and the kingdom. He was defeated by the king's son and nephew.

What the sources sayRohanadeera thinks the second invasion was added to the Pujavaliya after 1266 and dates it about 1262; Britannica gives 1258. Both chronicles say Chandrabhanu fled, not that he died.

Chandrabhanu in the north

Modern summaries say Chandrabhanu took control of the north about 1255, then submitted to the Pandyan king Jatavarman Sundara Pandya in 1258. In about 1262 Pandyan forces under Jatavarman Vira Pandya defeated and killed him, according to Pandyan sources.

The politicsThe Pandyan story differs from the Lankan one. Some historians think the Pandyas put the Aryacakravarti family in power in the north after Chandrabhanu, a starting point for the later Jaffna kingdom.

Timeline: 1215–1293

1215 — Magha takes Polonnaruwa

1230 — Jaiya inscription names Chandrabhanu lord of Tambralinga

1232 — Vijayabahu III rules from Dambadeniya

1236 — Parakramabahu II begins his reign

1247 — Chandrabhanu's first invasion repulsed

c. 1262 — Chandrabhanu killed by Pandyan forces

1293 — Last reign at Polonnaruwa ends

Why was the dry zone abandoned?

Within a century of Magha, the northern plains that had supported kingdoms for 1,500 years were largely empty. The Library of Congress study calls this one of the great unsolved puzzles of South Asian history. Historians have offered many explanations, and most now combine several.

What happened on the ground

Britannica describes Rajarata becoming a land of abandoned villages, overgrown jungle and dry tanks. People moved to the wetter south-west and the hills. As the interconnected reservoirs were neglected, less land could be farmed, and the forest advanced. Britannica calls this a losing battle against the advancing forest.

Theory 1: invasion

The Culavamsa makes Magha's invasion the decisive blow: people fled from Rajarata in fear.

What the sources sayThe Library of Congress study notes this explanation is weak alone, since earlier invasions were followed by recovery. K.M. de Silva wrote that repeated invasions 'ate into the vitals of a society already losing its vigour with age.' Most historians see invasion as one factor among several.

Theory 2: breakdown of administration

Britannica argues the irrigation system failed mainly because the Sinhala aristocracy was pushed out of power. Mercenary officers replaced them, and noble families took their skills to other courts.

What the sources sayParanavitana (1972), as summarised by Sewwandi, argued that wars destroyed the cooperation between regional chiefs on which water distribution depended. Survivors became labourers who no longer knew how the system worked. Britannica adds that rival armies deliberately breached some reservoirs.

Theory 3: malaria

Codrington argued that malaria caused the fall. The Library of Congress study describes an outbreak in the thirteenth century, with mosquitoes breeding in neglected tanks, which discouraged resettlement until modern pesticides.

What the sources sayParanavitana questioned whether malaria was a cause or a result: abandoned tanks bred mosquitoes, so disease may have followed rather than started the abandonment. Most historians now see malaria as a reason the region stayed empty.

Theory 4: climate and soil

R.L. Brohier and others proposed that rainfall had declined. Other writers argued that the soil had been exhausted by repeated cropping.

Myth and correctionAccording to Sewwandi's review (2018), Murphy rejected climate change as the cause and found little basis for soil exhaustion, and Siriweera notes that the Pujavaliya shows thirteenth-century farmers using fertiliser. These theories have few supporters today.

Theory 5: the cost of Parakramabahu

Some historians trace decline back to the period's greatest king. Britannica notes that Parakramabahu's wars, army, navy and monuments depleted the treasury. Liyanagamage (1989) argues that the long war in the Pandyan country laid the foundations of Polonnaruwa's decline, and the forty years of civil war before 1153 had already cost many lives.

Theory 6: the pull of the wet zone

Murphy argued that the wet south-west attracted settlers, who then had no reason to return. Sewwandi links this to trade: growing demand for spices, especially cinnamon, made the south-west valuable.

What the sources saySeen this way, the 'drift to the south-west' was a move towards new opportunities, not just a flight from danger. Kotte's rise in the fifteenth century, tied to the cinnamon trade, fits this argument.

New research

Archaeologists are testing these theories against the ground. Keir Strickland of La Trobe University leads an Australian Research Council project on how Polonnaruwa grew and was abandoned.

What the sources sayStrickland's working paper argues that Anuradhapura's eleventh-century 'collapse' may owe as much to the growing economic power of the Buddhist monasteries, which controlled much of the irrigation, as to Chola invasion, and that Polonnaruwa followed a similar path. This shifts attention from invaders to internal structures.

Looking back: Polonnaruwa

Older histories told a simple story: a liberator, a great king, a decadent age and a foreign destroyer. Historians now see a kingdom tied closely to South India and South-east Asia, ruled by rival branches of one family, staffed by mercenaries of many origins, and weakened by its own costs. The chronicle remains essential, but inscriptions, coins and archaeology now test its claims, and the abandonment of the dry zone is explained by several causes, not one.

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