Coordinates	34°5′24″N74°47′24″N
name	Kandy
native name	මහ නුවරகண்டி
native name lang	si
settlement type	City
image seal	Kandy Coat of Arms.JPG
nickname	Nuwara, Kanda Uda Rata, Senkadagala, Senkadagala Pura
motto	Loyal and Free
pushpin map	Sri Lanka
pushpin label position	Location of Kandy in Sri Lanka
coordinates display	inline,title
subdivision type	Country
subdivision name	Sri Lanka
subdivision type1	Province
subdivision name1	Central Province
subdivision type2	District
subdivision name2	Kandy District
subdivision type3	Divisional Secretariat
subdivision name3	Kandy Divisional Secretariat
established title	Senkadagalapura
established date	14th century
established title2	Kandy Municipal Council
established date2	1865
founder	Vikramabahu III
government type	Municipal Council
governing body	Kandy Municipal Council
leader title	Mayor
leader name	Raja Pushpakumara
unit pref	Metric
area total km2	1940
area land km2	1917
area water km2	23
elevation m	500
population total	110,049
population as of	2001
population density km2	auto
population demonym	Kandyan
timezone1	Sri Lanka Time
utc offset1	+05:30
website
footnotes	}}

Kandy ( ''Maha Nuvara'', pronounced ; ''kaṇṭi'', pronounced ) is a city in the center of Sri Lanka. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills in the Kandy plateau, which crosses an area of tropical plantations, mainly tea. Kandy is one of the most scenic cities in Sri Lanka; it is both an administrative and religious city. It is the capital of the Central Province (which encompasses the districts of Kandy, Matale and Nuwara Eliya) and also of Kandy District. Kandy is the home of The Temple of the Tooth Relic (''Sri Dalada Maligawa'') one of the most venerable places for the Buddhist community of Sri Lanka and all around the world. It was declared a world heritage by the UNESCO in 1988.

History

Toponymy

The city and the region has been known by many different names and versions of those names. Some scholars suggest that the original name of Kandy was Katubulu Nuwara located near present Watapuluwa. However the more popular historical name is Senkadagala or Senkadagalapura. According to folklore this name originated from one of the several possible sources. One being the city was named after a brahmin with the name Senkanda who lived in a cave near by, and another being a queen of Vikramabahu III was named Senkanda, and after a coloured stone named Senkadagala. The Kingdom of Kandy has also been known by varius names. The present name Kandy is derived from an anglicized version of the Sinhalese Kanda Uda Rata (meaning the land on the mountain) originated during the colonial era. The Portuguese shortened this to "Candea", using the name for both the kingdom and its capital Senkadagalapura. In Sinhalese, Kandy is called ''Maha Nuvara'', meaning "Great City" or "Capital", although this is most often shortened to ''Nuvara'', pronounced ''Nuwara''.

Founding

Historical records suggest that Kandy was first established by the Vikramabahu III (1357–1374 CE), who was the monarch of the Kingdom of Gampola, near the Watapuluwa area, north of the present city, and named ''Senkadagalapura'' at the time.

Early years and as a capital

Sena Sammatha Wickramabahu (1473–1511) was the first king of the Kingdom of Kandy, he was a royal from the Kotte Royal Blood line and ruled Kandy as a semi-independent kingdom under the Kingdom of Kotte, making it the new capital of the Kandyan Kingdom. Sena Sammatha Wickramabahu was followed by his son Jayaweera Astana (1511–1551) and then by Karaliyadde Bandara (1551–1581) who was succeeded by he daughter Dona Catherina of Kandy (1581-1581). Dona Catherina was succeeded by Rajasinha I. Rajasinha I however, preferred to rule the hill country from the Kingdom of Sitawaka on the west of the island. A period of turmoil for power ended with the ascent to the throne by Konappu Bandara who came to be known as Vimaladharmasuriya I. Vimaladharmasuriya I having embraced Buddhism consolidated his authority further by bringing the tooth relic of the Lord Buddha to Kandy from a place called Delgamuwa.

In 1592 Kandy became the capital city of the last remaining independent kingdom in the island after the coastal regions had been conquered by the Portuguese. Several invasions by the Portuguese and the Dutch (16th, 17th and 18th century) and later by the British (most notably in 1803) were repelled.

The kingdom tolerated a Dutch presence on the coast of Sri Lanka, although attacks were occasionally launched. The most ambitious offensive was undertaken in 1761, when King Kirti Sri Rajasinha attacked and overran most of the coast, leaving only the heavily fortified Negombo intact. When a Dutch retaliatory force returned to the island in 1763, Kirti Sri Rajasinha abandoned the coastline and withdrew into the interior. When the Dutch continued to the jungles the next year, they were constantly harassed by disease, heat, lack of provisions, and Kandyan sharpshooters, who hid in the jungle and inflicted heavy losses on the Dutch.

The Dutch launched a better adapted force in January of 1765, replacing their troops' bayonets with machetes and using more practical uniforms and tactics suited to jungle warfare. The Dutch were initially successful in capturing the capital, which was deserted, and the Kandyans withdrew to the jungles once more, refusing to engage in open battle. However, the Dutch were again worn down by constant attrition. A peace treaty was signed in 1766. The Dutch remained in control of the coastal areas until 1796, when Great Britain took them over (while the Netherlands under French control) as part of the Napoleonic wars. British possession of these areas was formalized with the treaty of Amiens in 1802. The next year the British also invaded Kandy in what became known as the First Kandyan War, but were repulsed.

As the capital, Kandy had become home to the relic of the tooth of the Buddha which symbolizes a 4th-century tradition that used to be linked to the Sinhalese monarchy, since the protector of the relic was the ruler of the land. Thus the Royal Palace and the Temple of the Tooth were placed in close proximity to each other.

The last ruling dynasty of Kandy were the Nayaks. Kandy stayed independent until the early 19th century. In the Second Kandyan War, the British launched an invasion that met no resistance and reached the city on February 10, 1815. On March 2, 1815, a treaty known as the Kandyan Convention was signed between the British and the Radalas (Kandyan aristocrats). With this treaty, Kandy recognized the King of England as its King and became a British protectorate. The last king of the kingdom Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was captured and taken as a royal prisoner by the British to Vellore Fort in southern India along with all claimants to the throne.

Colonial

During the British period in Sri Lanka the history of Kandy and it's townscape witnessed rapid and drastic change and particularly after the Uva Rebellion. Sir Lowry is noted for recording in his Gazetteer "The story of English rule in the Kandyan country during the rebellion of 1818 cannot be related without shame...Hardly a member of the leading families remained alive...Those whom the sword and the gun had spared, cholera and small pox and privations had slain by the hundreds...Others became ignorant and apathetic. Any subsequent development efforts of the government for many years were only attempts begun and abandoned".

The first time Sri Lanka fully fell into the hands of a foreign power was in Kandy with the signing of the Kandyan Convention in 1815 at the Sri Dalada Maligawa. The king, Vikrama Rajasinha of Kandy who was of South Indian ancestry faced powerful opposition from the Sinhalese chieftains and sought to reduce his power. A successful coup was organized by the Sinhalese chieftains in which they accepted the British crown as their new king. This ended over 2500 years of Sri Lankan monarchs and the line of Kandyan monarchs and Rajasinha was taken as prisoner. By 2 March 1815 the islands sovereignty was under that of the British Empire. The treaty was not signed by the deposed King but by members of his court and other dignitaries of the Kandyan Kingdom.

In 1848 led by Gongalegoda Banda and Puran Appu saw the rebellion known as the Matale Rebellion. Prior to that the the city and the country had been under British rule for 32 years, in which the British had expropriated the common land of the peasantry and reduced them to extreme poverty. The Kandyan villagers were forced to abandon their traditional way of life and become wage-workers in the abominable conditions that prevailed on these new estates and plantations that had been introduced, despite all the pressure exerted by the colonials the kandyans refused. This forced the British to bring in hundreds of thousands of Tamil coolies from southern India. The Rebellion began on the 26 July 1848 with Gongalegoda Banda, crowned as king, and Puran Appu, as prime minister, and their main objective to capture Kandy back from the British. The Matale Rebellion was a peasant revolt in the hands of the Common people, the Kandyan leadership being totally wiped out after the Uva Rebellion, marked the first step in a transition from the classic feudal form of anti-colonial revolt to modern independence struggles. The leadership was for the first time passed from the Kandyan provinces into the hands of ordinary people or non-aristocrats.

In 1944, during World War II, the South East Asia Command of the allies was moved to Kandy, where it remained till the end of the war.

Modern and contemporary

It is the second-largest city of the island and the capital of Central Province of modern Sri Lanka. Its geographic location has made it a major transportation hub in the island: while Kandy being the gateway to the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, the city can be reached by major motorways in every direction of the island. The railway line from Colombo, the sea port on the western coast runs via Kandy to the farthest point of Badulla in the Central Highlands. The main roads Colombo-Kandy and Kandy-Nuwara Eliya are two of the most scenic roads of Sri Lanka; Colombo-Kandy road passes through rubber plantations and rice paddies, Kandy-Nuwara Eliya road cuts through paddy fields and seamless tea plantations. Both roads claw their way up winding, rounding over the rings of hills. Currently feasibility studies are afoot for another highway between Colombo and Kandy via Kadawata and the scenic city of Katugastota.

Government

The Kandy Municipal Council governs the City of Kandy, it was established under the Municipalities Ordinance of 1865. The inaugural meeting had been held on 20 March 1866. The Kandy Town Hall was established in the present premises known as the ''Dunuwille Walawwe'' in 1870.

The Government Agent of the Central Province had presided over the council until 1939 when the Mayor was elected. The first elected mayor was Sir Cuda Ratwatte. With further amendments to the ordinance in 1978 the Mayor became the Executive Head whilst the Commissioner was the Administrative head.

Presently the Council consists of 24 members. The Governing Party, United National Party has 14 and the opposition 10. The Council meets once a month to review the progress and decide on the implementation of its projects. Five standing committees of the Council, namely Finance, Law, Works, Sports and Welfare Services (Pre-Schools, Library), also meet monthly to evaluate and recommend to Council relative matters for approval.

Geography

Scope

The city of Kandy lies at an elevation of above sea level. Its plan developed around two open spaces: an elongated square, at the end of which are the administration buildings of the old capital, and an artificial lake that is quadrangular in form. A public garden adds to the openness of the city's spatial organization.

On the north shore of the lake, which is enclosed by a parapet of white stone dating to the beginning of the 19th century, are the city's official religious monuments, including the Royal Palace and the Temple of the Tooth, known as the Dalada Maligawa (daḷadā māligāva). Reconstructed in the 18th century, the Dalanda Maligawa is built on a base of granite that was inspired by the temples of Sri Lanka's former capital city, Anuradhapura. An array of materials (limestone, marble, sculpted wood, ivory, etc.) contribute to the richness of this temple. Throughout this small ''holy city'', a number of recent Buddhist monasteries can be found.

Kandy has now grown out to encompass Peradeniya, home to the University of Peradeniya and the Botanical Gardens, Katugastota to the north, and east to Kundasale, Tennekumbura and Gurudeniya.

Topography

Kandy is located in the mountainous and thickly forested interior of the island. The city is located in between multiple mountain ranges including the Knuckles mountain range and the Hanthana Mountain Range, giving the city an elevation of above sea level. It lies adjacent to the artificial Kandy Lake and south of Udawatta Kele Sanctuary.

Climate

With Kandy located in the centre of the island and in a high elevation, the city has a relatively wetter and cooler temperatures than that of the tropical climate of the rest of the country, especially the coastal regions. The city has its dry season from December through to April. From May through to July and December to January the region experiences its monsoon season, during this time the weather is rough and unstable. The island being in the northern hemisphere gives Kandy it coldest month in January and its hottest in July. From March through the middle of May is the intermonsonsoonal period, during this time there is light rain and strong humidity. The humidity is generally between 70% to 79%.

Divisions

Architecture

Name	Sacred City of Kandy
State party
Type	Cultural
Criteria	iv, vi
Id	450
Region	Asia-Pacific
Year	1988
Session	10th
Link	http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/450 }}

;Palace of the Tooth relic The monumental ensemble of Kandy is an example of construction that associates the Royal Palace and the The Temple of the Tooth (''Palace of the tooth relic'') is the place that houses the Relic of the tooth of the Buddha. Originally part of the Royal Palace complex of the Kandyan Kingdom, it is one of the holiest places of worship and pilgrimage for Buddhist around the world. It was last of a series of temples built in the places where the relic, the actual palladium of the Sinhalese monarchy, was brought following the various relocations of the capital city.

The Palace of the Tooth relic, the palace complex and the holy city of Kandy are associated with the history of the dissemination of Buddhism. The temple is the product of the last peregrination of the relic of the tooth of Buddha and the testimony of a religion which continues to be practiced today.

;Royal Palace The Royal Palace of Kandy is the last Royal Palace built in the island. Although only part of the original palace complex remain. The Temple of the Tooth was part of this complex, due to the ancient tradition that stated that the monarch is the protector of the relic though which the ruler of the land. It today houses the National Museum Kandy which holds an extensive collection of artifacts from both the Kandy Kingdom and the British colonial rule.

;Lankatilaka Temple The Lankatilaka Temple is considered to be one of the best preserved examples of traditional Sinhalese temple architecture. Built on a rock, the temple is reached by a long series of rock cut steps. An arched passage of the image house leads through a Mandapa (hall) into the inner sanctum which is richly decorated with beautiful floral designs. The two side walls and the ceiling are decorated with paintings. In the inner sanctum is a colossal seated image of the Buddha.

;Gadaladeniya Temple The Gadaladeniya Temple's design is of South Indian origin with a Devale attached to it, similar in character to the Natha Devale and the Gedige of Adahana Maluwa. The main shrine room has a seated Buddha statue and the remains of some paintings of the Gampola period.

Among other important temples around Kandy are Dodanwela Devale (shrine), Embakke Devale (shrine), Galmaduwa Vihara temple, Handagala Vihara temple, Lankatilaka Vihara, Medawala Vihara and Nalanda Gedige.

Parks and gardens

The Royal Botanical Garden, Peradeniya is situated about 5 km to the west of the city centre at Peradeniya and is visited by 1.2 million people per year. It is the largest botanical garden on the island.

The Udawatta Kele (''Udawatta Forest'') is a protected sanctuary situated in the heart of the city, just north of Temple of the Tooth. Known as "Uda Wasala Watta" in Sinhalese meaning, "the garden situated above the royal palace" it was designated as a forest reserve in 1856, and it became a sanctuary in 1938.

The Royal Palace Park, known as ''Wace Park'' is a small park that overlooks Kandy Lake and most of the city. In the park is a Japanese field gun which was captured by the British 14th Army in Burma during World War II and presented to the city of Kandy by Lord Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Theatre.

Demographics

Kandy is a Sinhala majority city; there are sizable communities belonging to other ethnic groups, such as Moors and Tamils.

{{bar box |title=Ethnicity in Kandy(2007) |titlebar=#ddd |left1=Population |right1=Percent |float=right |bars= }}

+
!Ethnicity!!Population!!% Of Total
	77,560
Sri Lankan Moors	15,326
Sri Lankan Tamils	9,427
Indian Tamils	5,245
Other (including Burgher people	Burgher, Malay)	2,489
Total	110,049

''Source:''''statistics.gov.lk''

Religion

Kandy remains an important religious centre of the Sinhalese and a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists, namely those belonging to the Theravada school.

Economy

Kandy is second only to Colombo as the center of the Sri Lankan economy. It is the second-largest city of the island and the capital of Central Province of Sri Lanka. Many major corporations have large branch offices in Kandy and many industries include textiles, furniture, information technology and jewellery are found there. Many agriculture research centers are located throughout the city.

Tourism

Transport

Kandy has a public transport system based primarily on buses. The bus service is operated both by private companies and the government's own Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB).

Roads

;A-Grade highways:

A1 highway (Kandy road) connects Colombo with Kandy.

A9 highway connects Jaffna with Kandy.

A26 highway connects Padiyathalawa with Kandy via Mahiyangana.

A10 highway connects Kurunegala with Kandy via Katugastota.

;High-speed expressways:

Colombo – Kandy high-speed elevated expressway running 115 km is currently under construction, providing a high-speed link between the two largest economic centers.

Rail

''Matale Line'' of the Sri Lanka Railways connects Kandy by way of Pradeniya and Matale. It connects to the ''Main Line'' that links Colombo and Badulla

Education

Tertiary education

The county's second oldest university, University of Peradeniya is at Peradeniya,and The Open University of Sri Lanka Kandy Premises also a suburb of Kandy. The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology has a center in the city, which is rather insignificant. Most of the private sector higher educational institutions also have their branches in Kandy.

The Geology Department at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy is the only Earth Science Department in Sri Lanka, having grown out of the Faculty of Science, with a long and distinguished history.

Kandy is also home to the Institute of Fundamental Studies (IFS). IFS is the premier institute of basic and applied research in Sri Lanka. IFS also trains around 32 graduate students at any given time.

Primary and secondary education

Kandy is home to some of the island's oldest boy schools and several girl schools as well.

Culture

Leisure and entertainment

Kandyans do many things for leisure and entertainment in in the city. Kandy is very popular due to the annual procession known as the Esala Perahera, in which one of the inner caskets used for covering the tooth relic of Buddha is taken in a grand procession through the streets of the city. This casket is taken on a royal tusker. The procession includes traditional dancers and drummers, flag bearers of the provinces of the old Kandyan kingdom, the Nilames (lay custodians of temples ) wearing their traditional dresses, torch bearers and also the grandly attired elephant. This ceremony which is annually held in the months of July or August, attracts large crowds from all parts of the country and also many foreign tourists.

Kandy City Centre is a new commercial and shopping complex at Dalada Veediya. Is the most modern commercial complex in Sri Lanka. The complex is studded with ultra modern features, also incorporating traditional architecture of Kandy during the medieval period of Sri Lanka. The city centre is host to several leading banks, a fully equipped supermarket, modern restaurants, an entertainment zone, a well designed state of the art food court, Sri Lanka's leading book shops, flora and an ayurweda site. There is a five-level car park outside that is the largest car park in Kandy.

Literature, film and television

Museums and art galleries

Culinary

Kandy has a modest range of restaurants, as well as an abundance of confectioneries. A range of cuisines is available, including Sri Lankan, Indian, Chinese, European and some multinational fast food outlets such as Pizza Hut, KFC and the Sri Lankan Fast Food chain Dinemore.

Music

Sport

Kandy has established a proud record of producing some of the top most sports people in Sri Lanka for a wide range of sports such as rugby union, cricket, football, swimming, hockey, athletics, table tennis, boxing, swimming, basketball, golf and even baseball, which has only been introduced into Kandy recently. Kandy has produced national captains of cricket and rugby, and athletes that play at the highest level of all sports.

Unlike the rest of the country rugby union is the most popular sport in the region. This is because of the local rugby union club, Kandy Sports Club being the reigning Club Rugby Champions in the national league for almost a decade, as well as the fondness and support the local schools treat the sport with. The Singer Sri Lankan Airlines Rugby 7's tournament is an annual international rugby union event held at the local Bogambara Stadium, attracting nations from all over the world.

Cricket is widely played in Kandy with the city having three first class teams in the Premier Trophy, Saracens, Kandy CC and Kandy Youth Cricket Club, as well as being the main city for the Sri Lankan Premier League side Kandurata Kites. Kandy is host to the Sri Lanka national cricket team with two Test status grounds, Asgiriya International Stadium and the newly built state of the art Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. Both stadiums have held World Cup matches.

Sports like Hockey, volleyball, the national sport of Sri Lanka, and Association football however has not taken off in Kandy as much as other sports, due to the lack of proper playing fields, funding and support and Cue games like billiards and snooker have hardly anyone playing. However Basketball, Table tennis, badminton and even swimming are popular due to the high participation of students and schools.

See also

Esala Perahera

Kingdom of Kandy

World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka

References

Further reading

External links

Kandy - The Hill Capital

Bahirawa Kanda Kandy : The Legend of a Dreaded Demon

Kandy city website

Official UNESCO website entry

MSN Map

Kandy News Paper

Category:World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka Category:Populated places established in the 14th century Category:Kandy District Category:Provincial capitals in Sri Lanka Category:Populated places in Central Province, Sri Lanka Category:Kingdom of Kandy

ar:كاندي (مدينة) cs:Kandy da:Kandy de:Kandy es:Kandy fr:Kandy ko:캔디 (도시) hi:कैंडी hr:Kandy it:Kandy ka:კანდი lt:Kandis (Šri Lanka) ml:കാൻഡി mr:कण्डी nl:Kandy (stad) ja:キャンディ (スリランカ) no:Kandy nn:Kandy pl:Kandy pt:Kandy ru:Канди si:මහනුවර fi:Kandy sv:Kandy ta:கண்டி uk:Канді war:Kandy zh:康提

The Kandyan Wars (or the Kandian Wars) refers generally to the period of warfare between the British colonial forces and the Kingdom of Kandy, on the island of what is now present day Sri Lanka, between 1796 and 1818. More specifically it is used to describe the expeditionary campaigns of the British army in the Kingdom of Kandy in 1803 and 1815.

Background

The British, fearing that French control of the Netherlands would result in their controlling the strategically important port of Trincomalee, occupied Dutch possessions in Sri Lanka in 1795. These included not only Trincomalee but Batticaloa, Galle, and Jaffna, as well as the entirety of Sri Lanka's lowlying coastal areas. That the British were determined to expand and control the entirety of the island, and had reformed traditional social structures like the caste system and the ''rajakariya'' (lit. "kingwork", labour and or tithes owed to the Kandyan king) added to the tension between them and the independent kingdom of Kandy.

Mountainous central Sri Lanka remained independent, under the rule of the Nayaka kings of Senkadagala. Early British attempts at securing a treaty with mountainous kingdom were rejected. The internal stability of Kandy was shaky, as king Sri Vikrama Rajasinha found himself being constantly undermined and intrigued against by powerful Sinhalese nobles. He also faced a potential usurper in the form of Muttusami, brother-in-law of the previous king Rajadhirajasingha, who had fled to British controlled lands in the early 19th century and had been agitating against the beleaguered king ever since.

The earliest British garrison numbered about 6,000 which was increased through the recruitment of local sepoys, and the forces of the Empire further enjoyed exclusive access to the sea. Kandy, in contrast, had the advantage of being situated in difficult, mountainous terrain, and could also draw on four hundred years of experience resisting European colonists.

The first war (1803–1805)

The first Kandyan war was precipitated by the intrigues of a minister of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, who defected to the British and offered to show them the way through central Sri Lanka's winding mountain passes to the capital city. Enraged, the King of Kandy had the minister's family executed.

The British dispatched two separate forces into Kandyan territory - one, under Major-General Hay Macdowell, from Colombo, and another, under a Colonel Barbut, from Trincomalee. These included 51st Regiment of Foot, the 19th Regiment of Foot, the Malay (Muslim) 1st Ceylon Regiment, the all-Sinhalese 2nd Ceylon, and the mixed Sinhalese Malay 3rd Ceylon. In the Kandyan army, at least one contingent was under the command of a Malay (and hence Muslim) prince called 'Sangunglo', an interesting commentary on the multiethnic nature of the mountainous kingdom. After fierce fighting the British force found Senkadagala deserted in February 1803. They swiftly established a garrison, crowned Muttusami as the new, puppet, king of Kandy, and set about subduing the remainder of the kingdom.

Despite these early successes the army soon suffered a number of setbacks. The Chief Minister responsible for guiding the British into Kandy had greatly inflated the extent of the king's unpopularity, and resistance proved fierce. The Kandyans resorted to fighting a guerilla war (much the same tactic as they had adopted against the Portuguese and the Dutch) and proved difficult to dislodge. Disease ravaged the garrison left behind in Senkadagala to secure the capital. Perhaps most worrying, a number of native sepoys defected to the Kandyans, including a soldier of Malay descent called 'William O'Deen' or 'Odeen', who years later became the first Sri Lankan exiled to Australia.

The Kandyans counter-attacked in March and seized Senkadagala. Barbut was taken prisoner and executed, and the British garrison wiped out; only one man, Corporal George Barnsley of the 19th Infantry, survived to tell the tale (though other sources put the number of survivors at four). In the meanwhile the retreating British army was defeated on the banks of the flooding Mahaveli river, leaving only four survivors.

Despite this setback the British still remained unquestioned masters of the lands they possessed, as the disastrous Kandyan counter-campaign later in the year proved. Equipped with a handful of captured six-pound cannon, the Kandyan army advanced through the mountain passes as far as the city of Hanwella. Here the army was utterly routed by superior British firepower, forcing Sri Vikrama Rajasinghe to flee back into the mountains. A general rebellion that had erupted in British occupied territory on hearing of the Kandyan invasion was suppressed.

Frederick North, governor of Ceylon from 1798–1805, maintained pressure on the Kandyan frontier with numerous attacks, in 1804 dispatched a force under Captain Arthur Johnson towards Senkadagala. In a pattern that had become clear over the past two hundred or so years, the Kandyans once again defeated the British in the mountainous territory they called home. In 1805, emboldened by their successes, they captured Katuwana, a frontier town. This and the 1803 victory at the Battle of the Mahaveli, were to be Kandy's last, meaningful military successes.

Though no treaty was signed officially ending the First Kandyan War, the appointment of General Thomas Maitland as governor of Ceylon in 1805 is generally accepted as the end of this first phase of open hostilities.

Interbellum (1805–1815)

Events in the ten years between the end of the First Kandyan War and the Second were such that the complexion of the second conflict was quite different from the first. Whereas in 1805 the British had been forced to contend with a largely hostile native nobility, in 1815 it was this same nobility who essentially invited the British into Kandy and supported their overthrow of Sri Vikrama Rajasingha.

Governor Thomas Maitland, in British Ceylon, initiated extensive legal and social reforms to further entrench and strengthen British power. These included the reform of the civil service to eliminate corruption, and the creation of a Ceylonese High Court based on caste law. The Catholic population was enfranchised whilst the Dutch Reformed church lost its privileged position. Maitland also worked to undermine Buddhist authority and sought to attract Europeans to the island by allowing grants of up to 4000 acres (16 km²) on the island. He was replaced in 1812/1813 by Sir Robert Brownrigg, who largely continued these policies.

In contrast, an increasingly paranoid Sri Vikrama Rajasinghe categorically alienated Kandy's powerful nobility and volatile commoners. The construction of Kandy Lake was completed in 1807. Despite its beauty it was a deeply unpopular project, as it served no practical purpose - central Senkadagala had no paddy fields that required irrigation, the traditional cause for the construction of such hydraulic monuments. In 1810 he removed the powerful Pilima Talauve from the position of Chief Minister (1st Adigar). Talauve rebelled the following year and much to the horror of Kandy's nobles was executed. The king further alienated the powerful Buddhist establishment with arbitrary requisitions of land and treasure. Throughout this period John D'Oyly, a British civil servant, was in close contact with various Sinhala nobles, who increasingly seemed to prefer the rule of the British to the volatile government of the Nayaka monarchy.

The second war (1815)

The train of events leading directly up to the 1815 war commenced with the humiliation of Ehelepola, Pilima Talauve's nephew and successor as First Adigar. Ehelepola had been involved in several intrigues against the by now deeply unpopular Sri Vikrama Rajasinghe since his appointment in 1810. In 1814 his actions were revealed and the noble fled to British territory. The furious king had Ehelepola's entire family put to death in various gruesome ways. The deaths shocked the Kandyan aristocracy who now openly revolted against the king, who torched his palace and fled to a fortress at Hanguranketha.

John d'Oyly, in the meanwhile, had been advising Governor Brownrigg for some time that Kandy's nobles were ready to cooperate with any British attempt at dislodging Sri Vikrama Rajasinghe. Kandyan troops soon crossed the British-Kandyan border seeking Ehelepola, and attacked the British garrison at Sitawaka - of itself enough provocation for Brownrigg to dispatch a force to Kandy. The situation was only worsened by the arrival of a group of British traders who Sri Vikrama Rajasingha had ordered mutilated at Hanguranketha.

The British forces met scant resistance and entered Senkadagala on the 10th of February, 1815, accompanied by John d'Oyly; Brownrigg informed the Admiralty that 'Let by the invitation of the chiefs and welcomed by the acclamations of the people, the forces of His Britannic Majesty, have entered the Kandyan territory and penetrated to the capital. Divine Providence has blessed their efforts with uniform success and complete victory. The ruler of the interior provinces has fallen into their hands and the government remains at the disposal of His Majesty's Representative'. Sometime later Sri Vikrama Rajasinghe's hiding place was discovered; the deposed king was exiled with his harem, to Vellore in India, where he died 17 years later. His son, and potential heir, died childless in 1842.

The single most important event following the arrival of British forces in Senkadagala was the signing of the Kandyan Convention. Essentially a treaty of annexation, it was agreed to in March 1815 after negotiations between John d'Oyly and the nobles of Kandy. The central ponts of the agreement were:

#'Sri Wickrema Rajasinha', the 'Malabari' king, [is] to forfeit all claims to the throne of Kandy. #The king is declared fallen and deposed and the hereditary claim of his dynasty, abolished and extinguished. #All his male relatives are banished from the island. #The dominion is vested in the sovereign of the British Empire, to be exercised through colonial governors, except in the case of the Adikarams, Disavas, Mohottalas, Korales, Vidanes and other subordinate officers reserving the rights, privileges and powers within their respective ranks. #The religion of Buddhism is declared inviolable and its rights to be maintained and protected. #All forms of physical torture and mutilations are abolished. #The governor alone can sentence a person to death and all capital publishments to take place in the presence of accredited agents of the government. #All civil and criminal justice over Kandyan to be administered according to the established norms and customs of the country, the government reserving to itself the rights of interposition when and where necessary. #Other non-Kandyan's position [is] to remain [as privileged as previously] according to British law. #The proclamation annexing the Three and Four Korales and Sabaragamuwa is repealed. #The dues and revenues to be collected for the King of England as well as for the maintenance of internal establishments in the island. #The Governor alone can facilitate trade and commerce.

The signatories of the convention were Governor Brownrigg, Ehelepola and the lords (called 'Dissawes' in Sinhalese) Molligoda, Pilimatalawe the Elder, Pilimatalawa the Younger, Monerawila, Molligoda the Younger, Dullewe, Ratwatte, Millawa, Galgama and Galegoda. The signatures were witnessed by d'Oyly, who became British Resident and effective governor in the area, and his private secretary James Sutherland.

The convention is interesting in many ways. It represents the theoretically voluntary transferral of authority in Kandy to the British, and indeed later events showed that the Kandyan nobility did hope that they were simply replacing one malleable master (the Nayakkar monarchy) with another (the British). Indeed Ehelepola appears to have hoped that the new master would not be the British at all, but himself.

The nobles and religious potentates of Kandy were also adamant in including clause 5 concerning the protection of Buddhism. Later in 1815 the heads of the Buddhist monasteries at Malwatte and Asgiriya both met Governor Brownrigg and extracted guarantees that Buddhism would not be compromised. This included a ban on proselytising and mission schools.

The third war (1817–1818)

It took the ruling families of Kandy less than two years to realise that the authority of the British government was a fundamentally different beast to that of the (deposed) Nayakkar monarchy. Discontent with British activities soon boiled over into open rebellion, commencing in the duchy of Uva in 1817. Generally called the 'Uva Rebellion', it is also known as the Third Kandyan War. In many ways the third name is more appropriate, as the rebellion (which soon developed into a guerilla war of the kind the Kandyans had fought against European powers for some time) was centred on the Kandyan nobility and their unhappiness with developments under British rule since 1815. However it is the last uprising of this kind and Britain's response essentially liquidated the old aristocracy and ensured future rebellions would take on a much more subaltern character.

Legacy

The British capture of the kingdom of Kandy marked not only the end of the 400-year-old Kingdom of Kandy, but also of all native political independence. Kandy, as a result of its geographical and political isolation, had developed unique cultural and social structures that were now subject to the intense pressures of subjugation and underwent immense upheaval and change.

Perhaps most poignant is the transformation of central Sri Lanka's landscape itself. Much of Kandy's territory had, before 1815, been wild, jungle-covered and malarial, with unreliable dirt-track roads for access, apart from a few 'royal roads'. The British proceeded to transform the hill country by constructing roads across previously inaccessible terrain (the Kadugannawa hairpin bend is a famous example of British engineering in Sri Lanka), and, in 1867, building the first railway. The other big transformation was the introduction of tea to central Sri Lanka in 1867 and the massive settlement of Tamils in the region. Central Sri Lanka is now dominated by the vast tea estates that helped make Sri Lanka the world's biggest exporter of tea for a while, and were still owned by British companies in 1971.

A lasting legacy of the same war in Ireland is the traditional anti-war and anti-recruiting song "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye", depicting a soldier from Athy, County Kildare who comes home horribly mutilated from the war in "Sulloon" (Ceylon).

See also

Kandyan Convention

Colonial history of Sri Lanka

References

Bibliography

External links

Category:History of Sri Lanka Category:Wars involving Sri Lanka Category:Wars involving the United Kingdom Category:British Isles Category:Military history of the United Kingdom Category:18th-century conflicts Category:19th-century conflicts Category:Kingdom of Kandy Category:History of Kandy Category:British rule in Ceylon Category:19th century in Sri Lanka Category:18th century in Sri Lanka