| Kandy Nayak Dynasty නායක්කාර රාජවංශය கண்டி நாயக்கர் வம்சம் | |
|---|---|
| Royal house | |
 Flag of theKingdom of Kandy | |
| Parent family | Madurai Nayak dynasty |
| Country | Sri Lanka,India |
| Place of origin | Madurai,Tamil Nadu,India |
| Founded | 1739 |
| Founder | Sri Vijaya Raja Singha |
| Current head | Raja Mohan Babu |
| Final ruler | Sri Vikrama Rajasinha |
| Estate(s) | Kingdom of Kandy |
| Dissolution | 1815 under the terms of theKandyan Convention |
Part ofa series on the |
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| History ofKandy |
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| Kingdom of Kandy (1469–1815) |
| Colonial Kandy (1815–1948) |
| Kandy (1948–present) |
| See also |
 Sri Lanka portal |
TheNayaks of Kandy, also known as theKandyan Nayak Dynasty (Sinhala:මහනුවර නායක්කාරවරුMahanuwara Nayakkarawaru,Tamil:கண்டி நாயக்கர்) were the rulers of theKingdom of Kandy from 1739 to 1815. They were the last dynasty to ruleSri Lanka before its full colonisation by the British. The term "Nayak" is derived from theSanskrit word Nāyaka, meaning "leader" or "governor."
The rise of the Nayak family to power occurred after the death of KingVira Narendrasinha, who left no legitimate heir. As a result, the throne passed to his brother-in-law, Sri Vijaya Rajasinha, who was crowned in 1739.[1] The Kandyan Nayaks were acadet branch of theMadurai Nayak dynasty and were also related to theThanjavur Nayaks.[2] Like the Madurai and Thanjavur Nayaks,[3] the Kandyan Nayaks were also ofTeluguBalija origin.[4] They spokeTelugu andTamil, withSinhala and Tamil being used as their court languages.[5][6]
These alliances were strengthened through intermarriage between Kandy and South India, reviving the tradition of marrying South Indian nobility, which continued throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.[7] The Nayaks were known for their childless marriages, which led to a non-linear succession.[8] Four Nayak monarchs ruled Kandy, with the last, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, deposed in 1815 due to thecollusion between the Kandyan nobility and the British. This led to his exile inVellore Fort, India,[9] and the end of the Kandyan Nayak dynasty, marking the last indigenous rule beforeSri Lanka's colonization by the British.[10]
The dynasty is noted for its contributions to Sri Lankan religious architecture, especially through the establishment of temples dedicated to their clan deity,Vishnu, also known asUpulvan in Sinhala. A notable example is the Kandy Vishnu Temple in the capital. Although the Nayaks practicedVaishnavite Hinduism, they were also patrons ofTheravada Buddhism, offering support to the Buddhistsanghas.[11] The Kandy Nayak flag, featuring a yellow lion holding a sword on a red background, became a central element of the currentSri Lankan flag.[12][13]
The Nayaks ofSouth India started as governors ofVijayanagara Empire ruling parts ofTamil Nadu during the 14th and 15th centuries. After the Vijayanagara Empire collapsed in the mid-16th century some of these governors declared independence and established their own kingdoms inGingee,Thanjavur,Madurai andChandragiri.
They were ofBalija origin,[4] spokeTamil and usedSinhala andTamil as their court languages. but they usedTelugu with their familiars.[5][6][14][15][16] According to a Telugu work calledSinhaladvipa Katha, the Nayak kingKumara Krishnappa, who reigned atMadurai (1562–1572), is said to have conqueredKandy. Kumara Krishnappa killed the then reigning Kandy king, sent the late king's wife and children toAnuradhapura and placed his own brother-in-law Vijaya Gopala Naidu as his viceroy in Kandy.[17]
The last king of the Kandy Mahanuwara dynasty, Narendra Sinha, died in 1739 without an offspring from his queen. His queen was a Madurai Nayak princess. Narendra Sinha's had nominated a brother of his Madura queen to succeed him;[18] and he was crowned under the assumed title of Sri Vijaya Raja Sinha.[18] Thus, Sri Vijaya Rajasinha succeeded the throne and established the Kandy Nayak line.
The last king of the Kandy Mahanuwara dynasty wasVira Narendra Sinha who ruled from 1707 to 1739. This king ascended the throne in 1707 when he was seventeen and was considered to be a very pious and scholarly. In 1708 the king married a bride fromMadurai Royal family, the daughter of Pitti Nayakkar. Again, in 1710, he married another bride from Madurai. He had no children by either of the queens. He also had a secondary Kandyan wife from noble family ofMatale. They had a son. However, the children of the secondary wife were not considered heirs to the throne.[8] The king also had a concubine from a high caste, who had a son with him named Unambuwe, and did survive. The bar to his succession was the lack of royal status in the mother.
Thus, the king nominated, as his successor, the brother of his first queen who had remained at the court ever since his sister married him. According to the law of succession that prevailed inCeylon, the throne passed almost always from father to son, born of a mahesi or from brother to brother. However, when Narendra Sinha's brother-in-law succeeded the throne, the Sinhalese Kandyan aristocracy had no problem with this new form of succession.[8] The practice of marrying princesses from Madurai is said to have come into occurrence as the Kandy kings insisted on consorts from the Suryavamsa lineage to grace their coronation and to produce heirs acceptable to the people.[19]
The Brother-in-law of KingVira Narendra Sinha, Narendra Singha's first wife's brother, from theMadurai Nayak house, ascended the throne ofKandy, as Sri Vijaya Rajasinha.
The new king, considered to be a man of considerable culture, devoted his entire attention to the furtherance of the majority religionBuddhism despite being aHindu. He is said to have commissioned life sized images ofBuddha in recumbent, standing and sitting postures to be cut in the rock caves in various parts of the country. His reign also marked several conflicts with the Dutch who were ruling the coastal provinces, based on trading issues. Sri Vijaya Rajasinha destroyed the churches and initiated a persecution against thePortuguese and Dutch, which was continued underKirti Sri Rajasinha. It ceased only because the king considered that certain calamities which fell upon the country were due to his action.
He married a bride from the Royal family of Madurai.
When the king ascended the throne he sought a wife fromSouth India. For this purpose he sent messengers toMadurai in 1739. Since theMadurai Nayaks had now lost the power and prestige they enjoyed in the days ofVijayaranga Chokkanatha, the family members thought it advisable and even desirable to accept the offer from the king of Kandy. Hence the family ofBangaru Thirumala, who was now residing in Vellaikuruchi Fort near Thirupachetiram in Sivaganga Zamin responded. Two brothers Rama Krishnappa Nayaka and Narenappa Nayaka, kinsmen ofBangaru Tirumala Nayaka meet the Kandyan envoys atRamnad. Narenappa Nayaka had a daughter of marriageable age and agreed to the Kandyan request. The brothers with their families and some kins accompanied the envoys toCeylon for the daughter'snuptial; settled in Kandy with their kith and kin. Narenappa Nayaka was destined to be not only the father-in-law of one king, but the father of the next two kings of Kandy; for his two sons, the one five or six years old in 1740, and the other still an infant were successively to succeed Sri Vijaya Rajasinha.
Sri Vijaya Rajasinha married anotherMadurai princess in 1747. Each bride brought a contingent of relatives with royal lineage ultimately makingKandy their permanent home.
The king, however, died childless soon after, having nominated as hissuccessor, his eldest brother in-law who had been living in the court ever since his sister had married the king. Thus by this peculiar mode of succession the son of Narenappa Nayaka who claimed kingship with the rulingMadurai Nayak family now ascended the throne ofKandy as Kirti Sri Rajasinha.
Kirti Sri Rajasinha was a prince from theNayaks of Madurai royal family and brother-in-law to Sri Vijaya Raja Singha. He succeeded his brother-in-law to the throne in 1751.
He devoted the first few years of his reign to the advancement of literature and religion. The king, later with the Dutch assistance got down to learningBhikkus fromSiam (Thailand) for the purpose of advancingBuddhism in Sri Lanka, also building theRaja Maha Vihara (Gangarama) was built atKandy. Kirti built the existing inner temple of theSacred Tooth Relic, and caused theMahavansa chronicle to be continued from the time ofParâkkamabâhu IV down to his own reign.
In 1761 King Kirti Sri Rajasinha attacked the Dutchgarrisons andforts atMatara,Katuwana,Tangalle,Marakade andUrubokke, completely destroying them, and killing Dutch while some surrendered and ended as prisoners.
In order to revenge the humiliation, the new Dutch governor Van Eck had immediate plans to attack Kandy, but the weakness in fortification and garrison forbade the Dutch. Later they did attach in 1764 and in 1765. Hence, in the early part of 1763 the Dutch were only consolidating their positions and gradually expelling Kandyans from the territories taken over from Dutch. Throughout 1763 the King continually sought peace and sent his envoys to discuss terms. The Governor wished the King to cede the three four and sevenKorales andPuttlam and hand over the entire coastline of island to the Dutch. The king was not agreeable to any demand that diminished his sovereignty and was deliberately delaying a settlement hoping for help from the English inMadras after his discussion and negotiations withJohn Pybus 1762.
The King in mid-1762 sought help fromGeorge Pigot, Governor ofFort St GeorgeMadras for assistance. The British were eager to obtain the monopoly of trading in cinnamon, pepper, betel nut (puwak) from the Kandyan Kings also wanted to expel the Dutch from the coasts. A reason to call on the British for assistance by the Kandyan King in 1762 was that after the treaty of Paris, the Dutch poured troops intoSri Lanka. They were bent on capturingKandy from six directions (1764). Anticipating such a scenario the King sent an envoy to the English Governor ofMadras to assist him in expelling the Dutch. This envoy, a junior Kandyan Official in the military made a clandestine trip to Madras Fort, and the English responded by sending their councillor John Pybus.
John Pybus, a writer of theBritish East India Company, sailed to Kandy with a backup of five ships and about 200 armed men. A British vessel brought Pybus toTrincomalee on 5 May 1762. The Dutch knew of the arrival of Pybus through their spies and they were kept informed of his movements. Pybus took an exhausting covert trip to meet the King on 24 May 1762. After several talks without any conclusive decisions Pybus left after a month. The King gave him aring,sword, a gold chain with breast jewels and left the country crossing the river at Puttalam pass while the Dissawa who accompanied Pybus presented the ships commanderSamuel Cornish a gold chain and a ring in the name of King"Kirti Sri Rajasinha".
John Pybus in his notes described the King as a man of tolerable stature, reddish in complexion and very brisk in his movements. Pybus was amazed as to how the kandyans had managed to fight a war with Dutch and had captured Matara Dutch Fort. He wrote that "They had put every European to the sword except two officers who are now prisoners of the country."
The Kandy King, Kirti Sri Rajasinha (Kirti Sri Maha Raja), married two daughters of Vijaya Manan Naicker, the grandson ofVijaya Raghava Nayaka of Tanjore[20] and also brought some dispossessed Nayaks of Tanjore to live in Kandy.[21] He also married the daughter of one Nadukattu Sami Nayakkar in 1749. He further married three more Nayakkar queens fromMadurai, but had no children from them. He had six daughters and two sons by his Sinhalese wife (Yakada Doli), daughter of the late Dissave (Headman) of Bintenna and granddaughter of the blind and agedMampitiya Dissave. Both his sons survived the king and his daughters' married Nayakkar relatives of the king. Mampitiya's sons claim for the throne was overlooked and the choice fell on the king's brother who was living in court.
The king died on 2 January 1782, of the injuries caused two months before by a fall from his horse after a reign of 35 years which the people saw as a great religious revival, and had a sentimental attachment to the King.
Brother of Kirti Sri Rajasinha, the new king who ascended the throne as Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha. He came from Madurai as a child along with his brother. Hence he was raised asKandyan andSinhalese; emerging as a brilliant pupil of the Malwatte Temple's chief Prelate at that time. He was quite a sophisticated person and learned many languages amongst which werePali andSanskrit. A lavish patron ofBuddhism, he was a great aficionado of poetry and he himself was a poet.
He died childless in 1798 without nominating a successor. The burden fell onPilimatalava, the first Adigar (Prime Minister) Pilimatalawe, an able, ambitious and intriguing chief, to select a successor to the vacant throne. The controversial Adigar was also seen as one of the main reason for the demise of the dynasty.
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The next King who ascended the throne was Prince Kannasamy, the former Kings' nephew, barely 18 years old. He was crowned under the title of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. He would also be the last King of the Kandy Nayakar dynasty and the last ofSri Lanka. During his time the British colony was fully established in other parts of Sri Lanka.
There was a rival claimant to succeed King Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha, the brother ofQueen Upendramma, who had a stronger claim. However, Pilimatalawe, the first Adigar (prime Minister) choose the South Indian Prince to the Kandyan throne, with reportedly deep-seated plans to usurp the throne to set a new dynasty of his own. The young King, upon ascending the throne, faced many conspiracies and reigned through one of the most turbulent periods in Sri Lanka's history.
During his time, the British who had succeeded the Dutch in the Maritime Provinces had not interfered in the politics of the Kandy. But Pilimatalava, the first Adigar of the King, started covert operations with the British to provoke the King into acts of aggression, which would give the British an excuse to seize the Kingdom. The Adigar manipulated the king into beginning a military conflict with the British, who had gained a strong position in the coastal provinces. War was declared and on 22 March 1803 the British entered Kandy with no resistance, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha having fled. The adigar massacred the British garrison in Kandy in June and restored the king to the throne. Pilimitalava plotted to overthrow the King and seize the crown for himself, but his plot was discovered, and, having been pardoned on two previous occasions, he was executed.
The disgraced adigar was replaced by his nephew, Ehelepola, who soon came under suspicion of following his uncle in plotting the overthrow of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. A rebellion instigated by Ehalepola was suppressed, after which he then fled to Colombo and joined the British. After failing to surrender (after 3 weeks of notice), the exasperated king dismissed Ehelepola, confiscated his lands, and ordered the imprisonment and execution of his wife and children. A propagandised account of the execution was widely circulated by sympathisers.
Ehelepola fled to British-controlled territory, where he persuaded the British that Sri Vikrama Rajasinha's tyranny deserved a military intervention. The pretext was provided by the seizure of a number of British merchants, who were detained on suspicion of spying and were tortured, killing several of them. An invasion was duly mounted and advanced to Kandy without resistance, reaching the city on 10 February 1815. On 2 March, the kingdom was ceded to the British under a treaty called theKandyan Convention.
On the 2nd of March, the kingdom was ceded to the British under a treaty called the Kandyan Convention. Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was captured and sent along with his family and attendants as a royal prisoner by the British to Vellore Fort in southern India. A son was born to him while he was in exile but he died without issue. The King then adopted the son of his daughter as his own son who was titledAlagia Manawala Sinhala Raja.[22] During Sri Vikrama Rajasinha's time as a royal prisoner inVellore Fort the erstwhile King received aprivy purse, which his descendants continued to receive from the Government of Ceylon until it was abolished in 1965.
Sri Wikrama Rajasinha died of dropsy on 30 January 1832 aged 52 years.
For centuriesKandy, originally known as Senkadagala, has been the bastion ofSri Lanka's culture and its spiritual centre. Thepalace complex atKandy includes Sri Lanka's most veneratedshrine, the Dalada Maligawa or Temple of theSacred Tooth Relic.
Raja Maha Vihara (Gangarama) was built at Kandy by the second Nayak kingKirti Sri Rajasinha while his successorSri Rajadhi Rajasinha was a lavish patron ofBuddhism. The first Nayak kingSri Vijaya Rajasinha is noted for various erection of Buddhist statues throughout the Kingdom. TheKandy Lake overlooking Kandy was commissioned bySri Vikrama Rajasinha.
The Kandy Nayaks are credited for establishing numerousVishnu temples in Sri Lanka dedicated to their clan deity Vishnu. In Sinhalese culture, Vishnu, hailed asUpulvan, is said to have been entrusted the task of protection of the island of Lanka by Lord Buddha himself. Thus even after conversion to Buddhism, the kings were devoted to Lord Vishnu as a part of veneration of the protector of the Buddhist island.
Social reformerPattukkottai Alagiri was a descendant of the Royal Family ofKandy.[23]
.... in the seventeenth century, when warriors/traders from the Balija caste acquired kingship of the southern kingdoms of Madurai and Tanjavur.
..... in the Tamil country, where Telugu Balija families had established local Nāyaka states (in Senji, Tanjavur, Madurai, and elsewhere) in the course of the sixteenth century.
The successors of the Vijayanagar empire, the Nayaks of Madura and Tanjore, were Balija Naidus
....It is told that the Nayak Kings of Madurai and Tanjore were Balijas , who had marital relations among themselves and with the Vijaya Nagara rulers, and so were appointed as the rulers of these regions.
The Nayak kings of Madura and Tanjore were Balijas , traders by caste
After the fall of the dynasty several Balija Nayudu chieftains rose into prominence. Tanjore and Madura kingdoms were the most important of such new kingdoms
The Nayak kings of Madura and Tanjore were balijas ( traders )
As an arrangement, the Golconda practice in the first half of the seventeenth century was quite similar in crucial respects to what obtained further south, in the territories of the Chandragiri ruler, and the Nayaks of Senji, Tanjavur and Madurai. Here too revenue-farming was common, and the ruling families were closely allied to an important semi-commercial, semi-warrior caste group, the Balija Naidus.
They are popularly classed as kota balijas, who are military in origin and claim kinship with the Emperors and Viceroys of Vijayanagar and the Kandyan Dynasty.
All four worshipped at Buddhist and Hindu shrines, used Sinhala and Tamil as court languages (though they spoke Telugu), and encouraged their courtiers to take wives from Madurai and Thanjavur.
They spoke Telugu or Tamil rather than Sinhala; they were by origin Vaishnavite Hindus rather than Buddhists, though they fulfilled their key responsibilities as defenders of the Buddhist faith.
Sri Vikrama Rajasinha's royal standard, a yellow lion holding a sword against a red background, is the main feature of the Sri Lankan flag!
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