 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Kingdom of Kotte කෝට්ටේ රාජධානිය | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1412–1597 | |||||||||||||
 Flag of Kotte | |||||||||||||
 The Kotte Kingdom at its greatest extent Kingdom of Kotte after the death of Parakramabahu VIII of Kotte in 1518 The Kingdom of Kotte (under Dharmapala of Kotte) in 1587 | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Kotte | ||||||||||||
| Official languages | Sinhalese,Tamil | ||||||||||||
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism | ||||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||
| King | |||||||||||||
• 1412–1467 | Parakramabahu VI | ||||||||||||
• 1472–1480 | Bhuvanaikabahu VI | ||||||||||||
• 1484–1518 | Parakramabahu VIII | ||||||||||||
• 1551–1597 | Dharmapala | ||||||||||||
| Historical era | Transitional period | ||||||||||||
| 1412 | |||||||||||||
• Disestablishment | 27 May 1597 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Part ofa series on the | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Historicalstates ofSri Lanka | ||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
.png)
TheKingdom of Kotte (Sinhala:කෝට්ටේ රාජධානිය,romanized: Kōṭṭē Rajadhaniya,Tamil:கோட்டை அரசு), named after its capital,Kotte, was aSinhalese kingdom that flourished inSri Lanka during the 15th century.
Founded byParakramabahu VI with the help of theMing,[a] the Kingdom managed to conquer theJaffna kingdom and theVanni principalities, and bring the country under one flag. It led to a punitive invasion against theVijayanagar dynasty andcaptured a port.
The Kotte Kingdom was largely dissolved during theSinhalese-Portuguese War, as it faced attacks from rival Sinhalese kingdoms, theKingdom of Sitawaka andKingdom of Kandy.Dom João Dharmapala handed it over to the Portuguese, thus leading to the formation ofPortuguese Ceylon. Kanakasooriya Cinkaiariyan and his two son's also returned fromMadurai with mercenaries and managed to conquer Jaffna.[1][2] The remainder was annexed into Sitawaka and Kandy.
The termKotte is said to have derived from theSinhalese wordkōṭṭa (කෝට්ට) meaning “fortress,” which itself is thought to have originated from theMalayalam word kōṭṭai.[3] The wordKotte was introduced by Nissankamalla Alagakkonara, who was the founder of the fortress. They were believed to be from the city ofVanchi, identified withKanchipuram ofTamil Nadu.[4] TheAlagakkonara family have also been identified to be ofTamil ancestry ofVallanattu Chettiar.[5][6]
Kotte was originally founded as a fortress by Minister Alakesvara (1370–1385) of theAlagakkonara clan in theKingdom of Gampola during the reign ofVikramabahu III of Gampola. It was built to counter invasions fromSouth India along the western coast. In 1412, Parakramabahu VI established Kotte as his capital city. The site was naturally well protected by the extensive swamp that surrounded it.[7]
Parakramabahu VI first became the king of Gampola in 1412, and in 1415, he established Kotte as his capital. He expanded and fortified the existing citadel and built a new royal palace.Parakramabahu VI waited until ties between theVijayanagara Empire andJaffna Kingdom were severed. First, he captured theVanni and made its leaders loyal to him.Prince Sapumal was the commander of the Kotte army at the time. However, Kanakasooriya Cinkaiariyan and his two sons soon returned fromMadurai with mercenaries and regained control of the Jaffna Kingdom, bringing it out of Kotte’s overlordship and reestablishing its independence.[1][2]During this period,Tamil was used as one of the court languages of the Kotte Kingdom.[8]
In 1450, through his conquest of the Jaffna Kingdom in northern Sri Lanka, Parakramabahu VI succeeded in unifying the entire island under his rule. At its height, the Kingdom oversaw one of the greatest eras of Sinhalese literature. Notable poets at the time were Buddhist monks such asThotagamuwe Sri Rahula thero, Weedagama Maithree thero, and Karagala Wanarathana thero. By 1477, a decade after the death of Parakramabahu VI, regional kingdoms had grown in strength. Most notably a new Kingdom was founded in the central hill country of the island bySenasammata Vikramabahu who successfully led a rebellion against the Kotte Kingdom in 1469.
Parakramabahu IX of Kotte moved the capital toKelaniya in 1509 and it stayed there until 1528.
The Portuguese arrived in Sri Lanka in 1505,[9][10] landing in Galle Harbour. Once they learnt that they had arrived in Sri Lanka, they sailed to Colombo.[9] From there, they were escorted to the capital, Kotte, by a deliberately winding and lengthy route, designed to create the illusion that the city was far inland and thus difficult to invade from the coast. However, this ruse was undermined when the Portuguese sailors who had remained with the ship repeatedly fired its cannons, and the sound carried to the Portuguese party en route to Kotte, revealing how close the capital truly was.[11]
This incident gave rise to the well-known local saying“parangiya Kotte giya vage” (පරන්ගියා කෝට්ටේ ගියා වගේ) — meaning “like the Portuguese went to Kotte” — which is used to describe doing something in a roundabout way instead of directly.[11] Despite the episode, the Portuguese successfully secured a trade agreement with the King of Kotte during this first meeting.[12]
The downfall of the Kotte Kingdom began in 1521 with the event known as theVijayaba Kollaya. The three sons of King Vijayabahu VII mutinied and killed their father, dividing the kingdom among themselves.[13] This led to the creation of three smaller realms: Kotte, Sitawaka, and the Principality of Raigama.[14] Among these, theKingdom of Sitawaka grew increasingly powerful, enjoying strong local support, while the Kotte Kingdom became reliant on Portuguese assistance.
Following the Vijayaba Kollaya, King Buvenekabahu VII of Kotte sought Portuguese help to defeat his brother, Mayadunne. He also permitted his daughter’s son, Prince Dharmapala, to be baptized as a Catholic by the Portuguese. After naming Dharmapala as his heir, Buvenekabahu VII was reportedly shot—allegedly by accident—by a Portuguese soldier.
In 1565, the capital of Kotte was abandoned byKing Dharmapala due to repeated attacks from theKingdom of Sitawaka, led by Mayadunne and his son Rajasinghe I.[15] Dharmapala was taken to Colombo under Portuguese protection.[16] Most of the areas of Kotte Kingdom were annexed to the Kingdom of Sitawaka.[17] but after the downfall of Sitawaka in 1594, these areas were re-annexed to the Kotte kingdom.[18] In 1597, Dharmapala formally ceded the Kotte Kingdom to the Portuguese crown, marking the official end of the Kotte era.
The military of the Kotte kingdom was closely associated with both its rise and demise. Poems written in this era give vivid accounts of the contemporary military. Before the arrival of thePortuguese, firearms had not been widely adopted but it is believed that firearms had been introduced to Sinhalese by Arab traders due to the similarity of the design of Sinhala firearms to Arab guns and by Portuguese accounts in 1519 noting their unfamiliarity with local weaponry. However, the use of heavy armour and firearms by Europeans would also result in locals rapidly adopting firearms.[19][20]
The military consisted of four main departments, namely
In the final periods of the kingdom, the Portuguese were often in charge of the military.
The kingdom was situated nearColombo, a very important port at the time. Moorish merchants from India and Arabia dominated the trade of the kingdom until the arrival of the Portuguese. The kingdom’s exports were largely driven by the spice trade—cinnamon,cardamom, andblack pepper—whilegemstones were also significant. Following the conquest of Jaffna, Kotte gained control of thepearl trade, bringing enormous wealth to the kingdom. Portuguese who arrived there as traders were able to secure a trading deal with the kingdom on their first visit.
One of the greatest fields that flourished were literature and art since the king himself was very fond of them. Royal patronage was given to literature paving way to a golden age of literature in the island.
These institutions paved way not only to the enhancement of Buddhist literature but also to the development ofAyurvedic medicine.
Buddhism was the state religion for most of the kingdom’s existence. Parakramabahu VI built a shrine for the Sacred Tooth Relic near the royal palace. He also established the Kotte Raja Maha Viharaya to host the Esala Perahera pageant in honor of the Sacred Tooth Relic. Additionally, he also repairedKelaniya Raja Maha Vihara which along with the Sri Perakumba Pirivena and Sunethra Devi Pirivena became the most famous monasteries in the country.
Hinduism was also given a prominent place in society. Many Buddhist temples included shrines dedicated to Hindu deities such asVishnu,Murugan (God Kataragama), goddessPaththini, and Gambara, the provincial god. Prince Sapumal (later crownedBhuvanekabahu VI) built a shrine near the ancientBo tree of theKotte Raja Maha Viharaya as a vow to defeatArya Chakravarthi. He is also credited with building or renovating theNallur Kandaswamy temple inJaffna.[30]
The Portuguese converted much of the population toRoman Catholicism. The last king of Kotte, Don Juan Dharmapala, was one of only two Catholic Sinhalese monarchs in Sri Lankan history (the other wasKusumasena Devi), although several other contemporary kings had also adopted Catholicism temporarily.[citation needed]
Battaramulla was a village that provided rice to the king's palace. The royal flower gardens were also located in this village in an area called Rajamalwatta.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Sri Lanka topics | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overviews | |||||||||||||
| History |
| ||||||||||||
| Government |
| ||||||||||||
| Politics | |||||||||||||
| Geography | |||||||||||||
| Economy | |||||||||||||
| Society |
| ||||||||||||
