Battle of Gannoruwa

Date: 28^th March 1638

The Portuguese had attempted three times without success to capture the Kingdom of Kandy, in order to bring the entire country under their rule. In 1635, King Rajasinghe II became the king of Kandy and started negotiations with the Dutch to obtain their help in driving out the Portuguese from the island. The Portuguese hastened their efforts to take Kandy because of this, and Diogo de Melo de Castro, the Portuguese Captain General, tried to provoke the King of Kandy on several occasions.

Melo seized an elephant presented to a merchant by the king, to which the king responded by seizing two of Melo's own horses. Following this incident, on March 19^th 1638, Melo assembled a large army and set out for Kandy to destroy the Kingdom.

Rajasinghe sent a letter to Melo through a Portuguese friar seeking negotiations, but this call was rejected by Melo, who replied, saying "The little black is frightened. We shall drag him by the ears".

Instead of facing the Portuguese army head on directly, King Rajasinghe II and his generals planned a trap.  The entire city was evacuated and everything of value was taken to the jungles.

The Portuguese force advanced through Atapitiya to Balana, a fort and observation post of the king's army.

When the Portuguese army finally reached Kandy, they found the city deserted. They sacked and burned the city, including the royal palace and temples, and then having thought they won this battle easily, started to withdraw back to Colombo.

 As they were returning their path was blocked by huge trees and suddenly without any warning they were attacked by the Kandyan army who were hiding deep in the thick jungles.

The object of the Portuguese was to entrench themselves on the slopes of Kiriwaththalawa (present day Kiribathkumbura), but before they reached high ground they found themselves surrounded by the Kandyan forces. The King's army in full force awaited the return of the Portuguese at Gannoruwa. 

When they reached Gannoruwa they found that crossing the river was made impossible by the Kandyans as they had cut down trees and obstructed the Portuguese path. The road back to Kandy was also blocked and all escape routes were effectively cut off.

Since there was no way of crossing the river or heading back to the city , the Portuguese army camped on top of a hill for the night.

Having had an exhausting day, the Portuguese army was tired and thirsty. Since the Kandyan army took guard of the River there was no way of drinking water without risking being killed by the skilled shooters camped at the base of the hill.

To make matters worse, the gun powder of the Portuguese were targeted by the King's army from a nearby mountain. It is said that "balls of fire" were hurled at the hill where the Portuguese army had camped, and throughout the night the Portuguese gun powder got burnt.

On the following day, the Portuguese force tried to resume their retreat but the Kandyan army at once attacked the Portuguese army and numbers of the Portuguese force were rapidly reduced as the Kandyan army charged up the hill and attacked them. 

With the Portuguese force suffering heavy damages, Melo requested an armistice. Rajasinghe did not reply to this, but ordered his drummers to proclaim that all Sinhalese that were with the Portuguese force were to leave them. They were told that those who remained would be put to the sword the next day.

 

The entire Portuguese army was resolutely crushed and annihilated, and their heads were gathered to a ghastly pile like coconuts at the feet of the warrior King, who skilfully led his powerful armies to a thrilling triumph and saved the Sinhalese Kingdom from the subjugation to a alien European Power.

The main reason why the colonial forces couldn't fight with the Kandyans was their guerrilla warfare battle tactics.

 Unlike the Portuguese, the Kandyans were familiar with leeches, monsoon rain and the terrain. They knew the land and the secret footpaths and successfully engaged in guerrilla warfare. They set up road blocks on the narrow winding paths; usually at a bend. They placed their guns between rocks and trees and launched surprise attacks. They regularly ambushed the Portuguese as they climbed the hills. They dropped felled trees and boulders on them and attacked the trapped soldiers.

The Portuguese did not make any other attempts to take Kandy after this.The Battle of Gannoruwa was the last battle fought between the Portuguese and the Kandyans. Rajasinghe eventually made an agreement with the Dutch and eventually the Portuguese were driven out of the country in 1658.

The Temple of the Tooth Relic (Dālada Māligāwa)

 

 

 

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, The Temple of the Tooth Relic which houses the tooth relic of the Buddha is part of the Royal Palace Complex of the Kingdom of Kandy founded by King Vikramabahu III in the14th century on the advice of a Brahmin who selected the site as a lucky ground for a Capital.

The Tooth Relic

The sacred tooth relic of the Buddha is the most venerated object of worship in the Buddhist world, and its present house is the last royal residence of the Kingdom of Kandy which was also the last Kingdom of Sri Lanka.

The Casket on which the Tooth relic is kept.

The Royal Palace

The royal palace of kandy is the last royal residence of the Kingdom of Kandy and also in Sri Lanka. The last king to reside in it was Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe. Once part of a large palace complex that included the royal court, the Magul Maduwa and the Temple of the Tooth that held the Relic of the tooth of the Buddha. 

History of the Tooth Relic

After the “Parinirvana” (Final Nirvana, the final passing beyond suffering) of Gautama Buddha, the tooth relic was preserved in the state of Kalinga, in India. During the reign of King Guhasiva a war broke out, and the King instructed his daughter, Princess Hemamali, and son in law, Prince Dantha to take the tooth relic to Sri Lanka. 

The tooth relic was smuggled to Sri Lanka in 313 AD, hidden in the hair of Princess Hemamali who fled with her husband away from the Hindu armies besieging her fathere;s Kingdom in India.

They landed in the island during the reign of King Kirthi Sri Meghavarna (301-328) and handed over the tooth relic which was first enshrined at Isuruminiya, in Anuradhapura, the first Kingdom of Sri Lanka.

It soon became the responsibility of the monarch to safeguard the Relic, and the custodianship of the relic became a symbol of the right to rule the country. Therefore the Tooth relic changed its location from Kingdom to Kingdom to finally end up in Kandy, the last kingdom of the Island.

The tooth relic was enshrined at many locations including Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa ,Kurunegala, Kotte, and even hidden in a Grinding stone in Ratnapura before finally reaching the Kingdom of Kandy.

Kingdom of Kandy

The Kingdom of Kandy founded in the 14^th century and endured until the early 19^th century was an important independent monarchy of Sri Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island.

From the 1590s, it was the sole independent native polity on the island of Sri Lanka, and through a combination of hit-and-run tactics and diplomacy kept European colonial forces at bay. The Battle of Gannoruwa on March 28^th 1638 is a good example where a highly trained and an advanced Portuguese army was completely annihilated by the Kandyan Army.

Even today the people of Kandy are very proud to talk about its history and its many military achievements that won countless battles against colonial forces till the kingdom was absorbed into the British Empire as a protectorate following the Kandyan Convention of 1815.

Today the custody of the sacred tooth is handled by three custodians, the Venerable Mahanayaka Thero of Asgiriya and Malwatta chapters and the Diyawadana Nilame (Chief lay custodian).

16th Diyawadana Nilame (lay custodian of the Sacred Tooth Relic) in 1964