Balana Fort | AmazingLanka.com

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The Balana Fortress served as the Kandyan Kingdom’s primary defensive “lookout,” thwarting multiple Portuguese invasions. Through strategic resistance and a decisive 1638 victory under Rajasinghe II, the stronghold maintained Kandy’s independence against superior colonial forces.

After the Portuguese landed in Sri Lanka in 1505, their aim was to acquire more territory. However, the Balana rock fortress that served as an observation post stood against an invasion of the Kandyan kingdom. At that time the Portuguese were in control of the kingdoms of Kotte, Sitawaka and Jaffna. But despite their attempts to capture Kandy in 1594, 1603 and 1630, they failed. The Balanna ‘lookout’ post was the main obstacle.

Balana fort came under the Portuguese several times during their era. In 1617, Jesuit priest Father Nuno Mascarenhas provides a detailed description of the fall of the Balana Fort, which was under the Portuguese. to the forces of King Senarath in 1616-17.

From the Portuguese who accompanied the Ambassadors of the King of Kandy, we learnt how the King took our fort of Balana. It was as follows:–
King of Kandy came with a large force they say it consisted of some 12,000 men and having seen the fort, sent letters to the Captain of the Fortaleza three times, offering him assistance of men and arms and provisions to defend themselves against the rebel.
Our people took no account of it ; they even killed the messenger who brought the first letter to the fort and placed his head on the top of the fort so that the king might see it.
Meanwhile, two Portuguese escaped from the fort and going over to the King related to him all that passed. Thereupon, the King attacked the fort, and our men fought bravely for fifteen days and killed many natives with the loss of only one or two Portuguese. At the end of the fifteen days, the King sent a message through two of the Portuguese whom he had captured in Soffragam.
The message was to the effect that the King had determined to make peace with the Portuguese, and that it was not his intention to put them to death, but to hand them over alive to the Captain-General, along with all the artillery in the fort, the better to induce him to enter into friendship, etc. They replied that His Highness should send this message to the Captain-General, and that they would learn from his reply what was to be done.
The battle continued for nine days more, and the enemy came upto the very foot of the fort, under cover of wooden mantles ” so thick that neither our mozquetas (muskets) nor falcoes (Falcons) could make any impression on them. Then with iron hooks, they began to strip the fort of its stones and to pull them down, the King offering a reward for every stone brought down.
In this way they went on uprooting the whole fort, till the Portuguese were without any protection. When they saw themselves in this plight and that there was no hope of life in continuing the struggle, they, with common consent, agreed to surrender, though they were not short either of provisions or of ammunition. (Perera, 1916)

After the death of King Senerat, his son Rajasinghe II and his cousins, Wijayapala and Kumarasingha took control of Uva and Matale. Rajasinghe had experience in war, having fought side by side with his father Senarath and his two cousins at Randeniwa.

Rajasinghe negotiated with the Dutch to help him get rid of the Portuguese. However, the Portuguese, who had an excellent spy system, got to know of the negotiations and hastened in their attempts to capture Kandy.

Rajasinghe too knew of the superior strength of the Portuguese Captain General in Colombo, Dego de Mello Castro, and his forces. So he tried to negotiate with the Portuguese to come to some terms to ensure that his men and the people would not suffer in their hands. But the arrogant Castro rebuffed Rajasinghe, who left the city of Kandy. Consequently, when the Portuguese arrived at the city, they found it empty.

Rajasinghe had other plans and took his troops into the hills in the interior regions of the country and waited for the return of the Portuguese. The Portuguese failed in their attack on the Sinhala army. Finally, on March 28, 1638, the Portuguese tried to retreat to Balana but were killed by Rajasinghe’s army.

Balana has been the watch tower of the Kandyan kingdom. But today, although it is in the hands of the Archaeological Department, the Balana rock fortress is badly in need of restoration.

References

Perera, S. G. (1916). Historical Records of the Society of Jesus. The Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, II Part II : (1916), 130–136.

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Travel Directions to Balana Fort

To reach Balana you need to travel about 5 km on the poththapitiya (පොත්තපිටිය) Road which begins near the Kadugannawa Railway station. Then turn left into the road which leads to Balana which is approx. 3km away. To reach the fort, you need to hike about 500 meters from the main road through a tea estate.

Route from Kandy to Balana	Route from Kadugannawa to Balana
Though : Kandy Colombo Road – Kadugannawa distance :28 km Travel time : 1 hours Driving directions : see on google map	distance : 9 km Travel time : 30 mins Driving directions : see on google map