Ruins of the Palace of Sri Weeraparakrama Narendrasinghe at Kundasale – කුණ්ඩසාලේ රජ මාලිගය

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Sri Weeraparakrama Narendrasinghe who succeeded to the throne in 1706 at the age of 18 years was the last Sinhala King in the country and ruled the Kandyan Kingdom for 33 years. He was never considered a good ruler and was a play-boy  type so much that he was known to be called the “Sellam Rajjuruwo” (playfull king) by his subject.

Kundasale was one of his favorite places since he used to come to enjoy Waraka fruit from a special jack tree. It is also rumored that he had many affairs with girls in the area.

In 1710, the king decided to move his palace from Kandy to Kundasale and instructed to build the palace to Ramukwelle Dissawe who was governing this area. He was the first and the last king to have Kundasale as the capital of the Kandyan Kingdom.

Rambukwelle Dissawe got a service of a designer called Devendra and said to have built a palace completely out of wood on top of a hill  in a garden called “Narikele” belonging to the king. The palace is said to have looked like more of a summer palace rather than Kings Palace. Today is location lies right to the Sri Narendrasinghe Rajamaha Viharaya in a now vacant land. This land is now called Udamaluwa.

Living up to his nickname, the king used to perform acrobats in the water when he went to Mahaweli for a bath. Some of the chieftains planned secretly to kill the king when he was bathing. They planted sharpened spikes in the water so that when the king jumped into the water from his usual bathing place, these spikes will pierce his chest and cause his death. On that fateful day the king observed a dragon-fly seated on the water before taking the jump in to the river. The king thought that this never could happened and inspected the bathing area before his usual jump.

He detected the poisoned spikes planted in the water. One Kahanda Sumitra Bandara and his Chief Adigar Ranmalaka were found responsible for this act and were killed by the king. Ehelepola Adigar was elevated to the post of Chief Adigar.

In 1739 the king fell seriously ill and Ayurvedic treatment would not cure him. Dr Daniels, a Dutch physician treated him with Western medicine but the king breathed his last on May 13, 1739.

In 1804, the British troops under a command of a captain Johnson managed to attack the palace and plunder all the valuables and had burned the palace down.

After this destruction, Whatever wooden structures remained in the place was used to build a structure in the close by Sri Narendrasinghe Rajamaha Viharaya which is also attributed to the king. The balance has been distributed among number of temples in the Rambukwella for preservation. The structure at the Sri Narendrasingha Rajamaha Viharaya still exists today.

A large rock with a circular carving called Sandagala was still at the Palace site. From the view of it, this would have been buried under earth with the carved surface visible from the top.

It is also said that the two elephant carvings on rock at the entrance of the Dalada Maligawa (temple of tooth relic)  was also brought from the ruins of the Kundasale Palace of Sri Weera Parakrama Narendrasinghe. Unfortunately these two carvings were blown to pieces when the LTTE Terrorists exploded a massive bomb in front of Dalada Maligawa. The remains of these carving has been restored and  now can be seen on the ground of the Temple .

Today nothings remains to be seen of this place except a two notice boards put-up by the archeological department. Thick jungle scattered with what ever the remaining ruins has long since buried with time.  Unfortunately no proper excavations have been carried out on this site by the Archaeology Department.

References

1. Abeyawardhana, H. A. P. (2004) Heritage of Kandurata: Major Natural, Cultural, and Historic Sites. Kandy: Kandurata Development Bank, in association with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Also See

• Ancient Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka
• Other Places of Interest Within Close Proximity

Map of Ruins of the Palace of Sri Weeraparakrama Narendrasinghe at Kundasale

Travel Directions to Ruins of the Palace of Sri Weera Parakrama Narendrasinghe at Kundasale

Kandy can be reached from Colombo on the old Colombo – Kandy road (option 1) which is scenic but heavy in traffic specially on Fridays and Sundays. However the new Central Expressway (option 2) has opened up a new route which is longer but less cumbersome.