King Rajasinghe II [1635-1687 CE]

A colorized photo of King Rajasinghe II from the "An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon" (1693-Book) — A colorized photo of King Rajasinghe II from the “An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon” (1693-Book)

Predecessor		Successor
Senarat [1604-1635] -House of Dinaraja-	Rajasinghe II [1635-1687 CE] -House of Dinaraja-	Vimaladharmasuriya II [1687 – 1707 CE] -House of Dinaraja-
COMPLETE LIST OF RULERS OF SRI LANKA

Born as Mahā Astāne, King Rājasinha II (r. 1635–1687) was the son of King Senarat and the Catholic empress Dona Catherina (Kusumāsana Devi). His long reign, extending over fifty-two years, was marked by the decisive expulsion of the Portuguese from the island’s maritime provinces through an alliance with the Dutch—an alliance that later proved fraught with tension and mistrust. Revered by his subjects as Rāsin Deviyo (“the god Rājasinha”), he strengthened Kandy as the principal centre of indigenous sovereignty during an era of accelerating European expansion.

Early Lineage and the Drawing of Lots

Mahā Astāne was born in 1611 at Mahiyangana amid political upheaval. His family had fled the Kandyan capital following the destructive invasion led by the Portuguese general Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo.

His familial circumstances were politically complex. He had two elder brothers—Kumārasinha and Vijayapāla—described in different sources as either half-brothers or step-brothers. In 1628, King Senarat sought to avert a future succession conflict by placing the names of three provinces on leaves near the Sacred Tooth Relic. The princes drew lots: Kumārasinha received Uva, Vijayapāla was granted Matale, and the youngest, Mahā Astāne, obtained the core Five Highland Provinces surrounding the capital.

Rise to Power and Consolidation (1635)

From 1629 onward, Rājasinha II had already been exercising authority as co-regent. Upon his father’s death in 1635, he assumed sole sovereignty. His accession was accompanied by the rapid neutralisation of rivals.

Kumārasinha died soon after—allegedly by poison in either 1634 or 1637—and Rājasinha annexed Uva, declining to share power with Vijayapāla. This provoked a rupture between the brothers, culminating in Vijayapāla’s defection to the Portuguese in 1641. Thereafter, Rājasinha remained the uncontested ruler of the interior.

Battle of Gannoruwa (28 March 1638)

Rājasinha II inherited a kingdom in perpetual conflict. Portuguese refusal to acknowledge Kandyan sovereignty and repeated incursions into the highlands made confrontation inevitable.

The decisive clash occurred at the Battle of Gannoruwa on 28 March 1638, the final Portuguese attempt to seize Kandy. The invasion was led by the Portuguese Captain-General Diogo de Melo de Castro, angered by the King’s negotiations with the Dutch.

Relations had further deteriorated over private disputes, including the general’s seizure of a tusked elephant and the King’s retaliatory confiscation of two Portuguese horses. Ignoring three emissaries seeking peace and deriding the King as a “blackie” who was “afraid,” de Melo advanced in March 1638 with approximately 700 Portuguese soldiers and between 5,000 and 9,000 native and foreign auxiliaries, including Indian and African mercenaries.

Finding Kandy abandoned, the invaders looted and burned its palaces and temples. Rājasinha II had intentionally evacuated the capital, drawing the enemy into a vulnerable position near the Mahaweli River. As the Portuguese attempted to retreat toward the Balana Pass, their path was blocked by a force of about 16,000 men led by Vijayapāla. Forced to camp overnight on the hill of Gannoruwa, they were denied access to the river and subjected to continuous musket and arrow fire from concealed positions, leaving them exhausted and weakened.

On Palm Sunday, 28 March, the Kandyan army launched its final assault. Rājasinha II appeared in person, wielding a golden sword and commanding that no Portuguese soldier be allowed to escape. The entire Portuguese force was destroyed or captured; of the 700 Portuguese troops, only 33 survived as prisoners. Diogo de Melo de Castro was killed in the fighting—one account claims he took his own life to avoid capture. The severed heads of the fallen were brought before the King, who observed the battle from an elevated platform, and were piled into a high pyramid. It is also recorded that no fewer than 1,000 men from Madura in South India fought alongside the Kandyan army.

This victory definitively ended Portuguese ambitions to conquer the interior.

The Dutch Alliance: “Ginger for Pepper”

Recognising that Kandy lacked naval capacity to capture coastal strongholds, Rājasinha II entered into an alliance with the Dutch East India Company. In May 1638, he concluded a treaty with Admiral Adam Westerwold, granting the Dutch a monopoly over cinnamon and other commodities in return for military support against the Portuguese.

However, discrepancies between the treaty texts created lasting friction. The Dutch version omitted a critical clause in the King’s Portuguese copy stipulating that captured forts would be garrisoned by the Dutch only with royal consent. When the Dutch refused to transfer forts such as Trincomalee and Negombo, the King realised he had “exchanged ginger for pepper”—substituting one foreign power for another. Tensions escalated, culminating in the 1646 capture and execution of Dutch commander Adrian van der Stel, whose head the King reportedly dispatched to the coast in a silk bag.

The End of Portuguese Rule and the Onset of Dutch Dominance

Despite discord, the shared objective of eliminating Portuguese power prevailed. In 1656, after a prolonged and desperate siege of Colombo, the city capitulated. By 1658, Jaffna had also fallen, bringing Portuguese rule in Sri Lanka to an end and marking the beginning of Dutch colonial ascendancy along the coast.

The Nilambé Rebellion and Internal Crisis (1664)

Domestic dissatisfaction intensified in the 1660s, with contemporary accounts describing Rājasinha II’s administration as harsh and oppressive. The rebellion centred on his court at Nilambé, located approximately 22.5 kilometres (14 miles) south of Kandy.

Five principal chiefs—Ambanvela Rāla, Halmassage Kanduru Rāla, Mahanté Appuhamy, Pallandeniya Mohottiyar, and Jayasundara Appuhamy—conspired to assassinate the King and enthrone his young son, Prince Mahā Astāne, then aged between 12 and 15. Shortly after midnight on 21 December 1664, they stormed the palace, killing several bodyguards and assassinating the First Adigar, Daldeniye Rāla.

Amid the chaos, Rājasinha II escaped to Hanguranketa (also known as Diyatilaka Nuvara) with about fifty attendants, using an elephant to clear a passage through dense forest impassable to horses. Believing the King dead or defeated, the conspirators proclaimed the Prince emperor.

However the advice of his relatives, the Prince soon changed his mind and decided to attack the rebels rather than lead them. The King’s sister fled with the Prince from the court to join the King in his mountain refuge. A nobleman named Tennakoon Rāla rallied the King’s forces and order was restored within a month.

Retribution was severe. Four of the five leaders were executed. Ambanvela Rāla was sent in chains to the Dutch at Colombo, with Rājasinha hoping they would invent “new tortures” for him, instread they treated him leniently as a potential political asset. Numerous suspected conspirators, including innocents, were executed. The King relocated his court permanently to Diyatilaka Nuvara (Hanguranketha) for greater security. Persistent rumours later alleged that he poisoned his son for suspected complicity—an accusation even repeated by observers such as Robert Knox. Perhaps the king himself was responsible for spreading this rumour in order to terrorise would be rebels.

Relations with Foreigners and Royal Policy

Rājasinha II was culturally cosmopolitan. Educated by Franciscan friars, he spoke Portuguese fluently and was conversant with European customs. He tolerated Christian practice within his kingdom, permitting over 700 Portuguese families to settle and authorising the construction of a church.

He also became known for detaining foreign visitors as “curiosities.” The most famous was the Englishman Robert Knox, captured in 1659 at Trincomalee and held for twenty years before escaping and publishing his influential account of the kingdom. Departing from local marital traditions, Rājasinha secured dynastic continuity by bringing royal brides from Madura in South India rather than marrying Kandyan nobles.

The Eventual End

In his later years, declining health limited his activity. To guarantee an orderly succession, he ended his son’s prolonged seclusion and formally invested him with royal authority.

King Rājasinha II died on 6 December 1687 after a reign of fifty-two years. He was succeeded peacefully by his son. Remembered as a ruler of formidable resolve, he preserved Kandyan independence against two European powers and left behind a kingdom that would remain free for more than a century after his death.

Ancient Manuscripts Detailing the Sovereigns of Sri Lanka

Sovereigns of Sri Lanka are chronicled in several ancient manuscripts. These texts not only record the lineages of kings but also the significant events and developments of their reigns. Some of the most significant ancient sources are:

Dipavamsa: compiled between the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, and the earliest known historical chronicle
Mahavamsa: Initially compiled by Mahanama Thero in the 5th or 6th century CE, this chronicle was later expanded upon by other authors who added additional chapters. Covers events up until the reign of King Mahasena of Anuradhapura
Culavamsa: Starts where the Mahavamsa stops and records the history of Sri Lankan rulers from the 4th century to 1815. Mahavamsa and Culavamsa are often seen as one extended chronicle, commonly referred to simply as the Mahavamsa.
Pujavaliya: Written by a monk in or around 1266 during the reign of King Panditha Parakrama Bahu of Dambadeniya Kingdom
Rajavaliya: A 17th-century historical chronicle of Sri Lanka, covering the history of the island from its beginnings up to the accession of King Vimaladharmasurya II in 1687.

References

Abeyasinghe, T. B. H. (1995). Portuguese rule in Kōṭṭe 1594-1638. In K. M. de Silva (Ed.), History of Ceylon: Volume II (pp. 123-143). University of Peradeniya.
Codrington, H. W., & Hocart, A. M. (1926). A Short History of Ceylon. Mac Millan and Co Limited.
De Queyroz, F. (1930). The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Account of Ceylon (S. G. Perera, Trans.; Vols. 3–3). (Original work published 1687)
De Silva, C. R. (1977). The rise and fall of the Kingdom of Sitawaka. The Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, 7(1), 1-43.
De Silva, K. M. (Ed.). (1995). History of Sri Lanka (Vols. 2–3). The University of Peradeniya.
Dewaraja, L. S. (1988). The Kandyan Kingdom of Sri Lanka 1707-1782. Stamford Lake (Pvt) Ltd.
Geiger, W., & Rickmers, C. M. (1929). Culavamsa: Being The More Recent Part Of The Mahavamsa: Vol. Part II–II. Pali Text Society. (Original work published 1815)
Gunasekara, B. (1900). The Rajavaliya, a Historical Narrative of Sinhalese Kings Vijaya to Vimala Dharma Suriya II. George J. A. Skeen.
Knox, R. (1681). An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, in the East-indies: Together, With an Account of the Detaining in Captivity the Author and Divers Other Englishmen Now Living There, and of the Author’s Miraculous Escape. Richard Chifwell.
Obeyesekere, D. (1911). Outlines of Ceylon history. Times of Ceylon.
Obeyesekere, G. (2022). The many faces of the Kandyan Kingdom 1591-1765. Sailfish.
Valentijn, F. (1978). François Valentijn’s Description of Ceylon (S. Arasaratnam, Trans.). Hakluyt Society. (Original work published 1724)

Predecessor		Successor
Senarat [1604-1635] -House of Dinaraja-	Rajasinghe II [1635-1687 CE] -House of Dinaraja-	Vimaladharmasuriya II [1687 – 1707 CE] -House of Dinaraja-
COMPLETE LIST OF RULERS OF SRI LANKA