Veediya Bandara: The Warrior Regent

The career of Veediya Bandāra (also known as Tribulē Bandāra, Trivia Bandāra, or Vidiya Bandara) stands among the most dramatic and influential in the history of sixteenth-century Sri Lanka. Celebrated as “the greatest Sinhalese captain of all time,” he served as Senāpati (Commander-in-Chief) of the Kotte forces, son-in-law of King Bhuvanaikabāhu VII, and father of the last ruler of Kotte, Dharmapāla. Portuguese chroniclers, including the Jesuit priest Fernão de Queyroz, branded him “one of the greatest enemies of the Portuguese nation and of the Faith of Christ.”

Royal Lineage and Early Childhood

The ancestry of Veediya Bandāra is presented differently across the principal chronicles. According to the Rājāvaliya, his father was a Soli (Chola) prince from South India who married a daughter of Taniyan Vallaba (Taniya Walla), the sub-king of Mādampē. Other traditions, including the account of the historian Fernao de Queyroz, identify him as the son of Komeriada Bandāra, a prince of royal blood who had married Kapuru Lamā Etani, a niece of Bhuvanaikabāhu VII. These connections placed Veediya Bandāra firmly within the Savulu dynasty, closely linked to the ruling family of Kotte.

He was raised in an atmosphere of shared kingship and military expectation. Among his siblings, the most notable was his younger brother Tammița Sūrya Bandāra, also known as Tammita Sembahap Perumāl, who later became an important adviser at court. Contemporary Portuguese observers described Veediya Bandāra as a man of exceptional physical power and an intimidating appearance, marked by large eyes and a fierce temperament. A darker legend claimed that in his youth he killed his own father with an arrow after being reprimanded, and thereafter hunted tigers and challenged elephants to demonstrate his strength.

Rise to Power: The Road to Kotte

Veediya Bandāra’s rise to prominence in Kotte politics was secured around 1538 CE through his marriage to Princess Samudradévi, the only child of King Bhuvanaikabāhu VII. Since the king lacked a male heir, the marriage was of immense political importance.

Initially, the king had favored Jugo Bandāra, a popular prince descended from the ancient Anurādhapura dynasty. However, Samudradévi chose Veediya Bandāra, who eliminated his rival by stabbing Jugo Bandāra to death shortly before or after the marriage. Although Bhuvanaikabāhu was angered by this act, the senior ministers and the revered monk Buddhavansa Thera persuaded him to accept Veediya Bandāra as son-in-law in order to strengthen the kingdom against the growing threat of Māyādunnē of Sītāwaka.

In 1538, he wed Samudradévi, only to later order her death after suspecting her of infidelity with a Portuguese soldier.

Following the marriage, Veediya Bandāra was appointed Senāpati (Commander-in-Chief) of the Kotte army. In the same year, 1538, Samudradévi gave birth to their son Dharmapāla Asthāna, whom the king designated as his successor.

Political Role and Military Defence of Kotte

As Senāpati, Veediya Bandāra became the principal defender of Kotte against the expansionist ambitions of Māyādunnē. In mid-1538, sensing the danger posed by Veediya Bandāra’s growing authority, Māyādunnē launched a major campaign with naval support from a fleet sent by the Samorin of Calicut. The capital was besieged, and Veediya Bandāra led a determined defense, forcing Mayadunne to retreat.

His methods were notoriously harsh. He is said to have attacked enemy populations rather than armies, burning villages along the Sītāwaka frontier and forcing inhabitants into the jungle. This reputation for terror became embedded in popular memory, and folk songs recorded that mothers frightened children into silence by invoking the name Vidiya Kumāraya.

In 1543, Veediya Bandāra was sent to the central highlands to subdue the King Jayaveera Astana of Kandyan Kingdom, who had stopped paying tribute. By rapid forced marches, he avoided Sītāwaka forces and launched a decisive assault on Senkadagala Nuwara (Kandy). The Kandyan army was defeated, and Jayaveera ’s elder brother was installed as a loyal tributary. During this period, Veediya Bandāra also distinguished himself in a midnight attack in 1547 that repelled a joint invasion of Kotte by the forces of Jaffna (Chaga Rājā) and Māyādunnē.

The Regency and the Conflict with the Portuguese

The decisive shift in Veediya Bandāra’s fortunes followed the death of Bhuvanaikabāhu VII at Kelaniya in 1551, when the king was shot by a Portuguese soldier in what was officially described as an accident. After the monarch’s death, the twelve-year-old Dharmapāla was crowned, and Veediya Bandāra became regent.

Although this arrangement was initially accepted by both the Portuguese and the Kotte nobility, relations soon deteriorated. The Portuguese Viceroy, Dom Affonço de Noronha, regarded Veediya Bandāra as a serious obstacle to control over Dharmapāla.

In the years that followed, Veediya Bandāra adopted an openly hostile position toward both Christianity and the Portuguese, systematically destroying churches, convents, and schools wherever he encountered them. He formally notified the Portuguese authorities in Colombo that the tribute previously paid by the Emperor of Kotte to the King of Portugal would be terminated with immediate effect. Although a temporary truce was later concluded, under which Veediya Bandāra agreed to rebuild the demolished churches, the Portuguese continued to regard him with deep suspicion.

Ultimately, they resorted to deception, drawing Veediya Bandāra into their custody without engaging in open warfare and confining him within the fortress of Colombo.

The Great Escape and the Anti-Christian Crusade

In 1553, Samudradévi organized a dramatic escape for her husband. She bribed guards and employed labourers (pallaru) to dig a tunnel beneath the prison walls, enabling Veediya Bandāra to flee into the Rayigam Korale. After his escape, he renounced his nominal association with Christianity and launched a violent campaign against both Portuguese authority and Christian converts. Churches were destroyed, and converts were killed along the southwestern coast, particularly at Galle, Beruwala, and Weligama.

He established his base at the fortified city of Pelenda in the Pasdun Korale, claiming to be the rightful regent and protector of the Buddhist faith. Taking the title Tullaráyakanda Anganvira, he gathered thousands of Sinhalese followers hostile to religious persecution. For a short time, he even allied with his former enemy Māyādunnē, marrying his daughter after the death of Samudradévi.

The Battle of Pelenda and the Great Betrayal

By 1555, Māyādunnē realized that Veediya Bandāra did not accept his supremacy and intended to revive Kotte as an independent power. Consequently, Māyādunnē formed a temporary alliance with the Portuguese to eliminate him.

Their combined forces, led by Māyādunnē’s son Tikiri Bandāra (later Rājasinha I) and Portuguese veterans under Wickramasinha Mudali, besieged Pelenda. The stockade at Molkāva fell, and despite Veediya Bandāra’s legendary bravery, including his charge with the famed white shield and spear, his army was overwhelmed.

After a prolonged and hard-fought battle—one that came close to ending in defeat for Tikiri Bandāra—Veediya Bandāra retreated to Devundara with approximately six thousand supporters, abandoning the rest of his fourteen-thousand-strong force to confusion and collapse. The capture of Pelenda Nuwara followed shortly thereafter. Over the course of two days, Tikiri Bandāra and his Portuguese allies methodically dismantled the once-powerful stronghold, seizing two war elephants, several cannon, and even a massive cauldron filled with coins.

The Fall: Exile and the End in Jaffna

Veediya Bandāra’s final years were spent as a fugitive. He sought refuge in Kandy, but King Karalliyaddé Bandāra expelled him under threat from Māyādunnē. He then moved to the Seven Korales, where he was welcomed by King Edirimanna Sūrya. However, he plotted with an arachchi named Vēlāyudha to murder his host and seize power, provoking a swift invasion by Rājasinha I that forced him to flee once more.

In desperation, he travelled via Puttalam to the kingdom of Yāpāpatuna (Jaffna), seeking asylum from King Sańkili. While camped near Tārakulama (Thamaraikulam) in 1555, he entered into an agreement to attack the Portuguese. During a religious festival at a temple, probably in Nallur, an accidental explosion of gunpowder occurred. Suspecting treachery, Veediya Bandāra drew his sword within the sacred precinct, triggering a violent clash. In the ensuing struggle, he and his son Vijayapāla were killed by Sańkili’s soldiers. His accumulated treasure, including a relic believed by the Portuguese to be the Sacred Tooth, was seized by the Jaffna king.

Legacy

Veediya Bandāra remains one of the most controversial figures in Sinhalese historical tradition. While the chronicles condemn his betrayals and brutality, he is also remembered as the most formidable local opponent of Portuguese domination in the mid-sixteenth century. Later legends claim that the people of Jaffna, fearing his spirit, built a temple in his honour and effectively deified him. His death marked the end of independent military leadership in Kotte, leaving the kingdom fully subordinated to Portugal.

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