A.D. 1410.It was during this period that an event occurred, which is obscurely alluded to in some of the Singhalese chronicles, but is recorded with such minute details in several of the Chinese historical works, as to afford a reliable illustration of the condition of the island and its monarchy in the fifteenth century. Prior to that time the community of religion between Ceylon and China, and the eagerness of the latter country to extend its commerce, led to the establishment of an intercourse which has been elsewhere described[1]; missions were constantly despatched charged with an interchange of courtesies between their sovereigns; theologians and officers of state arrived in Ceylon empowered to collect information regarding the doctrines of Buddha; and envoys were sent in return bearing royal donations of relics and sacred books. The Singhalese monarchs, overawed by the magnitude of the imperial power, were induced to avow towards China a sense of dependency approaching to homage; and the gifts which they offered are all recorded in the Chinese annals as so many "payments of tribute." At length, in the year 1405 A.D,[2], during the reign of the emperor Yung-lo[3] of the Ming dynasty, a celebrated Chinese commander, Ching-Ho, having visited Ceylon as the bearer of incense and offerings, to be deposited at the shrine of Buddha, was waylaid, together with his followers, by the Singhalese king, Wijayo Bahu VI., and with difficulty effected an escape to his ships. To revenge this treacherous affront Ching-Ho was despatched a few years afterwards with a considerable fleet and a formidable military force, which the king (whom the Chinese historian calls A-lee-ko-nae-wih) prepared to resist; but by a vigorous effort Ho and his followers succeeded in seizing the capital, and bore off the sovereign, together with his family, as prisoners to China. He presented them to the emperor, who, out of compassion, ordered them to be sent back to their country on the condition that "the wisest of the family should be chosen king." "Seay-pa-nea-na"[4] was accordingly elected, and this choice being confirmed, he was sent to his native country, duly provided with a seal of investiture, as a vassal of the empire under the style of Sri Prakrama Bahu VI.,—and from that period till the reign of Teen-shun, A.D. 1434-1448, Ceylon continued to pay an annual tribute to China.
1: See [Part v. ch. iii.]
2: The narrative in the text is extracted from the Ta-tsing-yi-tung, a "Topographical Account of the Manchoo Empire," written in the seventeenth century, to a copy of which, in the British Museum, my attention was directed by the erudite Chinese scholar, Mr. MEADOWS, author of "The Chinese and their Rebellions." The story of this Chinese expedition to Ceylon will also be found in the Se-yih-ké-foo-choo, "A Description of Western Countries," A.D. 1450; the Woo heo-pecu, "A Record of the Ming Dynasty," A.D. 1522, b. lviii. p. 3, and in the Ming-she, "A History of the Ming Dynasty," A.D. 1739, cccxxvi. p. 2. For a further account of this event see [Part v. of this work; ch. iii.]
3: The Ming-she calls the Emperor "Ching-tsoo."
4: So called in the Chinese original.
From the beginning of the 13th century to the extinction of the Singhalese dynasty in the 18th, the island cannot be said to have been ever entirely freed from the presence of the Malabars. Even when temporarily subdued, they remained with forced professions of loyalty; Damilo soldiers were taken into pay by the Singhalese sovereigns; the dewales of the Hindu worship were built in close contiguity to the wiharas of Buddhism, and by frequent intermarriages the royal line was almost as closely allied to the kings of Chola and Pandya as to the blood of the Suluwanse.[1]
1: Rajavali, p.261, 262. In A.D. 1187 on the death or Mahindo V., the second in succession from the great Prakrama, the crown devolved upon Kirti Nissanga, who was summoned from Calinga on the Coromandel Coast. On the extinction of the recognised line of Suluwanse in A.D. 1706, a prince from Madura, who was merely a connection by marriage, succeeded to the throne. The King Raja Singha, who detained Knox in captivity, A.D. 1640, was married to a Malabar princess. In fact, the four last kings of Ceylon, prior to its surrender to Great Britain, were pure Malabars, without a trace of Singhalese blood.
A.D. 1505.It was in this state of exhaustion, that the Singhalese were brought into contact with Europeans, during the reign of Dharma Prakrama IX, when the Portuguese, who had recently established themselves in India, appeared for the first time in Ceylon, A.D. 1505. The paramount sovereign was then living at Cotta; and the Rajavali records the event in the following terms:—"And now it came to pass that in the Christian year 1522 A.D., in the month of April, a ship from Portugal arrived at Colombo, and information was brought to the king, that there were in the harbour a race of very white and beautiful people, who wear boots and hats of iron, and never stop in one place. They eat a sort of white stone, and drink blood; and if they get a fish they give two or three ridé in gold for it; and besides, they have guns with a noise louder than thunder, and a ball shot from one of them, after traversing a league, will break a castle of marble."[1]
1: Rajavali, Upham's version, p. 278.