Kalinga Magha - The Rise of Dambadeniya

The Rise of Dambadeniya

It was during this time that the centre of native power on Lanka began to shift to the south. During Magha's reign the chief priests of Pulatthinagara took two of Rajarata's most sacred relics - the Buddha's alms bowl and the sacred Tooth Relic - and 'on the mountain Kotthumala in a safe region...buried both the relics carefully in the earth and so preserved them'. This was not the first time this had happened; it was, however, to be the last, as neither was ever returned to the north.

Resistance to the invaders began to coalesce around a series of inaccessible towns and fortresses constructed in the mountainous interior of Sri Lanka. The fortress of Yapahuwa was one of the first of these, founded by the Senapathi (nobleman) Subha; another was Gangadoni, founded by the general Sankha, barely 15 miles ('two yojanas') from Magha's capital. From these places the various nobles 'gave as little heed to the infamous army of the Ruler Magha, though...as to a blade of grass and protected without fear that district and the Order '.

The man who eventually emerged as the leader of the resistance was Vijayabahu III, who the chronicles identify as a descendant of Sirisamghabodhi (242-244 or 251-253), a king of Rajarata, though it is possible that the relationship was through marriage. He appears to have spent an extended period of time in 'inaccessible forest' avoiding the forces of Magha. Sometime in the 1220s however he drove the Tamil and Kalinga forces from Mayarata (Dhakkinadesa) and established his capital at Jambudhoni (Dambadeniya). Vijayabahu's most emphatic statement of authority however was the recovery of the two sacred relics (around 1222), which he paraded through the lands he controlled and invested in a freshly constructed temple.

Vijayabahu's reign was largely spent reconstructing the shattered Buddhist infrastructure of the Sinhalese in Mayarata, and indeed many of the religious traditions he established were to last into modern times. Occasionally raids into Kalinga-controlled territory were mounted, but it was not until the reign of is son, Parakramabahu II(1234-1267) that a concerted effort was made to drive the invaders out.

Soon after his accession the Culavamsa describes how the King 'set about subjugating by the power of his majesty and by the might of his loving spirit...the forces of the foe in Lanka'. It would appear however that Magha had by this point either died or been deposed, as the chronicles make no mention of him taking part in the wars between Parakramabahu and the Kalinga. Instead it names two Damila kings, Mahinda and Jayabahu, as having established fortifications in Polonnaruwa; both are, in due course, defeated by the resurgent forces of Dambadeniya. Magha does not re-appear in the historical record; his fate remains a mystery.