The Anuradhapura Kingdom - VI

The Anuradhapura Kingdom - VI

Contiued with part five   here to go previous one

Confronted by the frightening prospect of a Coja hegemony over South India, the Sinhalese in a remarkable but totally understandable reversal of policy threw their weight behind the Pandyas in a desperate attempt to sustain them as a buffer state between the expanding Cola empire and Sri Lanka. A Sinhalese army was sent to South India in 915 in support of the Pandyan ruler Rajasimha II against the Colas, but to little effect, for Parantaka I (907-55) inflicted a crushing defeat on the Pandyans whose king now fled to Sri Lanka carrying with him the Pandyan regalia. The Cojas never subdued the Pandyan terri¬tories as completely as they had the Pallava kingdom. The Sinhalese now had to face the wrath of the victors, for whom the desire and need to capture the Pandyan regalia was an added impetus to a retaliatory invasion of Sri Lanka. There were other compelling political reasons as well: the Sinhalese kingdom was a threat to the security of the southern frontier of the Coja empire, as a refuge for defeated Pandyan rulers and as a base for potential invasions of the mainland. In short, the consolidation of Coja power in the Pandyan kingdom was incomplete so long as Sri Lanka remained independent. Apart from these, there was the prospect of loot, of control over the pearl fisheries of the Gulf of Mannar, and the gems for which the island was famous, as well as its trade.

Up to the middle of the tenth century, the Coja military expeditions to Sri Lanka were in the nature of brief but destructive incursions, and once the immediate objectives of the missions had been achieved the Coja armies withdrew to the mainland. Under Rajaraja the Great (983-1014), however, the Cojas embarked on a more aggressive and ambitious programme of conquest which brought the Sinhalese kingdom under their direct rule: the Rajarafa, the heartland of the Sinhalese kingdom, was attached to the Cola empire. Mihindu V, who ascended the throne in 982, was the last Sinhalese king to rule at Anuradhapura. He was captured by the invading Colas in 1017 and died in captivity in South India. The conquest of the island was completed under Rajaraja’s son Rajendra. The southern parts of the island slipped out of Coja control within a short time, but Rajarata continued to be ruled by the Colas as a mandala or province of the Cola empire. The mandala was subdivided into verandas (which were mostly named after Cola royalty), nadus and urs.

A more significant and permanent change introduced by the Colas was the decision to shift the capital from Anuradhapura to Polonnaruva a move determined, in this instance, by considerations of security. The Mahavali itself afforded some protection to this city. The main threat to the Colas in the Rajarata came from Rohana, and Polonnaruva was well placed to guard against invasions from that quarter since it lay near the main ford across this river which an invading army from Rohana needed to force. Within a few years of Rajendra’s completion of the conquest of the island, Rohana became the center of a protracted resistance movement against the Colas. There was opposition to them in the Rajarata as well. Early attempts at dislodging the Colas by organizing raids from Rohana had foundered badly, partly on account of divisions among aspirants to the Sinhalese throne, and the Colas were able occasionally to recruit support for themselves from among local notables in Rohana. The particularism for which Rohana was notorious was the greatest obstacle to a concerted bid to expel the Colas from the island.

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