CiiAP. XII.] FATE OF THE SINGHALESE MONARCHY. 



413 



at Maliagam ^, and tlience to Jaffiiapatam, every pro- a.d. 

 vince in the island was brought under subjection to their l-ll- 

 rule. 



The peninsula of Jaffna and the extremity of the island 

 north of Adam's Bridge, owing to its proximity to the 

 Lidian coast, was at all times the district most infested 

 by the Malabars. Jambukola, the modern Colombogam, 

 is the port which is rendered memorable in the Maha- 

 icanso by the departure of embassies and the arrival of 

 rehcs from the Buddliist countries, and Mantotte, to the 

 north of Manaar, was the landing place of the innumer- 

 able expeditions which sailed from Chola and Pandya for 

 the subjugation of Ceylon. 



The Tamils have a tradition that, prior to the Christian 

 era, Jaffna was colonised by Malabars, and that a Chohan 

 prince assumed the government, a.d. 101, — a date wliicli 

 corresponds closely with the second Malabar invasion 

 recorded in the Maliawanso. Thence they extended then* 

 authority over the adjacent country of the Wanny, as far 

 south as Mantotte and Manaar, " fortified their frontiers 

 and stationed wardens and watchers to protect them- 

 selves from invasion." ^ The successive bands of ma- 

 rauders arriving from the coast had thus on every occasion 

 a base for operations, and a strong force of sympa- 

 thisers to cover their landing ; and from the inability 

 of the Singhalese to offer an effectual resistance, those 

 portions of the island were from a very early period 

 practically abandoned to the Malabars, whose de- 

 scendants at the present day form the great bulk of its 

 population. 



After an interval of twenty years, Wijayo Bahu III., a.d. a.d. 

 1235, collected as many Singhalese followers as enabled ^^^^' 

 him to recover a portion of the kingdom, and estabhsli 

 himself in Maya, within which he built a capital at Jam- 

 budronha or Dambedema, fifty miles to the north of the 



1 Sq/avaU, 257. 



^ See a paper on tlie early History 

 of Jaflfiia by S. Casie' Chitty, 



Jow/ud of the Royal Asiat. Soviet ij of 

 Ceylon, i8-47, p. QS. 



