258 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XX. 



On the 12th of August 1580 Dharmapala, alias Dom Joao 

 Pereapandar, by a formal deed of gift donated the whole of his 

 realms to the cardinal king Dom Henrique 1 and his successors 2 

 — a veritable damnosa haereditas, as events showed. 



The condition of affairs in the Kandyan kingdom at this 

 time also calls for notice. We have seen above that in 1573 

 the king of Kandy had dotated his son-in-law Dharmapala 

 with the suzerainty of his realm, thus virtually ceding that 

 dominion to the king of Portugal. That Raja Sinha should 

 acquiesce in such a transaction could not be expected : and 

 therefore, smarting under the renewed failure to capture 

 Columbo and his arch-enemy Dharmapala after an eighteen 

 months' siege, he turned his attention to the ruler of the hill- 

 country 3 , and marched against Kandy with a large force 4 . 

 This was apparently in 1580 5 . The two armies met at Balane ; 

 and the Kandyan monarch, being defeated, retired on his 

 capital 6 . Being pursued thither by Raja Sinha, he fled, 

 accompanied by his family and personal attendants, and 

 passing through Dumbara took his way in the direction of 

 Jaffna, and settled down at Katupana in the midst of the 

 northern j ungles 7 . From here his son and son-in-law proceeded 

 to the Vanni, apparently with the object of enlisting the 

 help of the Vaimiyans in an attempt to regain the Kandyan 

 kingdom. Both, however, died there. Finding himself 



1 This old dotard was already dead (31 January 1580) when the 

 deed was executed. 



2 See Orient, iii. 28-31, 111-3, 131-3, 193-4. In a letter to the 

 viceroy, dated 10 March 1584, King Philip mentions having received 

 this document with a letter from Dharmapala written in 1581 and one 

 from Manoel de Sousa. He also asks for a deed from Dharmapala 

 formally disinheriting his relatives, and that the people of Ceylon elect 

 him (Philip) as their king. 



3 I am uncertain as to who the king was that was reigning in Kandy 

 at this time. It may have been the Christian king Dom Joao referred 

 to by Couto in VIII. iii. and xiii. above ; but I cannot find any definite 

 statement in the various authorities. (See footnote, 1 on p. 259.) 



4 A document printed in Col. de Trat. i. (226) says that Dharmapala's 

 wife Dona Margarida wished that Raja Sinha should have to wife Dona 

 Catharina, granddaughter of the Kandyan king ; and that the failure 

 of this proposal originated the war. 



6 The same document cited in the previous note says that Raja 

 Sinha had possession of the Kandyan kingdom for twelve years : there- 

 fore, since he died in 1592, the conquest must have taken place in 1580. 



6 So says the Rdjdvaliya (89), which, after a hiatus of fifteen years 

 (see supra, p. 241, note 5 ), here once more takes up the thread of events. 



7 Rdjdvaliya 89. I cannot locate Katupana. 



