No. 55.— 1904.] ALAKESWARA : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 283 
genius in war he broke the power of the Tamil conf ederacy^ 
rescued the country from the anarchy under which it was 
groaning, purified the Buddhist church, and hurling back an 
invasion of the Chinese reduced his master, the Sinhalese 
' o 
Sovereign, to a mere figurehead and rendered himself the one 
supreme voice in the affairs of the Island. 
Owing to the unsettled state of the country the record of 
this time is very meagre, and one has to construct the life of 
Alakeswara by piecing together scraps of information 
scattered in contemporary works, of themselves of no great 
importance, but read together forming a consistent history 
of the times. Unfortunately the Chinese chronicles which 
ought to throw considerable light on the history of this 
period are not available for reference. I will, however, try 
to connect the information at hand in the form of a conse- 
cutive narrative, citing the authorities on which I base my 
conclusions in footnotes, with comment and explanation 
where necessary. 
Nissanka Alagakkonara, or Alakes waraya, as he was known 
to the men of his time, was a member of the princely house 
of the Giriwansa^^^ probably an x\ryan Kshatrya clan from 
the North which had established itself in the city of 
Kanchipura (Conjeveram). The family appear to have 
crossed over in the reign of Parakrama Bahu V. during the 
time his Minister Senalankadhikari Senevirat was erecting 
Buddhist shrines in Conjeveram, or still earlier, and to have 
received the village of Rayigama as their estate. Senalan.ka- 
dhikara Senevirat," to quote the Nikdya Sangraha^ " who 
was born of the high lineage of this king," married a sister 
of Alakeswara and left two sons by her, Vira Alakeswara, 
called after his uncle, and Vira Bahu Epa.t 
We first hear of Nissanka Alagakkonara, or Alakeswara, 
during the reign of Wikkrama Bahu III. (1356-1371), and 
even at that time he would appear to have been a chief of 
* Mhdya Sangraha^ printed edition, p. 25. 
'\ SaddharmaratnaTiara^ Museum MS., C. 12, p. ^@^c). 
