Sri Lanka Journal of Sociology

Vol-01 - 2019
ISSN 2706-008X

On Mundukondapola: Resurrecting the History

of a Defunct Kingdom
Gananath Obeyesekere1

Abstract

We are all familiar with our classic texts written in Pali, most notably
the various versions of the Mahāvamsa. However, there were many
small kingdoms not mentioned in the Mahāvamsa that were dominated
by local rulers owing allegiance to one of the larger kingdoms such as
Kotte, Sitavaka and Kandy. This paper discusses one such kingdom
known as Mundukondapola, a small kingdom owing allegiance to
Kotte. Mundukondapola used to stretch from near Kurunegala to the
border of the Portuguese-held territory in Chilaw (Halavata). We
believe that such small kingdoms existed everywhere owing fealty to
one of the larger kingdoms. Unfortunately Mundukondapola is not
marked in current maps and it is our hope that scholars would be
tempted to document similar small kingdoms elsewhere in our nation.

Keywords: classical texts, history, defunct kingdom, Mundukondapola

This article should be cited as: Obeyesekere, G. (2019). On

Mundukondapola: Resurrecting the History of a Defunct Kingdom.
Sri Lanka Journal of Sociology, 1(1): 02-16.

1 Gananath Obeyesekere, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, is at Princeton

University.
Email: sekere@princeton.edu
 Sri Lanka Journal of Sociology - 2019

In this paper, I attempt to bring back historical knowledge

in relation to an important kingdom in the Kotte period but, alas,
forgotten nowadays. Many of us have been seduced by the classic
Pali texts relating to the Mahāvamsa as well as Sinhala texts such as
the Pūjāvaliya, written in around the 13th century, but we seem not to
know, or willing to ignore or neglect the many hundreds of popular texts
dealing with the history, geography and politics of the nation, at least
from around the 16th century, if not earlier. These are known as vitti
pot, “books on events,” kadaim pot, books dealing with the boundaries
of the nation, and bandaravaliyas, dealing with the genealogies of
aristocratic families as well as accounts of “small kingdoms,” posing
a challenge as well as providing a mine of information for sociologists
and historians interested in these little-known realities from the
nation’s past. We are all familiar with the Kotte period but we also
know that within the confines of that period there were other kingdoms
in competition with it, most conspicuously Sitavaka (and for a while
Rayigama), and of course the kingdom of Kandy. There was also an
independent kingdom in Jaffna and by at least the end of the sixteenth
century much of the eastern sea board, at least south of Batticaloa, owed
formal suzerainty to the Kotte kings and later the Kandy kings after
Vimaladharmasuriya I (1591-1604). We are deeply indebted for much
of this information to the pioneer work of H. A. P Abhayawardhana, and
also the Sinhala historical traditions of the Kandy period documented
by P. M. P. Abhayasinha and the many Sinhala scholars influenced by
them.
Although virtually unknown to us today, Mundukondapola
was an important small kingdom in the Kurunegala period whose
boundaries stretched from around Kurunegala up to the borders of the
Portuguese held territory on the west coast near Chilaw (Halavata).
This boundary was also important for later Lankan kings right up
to the reign of the last king Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, deposed by the
British in 1815. Although an unrealistic aspiration, Sri Lankan kings
believed that all the territories encompassing the island was part of
the Tri Sinhala, and this applied to the kingdom of Kotte. However,
one must not be deluded by contemporary notions of political
geography because within the larger kingdom, be it that of Kotte or
later of Kandy, there were small kingdoms owing formal suzerainty to
Kotte or Kandy. Thus, we know from good evidence that during the
period of Vimaladharmasuriya I there was a small kingdom in the East
3
 Gananath Obeyesekere

Coast, south of Batticaloa, controlled by a local chief or rajah owing

allegiance to the Kandyan king, and we have wonderful evidence of the
daughter of that rajah (a remarkable woman and one of the co-wives
of the Kandyan king), leading a Dutch embassy from the Batticaloa
area to Bintanna-Alutnuvara, the alternative capital of the Kandyan
kings, from where other foreign embassies also stayed on their way
to the capital in Kandy. Similarly, with Mundukondapola ruled by
local kings owing fealty to Kotte and acting on behalf of the larger
kingdom. Etymologically speaking, Mundukonda is the rounded top-
knot worn by male yogis and hence Mundukondapola means “a place
in the shape of a top-knot” that neatly designated its location, namely,
a huge mound that rises from the town controlled by members of a
clan that traces their descent from a king (among other “kings”) and
designated as Irugal Bandara, and, as always, owing fealty to the king
in Kotte or later in Kandy.
It is Paul E. Pieris who first gives us insight into Mundukondapola
that he describes as a secluded hollow of a few acres but apparently
secure from enemies. “A majestic ring of stone encircles the great
hollow; here and there rising thirty or forty feet from the surface, large
caves afford a dry and secure retreat in times of peril. Artificial piles
of stone helped to strengthen the natural depression in this majestic
rampart, while the approach from the village of Kirimune lies over
rugged ground hemmed in by enormous boulders. The entrance is
through a tunnel formed by a rock, rising near a hundred feet in height,
and resting against the great mass by its side” (Pieris, 1992, p. 340)1.
Pieris refers to a Brahmi inscription carved over a thousand years
earlier, which states that one of the caves belonged to the monks of the
four quarters (the standard Buddhist statements implying a donation to
the monks of the universal Buddhist order) but in later times used as a
guard post. “The top of the main rock, which can also be approached
by means of some steps hollowed out in the surface of the stone, is
a position of extraordinary strength, every approach being carefully
protected by artificial works; and a handful of men posted here could
hold a much stronger force at bay for an indefinite time. Even if the
entrance were forced, the enemy would have to proceed through a
passage a few feet broad between the main rock and the perpendicular
side of an immense cube of stone, as smooth and as straight as if
1 The source of Pieris’ information is not clear but it is certain that he had
visited the spot himself.
4
 Sri Lanka Journal of Sociology - 2019

prepared by a mason’s chisel, where they could be easily overwhelmed

from above”(p. 340) . None of the maps we have consulted have a
listing for Mundukondapola nor is there a place known as Nātaganē
marked in current maps, and so are some towns close to our site, such
as Variapola. Mundukondapola itself is in the Kurunegala district in a
location known as deva mädi hatpattuva, “the seven districts encircled
by gods or devas.” My assistants, H. G. Dayasisira and Nandana
Weeraratne and I have visited Mundukondapola and can confirm
its difficulty of access and vouch for Pieris’s account, including his
finding old Brahmi inscriptions, still extant. Pieris adds that this was
the place where the chiefs had placed their families and their treasures
in troubled times, particularly during the Portuguese incursions into
this region. Unfortunately, Mundukondapola was not invulnerable
because it was destroyed by a Portuguese expeditionary force in April
1596 or 1597, and it never recovered from that onslaught (De Queyroz,
1992, pp. 516-17).
In its last days, the ruler of the city was known as Edirisuriya
but as with similar sites we are confronted with the usual problems
of interpretation. The Alakeśvara Yuddhaya (circa middle or late 16th
century) as well as the standard version of the Rājāvaliya mentions a
rāja known as Edirimanansuriya “of the Irugal race, who at that time
ruled the Seven Korales and resided in the city of Mundukondapola,
which he had built for himself in Devamedda of the Seven Korales”
and was supported by the party of the god Irugal (Gunasekara, 1900, p.
72). We will have more to say about this site later, but for now names
such as Edirisuriya refer to the powerful suriya (“sun”) lineage that
traced its origin from the myth of the god Irugal Bandara, a descendant
of the Sun, albeit not to be confused with the better known Suriya
lineage of the Buddha as well as that of Manu. For much of the time,
the Irugal Bandaras were the rulers of the Seven Korales, a long line
stretching from Kurunegala down south to the Portuguese controlled
coastline dominated by Christian settlers but as always owing formal
allegiance to Kotte.
A descendant of the Irugal Bandaras appears in the crucial stage
of our saga involving Vidiye Bandara, the father of King Dharmapala
of Kotte and a key figure in the politics of the Kotte and Sitavaka
kingdoms in the mid-sixteenth century. In this account, I will not deal
with the complicated background history of Vidiye Bandara, but for
now mention his fleeing with his son Vijayapala in order to escape
5
 Gananath Obeyesekere

from Rajasinha I and his father Mayadunne ruling from Sitavaka. In

1552 he sought the help of his close kinsman, Edirimannasuriya (a
classificatory brother to him) and ruler of Mundukondapola. Vidiye
had earlier agreed to marry his son Vijayapala to a sister of the ruler.
This we know is his younger son because the older son (the future king
Dharmapala) was being groomed by Bhuvenekabahu VII as his heir and
was living in the palace of the king. Vidiye Bandara defied all canons
of hospitality when he ordered his cousin Edirimannasuriya killed and
then tried to establish himself as ruler of the Seven Korales, fortifying
and “making himself master of the palace, house, and the treasure of the
prince.” “This tyrant seeing himself in power and master of Urungure
[Irugal nuvara] determined to get possession of the whole of the Seven
Corlas [kōrales], which was a large dominion, and in which neither the
Portuguese nor Madune (Mayadunne) could do him harm, it consisting
entirely of high mountains and narrow and difficult passes” (Do Couto,
1909, p. 175)2 But because the population was incensed at Vidiye’s
treachery, neither the Portuguese nor Rajasinha I had any difficulty in
penetrating this fastness. Vidiye was compelled to flee to Jaffna with
his son Vijayapala and both were killed during a skirmish with a Jaffna
chief (pp. 176-177).
Diogo do Couto’s account in his History of Ceylon I have
just recorded is pretty much confirmed in the Sinhala account in the
Rajāvaliya. It confirms that Edirimannasuriya gave permission to
Vidiye Bandara to reside in the neighboring village of Bogoda, a mile
from the base of the mountain range of Nathagane (nātaganē) and there
Vidiye sowed discontent between his troops and those of the king. This
led to a fight and when the king Edirimannasuriya (aka Edirisuriya)
interposed to quell the fight, he was killed on Vidiye’s orders by one of
his henchmen, Velāyudha Ᾱracci (who soon after was impaled by the
troops of Rajasinha I when he recaptured that kingdom) (Suraweera,
2000, pp. 80-81).
After Edirimannasuriya’s death another king by that name took
his place. This is the famous, or infamous, Domingos Correa. The life
2 This work has been edited and translated by Donald Ferguson as The Histo-
ry of Ceylon from the Earliest Times to 1600 AD as related by Joao De Barros
and Diogo do Couto, in JRAS, CB, Vol. XX, no, 60, and first published in the
Government Press, 1909, and reprinted 1993.
Do Couto, Diogo. 1909 (1993). History of Ceylon.

6
 Sri Lanka Journal of Sociology - 2019

and work of this man is found in Fernao de Queyroz, The Conquest of

Ceylon and in this case Queyroz had it right because the Portuguese
knew him well. Domingos Correa was born around 1565 and raised in
Colombo as a Catholic in a family of “Colombo Modeliares of renown.”
The wicked character of Domingos was emphasized by Queyroz,
especially a failed attempt to kill his father and an apparent fantasy of
marrying one of the many wives of Rajasinha I ( De Queyroz, (n.d)).
Domingos had friends and relations among the Portuguese; his sister
was married to one of them and two of his cousins were also married
to Portuguese men. In his early career, he served Vidiye Bandara’s
son, Dharmapala aka Don Juan (1551-1597) later to become the first
Christian king of Kotte. Domingos served his Portuguese allies well
and was given the cognomen or nickname “Mal degolado” or “the ill-
beheaded” owing to his valor and brutality. In recognition of those
dubious virtues he was also given the title of “Bicarna Singa,” that
is, vikramasinha, “the warrior lion,” commander of the local soldiery
known to us now as lascars or lascarins. He was especially favored
by the Captain-General, Don Jeronimo de Azevedo (1594-1612) who
entrusted him to engage in warfare with the Prince of Uva, the son
of Vimaladharmasuriya of Kandy (1591-1604). But on 17 November
1595 at age 30 he changed sides, and became an implacable enemy
of the Church. That morning, says Queyroz, he fled to Atulugama (in
Rayigam Korale) to be crowned there (although we are not told how
such a crowning was possible) (p. 500). He changed his name to Idrila
Bandara (sic Edirille Bandara) and was “soi disant King” (p. 510).
As a deadly foe of the Portuguese, Edirille Bandara, alias Domingos
Correa, invented, says Queyroz, “new forms of cruelty” such as cutting
off the noses of Portuguese captives or their right hands while he threw
some elephants at them and these animals would hurl the victims up in
the air. Contrary to Queyroz, these forms of cruelty were practiced in
good measure by the Portuguese themselves. Domingos Correa burnt
churches, just as the Portuguese did in respect of Hindu and Buddhist
temples, and bragged about such actions. In armed conflicts of this
sort, then and now, the brutality of the one side is mimicked by the other
such that the burning and destruction of shrines and torture as well as
the cruel modes of execution mirrored each other’s realities. A beautiful
example (if one wants to call it that) comes from the Portuguese writer,
Ribeiro, from his own experience in Sri Lanka, when around 1654 he
mentions that the normal process of war with Kandy “was to cut off the
7
 Gananath Obeyesekere

heads of all on both sides.” Yet Ribeiro adds a qualifier, namely, that
in the previous year the Kandyan king (Rajasinha II) had decided “not
to kill the Portuguese who had been captured in battles, assaults or by
their bagueas [brigands?] but to bring them to him alive without killing
them” (Ribeiro, 1948, p.178). This was not from altruistic motives
because the Kandyan kings always planted foreigners in their territories
as servants, informants and curiosities; and perhaps to impress on
the local population the prowess of their sovereign. Earlier, around
1652, Ribeiro had already given us a fine example of the custom of
killing enemies under the leadership of the Portuguese captain, Gaspar
Figuera de Cerpe, exemplifying what might be called “the magic of
large numbers”3 “In this encounter our men cut off the heads of more
than three thousand, the rest escaping through the thick forest or each as
he could”( p.163). On the Kandyan side these numbers are matched in
the various haṭan kavi that celebrated their triumph over their enemies.
Violence in war carries with it a relentless incremental dialectic, the
one side, in reality or in fantasy, mimicking and outdoing the other.
To get back to Domingos Correa: pursued by the Portuguese
commander de Azevedo, Domingos Correa fled to Kandy and was
welcomed by the king who, in addition to vast properties endowed to
Domingos by him, also “gave him the kingdoms of Cota [Kotte] and
Ceytavaca [Sitavaka],” the latter an easy but meaningless endowment
because these kingdoms were at various times under the control of
Dharmapala (and the Portuguese) and Mayadunne and his son,
Rajasinha I (De Queyroz, (n.d)). Not to be outdone in his seeming
generosity, the king gave Domingos in marriage to the beautiful
daughter of Vidiye Bandara, Prince of the Seven Korales who resided
in the Kandyan court. This does not refer to the Vidiye Bandara
mentioned earlier or that of Pilasse Vidiye Bandara, another important
figure in those times, because both those personages by now were
dead. This forces us to bear in mind that the term “Vidiye Bandara” is
not a personal name but a title given to a chief or a notable personage in
charge of the four “streets,” the conventional term given to the control
of the main streets of a city and their resources. We know that after
Domingos Correa died he was succeeded by another member of the
same dynasty and it is not improbable that this person also had the
title Vidiye Bandara. It is likely that owing to the constant wars in the
3 I borrow this term from my friend Arjun Appadurai, Fear of Small Num-
bers, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006
8
 Sri Lanka Journal of Sociology - 2019

Seven Korales, the young woman married to Vidiye Bandara was in

the court of Kandy and moreover, in my opinion, was a relative of its
king, Vimaladharmasuriya, who belonged to the same suriya dynasty
as the latter part of the king’s name (sūriya) signifies. The marriage to
the second Vidiye Bandara’s daughter was celebrated in grand style,
described at length in Queyroz and neatly summarized by Paul E.Pieris
(Pieris, 1992, p.303)4 . “The grandees of the kingdom assembled from
all parts in their festive robes. Very early in the morning there appeared
at the gate of the palace three caparisoned elephants, covered with cloth
of silver and gold, accompanied by a magnificent palanquin inlaid
with ivory and gold; in the last went the princes while the new king
rode on the middle elephant wearing a crown of gold laid on his head.
On the two sides rode two of the great Mudaliyars of the court, one
carrying a white sesat, with which he kept off the sun, while the other
with a chamara [fly-whisk] drove off the flies which are the invariable
companions of elephants. The princess went first accompanied by her
chief maids of honor (sic), and the perahera, with its endless line of
musicians and dancers, made the circuit of the city, halting at the chief
temple in its progress. The happy occasion was further marked by a
lavish distribution of titles ….” This account gives us a rare insight
into the kinds of ostentatious displays of Kandyan kings on special
occasions.
Domingos was made king of the Seven Korales, and
was conferred the title of the former king of Mundukondapola,
Edirimannasuriya Bandara, all these honors being given to him by
Vimaladharmasuriya himself. The marriage to Vidiye Bandara’s
daughter was very likely to legitimize Domingo’s claim to the vast
district of the Seven Korales that included the important districts of
4 “The grandees of the kingdom assembled from all parts in their festive robes.
Very early in the morning there appeared at the gate of the palace three ca-
parisoned elephants, covered with cloth of silver and gold, accompanied by a
magnificent palanquin inlaid with ivory and gold; in the last went the princes
while the new king rode on the middle elephant wearing a crown of gold laid
on his head. On the two sides rode two of the great Mudaliyars of the court,
one carrying a white sesat, with which he kept off the sun, while the other with
a chamara [fly-whisk] drove off the flies which are the invariable companions
of elephants. The princess went first accompanied by her chief maids of hon-
or, and the perahera, with its endless line of musicians and dancers, made the
circuit of the city, halting at the chief temple in its progress. The happy occa-
sion was further marked by a lavish distribution of titles ….”
9
 Gananath Obeyesekere

Kurunegala, Dambadeniya and Madampe. For purposes of convenience

I will label him “Domingos Edirimannasuriya.” It is not clear whether
Domingos Edirimannasuriya, the adopted scion of Irugal Bandara,
lived like his predecessor on Mundukondapola itself or whether he
lived somewhere down below in Bogoda or in the larger district of
Devamädda or elsewhere in the Seven Korales.
Domingos Edirimannasuriya’s fame and good fortune was
short lived. His mortal enemy was Dom Fernando, alias Samarakon
Rala, a highly able and disciplined Sinhala officer, loyal to Dharmapala
and the Portuguese. This was in 1596, when Samarakon Rala was in
Udunuvara and Domingos Edirimannasuriya came upon him with a
large army but he was routed. Queyroz mentions that most of his army
was destroyed but Domingos managed to escape and sought shelter in
a poor woman’s hut. There he was given food but the woman betrayed
him to the Portuguese who captured him and brought him to Colombo in
heavy chains and escorted by Samarakon Rala. De Azevedo, a greedy
man, delayed the execution for forty days hoping to get information on
the treasures Domingos Edirimannasuriya had supposedly amassed, but
to no avail. What is interesting is that knowing his death was imminent,
Edirimannasuriya apparently reverted to his former name as Domingos
Correa and, under the influence of the Catholic priests returned to his
old faith. Or so we are told, although that did not help him much, at
least politically, even though he might have been “saved.” According
to Queyroz, Edirimannasuriya, alias Domingos Correa, made a long
public confession: “the enormity of my sins, that if I had a hundred
lives, with them all I should not be able to pay for the least of my
sins.” He asked a general pardon from all for his wickedness. And in
the memorable European style of the time, he suffered the fate of those
guilty of treason when he was quartered on 14 July, 1596. “Forthwith
his hands were cut off, and afterwards his head, and his body quartered
and placed in public places …where it remained for some days till the
boys played their games with his skull” (Queyroz, F. (n.d)). Quartering
was common practice in Europe at this time and especially meted
out to traitors and it is analogous to the Sinhala and Indian custom
of impaling criminals and traitors, though the latter punishments were
much less brutal and less theatrical than quartering (Obeyesekere,
2005)5 . Nevertheless, these kinds of brutalizing spectacles are found in
5 For a discussion of quartering see my chapter “On quartering and canni-
balism and the discourses of savagism,” in Gananath Obeyesekere, Cannibal
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 Sri Lanka Journal of Sociology - 2019

many places, the most dreaded and well-known to all us is the Roman
custom of crucifixion, followed in similar spirit to the public fear of
the terrifying intimations of brutality expressed in some forms of the
Inquisition. So is it with mutilated bodies left on the road, a spectacle
to create terror and practiced with impunity then and in our own sad
times of a few years back. A beautiful example (perhaps not such a
beautiful one) is recorded by Diogo do Couto about the actions of a
Portuguese ex-captain, Antonio Moniz Barreto, who had “a sudden
and fortunate idea” namely, “to cut off the legs of the modeliar whom
they held prisoner, who was a leading personage; and to leave him
on the road, in order that the enemy should occupy themselves with
him, which they did” (Do Couto, 1909, p. 130). Such kindnesses were
everywhere in those unkind times.
Domingos’s brother, Simao Correa, had joined him to become
a Kandyan warrior and in recognition of his successes against the
Portuguese he was conferred the title of Edirimannasuriya Bandara by
Vimaladharmasuriya, that is, he also became an adopted scion of Irugal
Bandara of the sūriya dynasty (De Queyroz, 1992, p. 516). It was
however only a title because he did not actually rule the Seven Korales.
Later, long after the death of his brother and his retraction, and I suspect
owing to the guilt he felt in betraying the faith of his parents, he also
reverted to Catholicism, rejoined the Portuguese, became a doughty
warrior on their behalf, and died along with Constantine de Sa and
most of the Portuguese army in the famed battle of Randenivela. As for
the beautiful wife of Domingos Edirimannasuriya, one can only hope
that she eventually formed a happier marriage, a difficult proposition
in those harsh and brutal times. The standard Rajavaliya has a much
more simplified version of the events following the death of Domingos
Edirimannasuriya. “Thereafter, Dharmapala reduced the low-country
to subjection, seized the family of Edirillerala [Domingos], and, having
put the males to death, took the women and Edirillerala’s younger
brother and sent them to Goa” (Suraweera, 2000, p.95).
After the death of Domingos Edirimannasuriya, the prince
of the Seven Korales, in Portuguese accounts, was known as Ithukal
Bandara (Irugal Bandara), sometimes referred to as Jatuapala and
Sotopala (probably Jotipola or Sotopala Bandara), without doubt
a member of the same Irugal lineage. My guess is that this person
Talk: The man-eating myth and human sacrifice in the South Seas, Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2005, 223-54.
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 Gananath Obeyesekere

also had the cognomen of Vidiye Bandara and it is his daughter who
married Domingos. Because of the defeat of the more famous Vidiye
Bandara who was a kinsman of his, Jotipala/Sotopala/Irugal seemed to
have harbored a hatred for Rajasinha of Sitavaka and was a supporter
of the Kandyan king Vimaladharmasuriya. According to Queyroz,
Jotipala, “refusing to bear the oppression of that Tyrant [Rajasinha I]
… at once came to the Portuguese Captain, begging his support as
a vassal of King D. Joaō [Dharmapala]” (De Queyroz, 1992, p.443).
A large Portuguese force assisted by Jotipala’s followers, routed
Rajasinha’s army and “Raju abandoned for the while the attempt on
the Seven Corles [korales]”(p. 444). Rajasinha, apparently undeterred
by current adversity, later attacked the Seven Korales with a great
deal of violence, “killing those who were concerned in the rebellion
of Jatupala Bandara,” who then fled to Mannar where he was baptized
as Don Manoel. However, on the death of Rajasinha he returned to
the Seven Korales and became “a great enemy of the Portuguese,”
beautifully illustrating the pragmatic and unstable nature of some of
these conversions and alliances. Queyroz adds with some belated
insight that this “usually happens when one receives Baptism out of
respect, force, or self-interest”(p. 444).
The Portuguese accounts of the later Jotipala are flimsy, but we
do know that he was back in the Seven Korales, probably residing at
Mundukondapola. King Vimaladharmasuriya of Kandy persuaded him
to attack the Portuguese in the lands now in their control, very likely
the Four Korales, part of the old Kotte kingdom. Unfortunately, the
Portuguese Captain [de Azevedo] soundly defeated him and destroyed
much of Mundukondapola in 1596. The Captain “seeking out the Prince
of the Seven-Corlas, he attacked him with such determination that he
took to a shameful flight through the woods, the Portuguese going in
pursuit….” (p. 516). Jotipala still remained a liege of the king of Kandy
and assisted the prince of Uva, oldest son of Vimaladharmasuriya, in the
wars against the Portuguese, the most important being the Portuguese
attack on the Seven Korales, under two redoubtable captains, the
Portuguese Simao Pinhao and the famed Sinhala general, Samarakon
Rala aka Dom Fernando. Paul E. Pieris who discusses these events
mentions that Samarakon Rala was popular with the people of
Devamädda in the Seven Korales. Unfortunately, a smallpox epidemic
created havoc in the camp and Sotopala/Jotipala established friendly
relations with Samarakon, but with the ulterior intention of killing
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 Sri Lanka Journal of Sociology - 2019

him. Jotipala sent five hundred of his men with bundles of treated
palm leaves that were used as tents by the Portuguese. Samarakon
suspected a plot and found arms concealed under the palm leaves (pp.
547-48). He killed all Jotipala’s men. Jotipala/Sotopala made another
attempt to attack Samarakon, but this too failed. Unfortunately, nothing
further is known about Jotipala aka Irugal Bandara in the Portuguese
sources. The Sinhala sources are also silent regarding this interesting
character (Pieris, 1992, pp. 343-48). As far as we know there were
no more rulers of the Irugal lineage in the Seven Korales, but they
remained a powerful and influential clan. Their clan name persists to
this day among their purported descendants while the sūriya cognomen
itself went into popular usage evident in such names as Jayasuriya and
Amarasuriya and dozens of imitations6 . We know however that the
son of a fisherman and a “renegade Christian” became the ruler of the
Seven Korales as Kuruvita Rala, the dread of the Portuguese as well as
that of Senerat of Kandy. He was killed in 1620 7.
6 We are now reminded of another imposter in the scene at Mundukondap-
ola. His rule was even shorter and I will simply refer to him with his baptis-
mal name as Manuel Gomez, a handsome, fair-complexioned native of Goa,
a captain of the Moorish lascarins. He also deserted the Portuguese army
with a few lascarins and made his way to our now famed fortress in the Seven
Korales. He rejected his Christian faith, gave up his Goanese identity (how he
passed the language barrier is not known), bored his ears and let his hair grow,
and pretended he was a Brahmin, a ruse that Sinhalas easily fall prey to. The
local chiefs angry with the Portuguese supported him, put him in command
of a thousand men and conferred on him the title of Vikramasinha Mudaliyar,
although it is not clear whether he was given the designation of Edirimanna-
suriya. He was a brutal terrorist who plundered the villages in the area. He
had some initial successes with the Portuguese but he was eventually captured
and beheaded. “The populace of Colombo accompanied the head in proces-
sion till it was placed on a pillory, there to be exposed to public ridicule.” See
Pieris, Ceylon and the Portuguese, vol. 1, 354. I am indebted to Pieris for this
account of Manuel Gomez. The reader should note that it was during this pe-
riod, c. 1600, that the Portuguese razed to the ground the famed Hindu shrine
of Munnesvaram although it was later repaired. The disavani of Devamadda
continued to be occupied by Kandyan chiefs, the last being Ratvatte Disava
who was executed by Sri Vikrama Rajasinha in 1811 or 1812 for treason.
7 Antonio Barreto aka Kuruvita Rala was one of the most remarkable per-
sons to emerge during the Portuguese period and surely foremost leader to
emerge from a coastal fishing community, very likely of the karava caste. He
was a lascarin in the Portuguese army under the commander Samarakon Rala
13
 Gananath Obeyesekere

How does one interpret the significance of the several

Edirimannasuriyas, some of them known even in the time of
Parakramabahu II (1236-1270)? There seems to be several Edirisuriyas
or Edirimannasuriyas at Devamadda-Mundukondapola in the
Seven Korales, all belonging to the lineage of Irugal Bandara, a god
propitiated in several villages in the Kurunegala District, in the Vanni
and in Bintanna, and perhaps beyond that in some villages in Uva and
Vellassa. He is one of the many Bandara gods, most of them deified
ancestors, but Irugal Bandara was an especially powerful figure and the
head of the lineage of the rulers of Mundukondapola. A well-known
myth recorded in the Kurunegala Vistaraya and elsewhere, says that
Irugal Bandara’s father was the sun and his mother Biso Bandara was
born of long-leaved dunuke flower (Pandanus foetodus), outside of
normal bodily processes (known in Buddhist and Sinhala literature as
an opapatika birth). In this case the likely mythic scenario is that the
sun impregnated the dunuke flower. The myth also says that the prince
obtained milk from a stone, the name Irugal, literally meaning “sun-
stone.” It adds that when Irugal was ruling in Mundukondapola he
brought down his queen mother from Kurunegala and that he stopped
the sun’s movement, a feat attributed to other notable kings in Sinhala
myth. Because of Irugal’s connection with the sun, his descendants
were given the title suriya or sun. Some of Vidiye Bandaras who appear
in this text also belonged to the lineage of Irugal and might have had
but, according to Father S.G. Perera he fell out with Samarakon and killed his
brother Dom Manuel Mudaliyar and became a foe of the Portuguese. “He
mastered the two Portuguese disawanis of Sabaragamuwa and Matara and
made Kuruwith his headquarters” and hence his name Kuruvita Rala. Sener-
at made him commander of his forces and afterwards made him Prince of Uva
“while his nephew was made admiral of the Kandyan fleet according to Bal-
daeus. He was at Dona Catherina’s bedside at the time of her death and was
entrusted by her with the guardianhip of her children, along with the Dutch-
man Marcellus de Bochouwer (Bald. 692-694).” When Senerat made peace
with the Portuguese 1617 Barreto, with the support of Kandyan chiefs “rose
against the king, drove him away from his capital, sacked the palace, and unit-
ing the rebels, Kangara Arachchy, the pretender Nikapitiya and the Vanniyars,
in a general rising against the Portuguese, invited Mayadunne from India to
become king of Kandy” and the failure of this plan is found in Kostantinu
Hatana. The Mayadunne here is a descendant of the great Mayadunne and a
cousin of Dona Catherina.” He ended up in India after the failure of his plans.
See pp. 29-32 in Kotantinu Hatana, S.G. Perera’s translation. For Barreto’s
caste see Paul E. Pieris, 1: 384n, 1. For details of his death see PEP, 2:133.
14
 Sri Lanka Journal of Sociology - 2019

ritual roles in the cult of Irugal. We mentioned earlier that the Buddha
as well as Sinhala kings (and many South Indian kings) claimed solar
descent, but what we have here is a new myth of solar origins from a
minor dynasty that did not have to compete with established royalty.
The Sitavaka Hatana in verse 838-39 refers to Edirimannasuriya,
the ruler of Mundukondapola, as a cousin of the Vidiye Bandara who
betrayed him thus: “That king [Vidiye Bandara] took leave, went out
of that city and went to Sat Korale, where he met the king Ediriman
Suriya. That king who descended from the lineage of Irugal royal
line was ruling in the city of Demada-Undakondapola [Devamädda
Mundukondapola].” In verse 842, he is referred to as “king Suriya”
and in 926 as “King Irugalsuriya.” But just as “Irugal” could be affixed
to any person belonging to the same clan, so could “suriya” or the
combination “Irugal-suriya.” Irugal’s descendants sometimes have ediri
as part of their name. Ediri means “wrathful” or “vengeful,” perhaps
another attribute of the deity Irugal. When the Alakēśvara Yuddhaya
says that Edirimannasuriya belonged to the “party” of Irugal, it meant
he was a direct or indirect descendant of the deity. Note that although
several chiefs among Veddah hunters had Irugal as part of their name,
they did not usurp the title suriya, which seems to have been a signature
of the direct descendants of the god; or those descendants who were
viewed as royalty. The case of Domingos Edirimannasuriya indicates
that one could be adopted by the party of the god and thus legitimized.
Further, it is entirely possible and likely that there were many more of
the “party” of the god prior to the ones mentioned in our texts, but we
have no idea how far back we can push this genealogy.
Conclusion
This paper brings back historical knowledge in relation to an
important kingdom in the Kotte period primarily though the sources
other than the most commonly used historical-mythological texts.
Mundukondapola was an important small kingdom in the Kurunegala
period. Although a very small kingdom, Mundukondapola lasted for
a long time with allegiance to the Kotte king or the Kandyan kindom
until it was destroyed by the Portuguse in 1596 or 1597. Like the
larger and more known kingdoms of the period, Mundukondapola too
experienced internal strife and had no escape from power struggles.
The rulers of these kingdoms had their good times but suffered
indescribable brutalities at the hands of the Portuguese when they were

15
 Gananath Obeyesekere

pursued and conquered. The study of this kingdom brings to light not
only the interesting but cruel skirmishes between those loyal to the
large kingdoms and the Portuguese but also the pragmatic and unstable
nature of some of these alliances. The chiefs changed their loyalties
and even religion to suit the circumstances. The Irugal Bandara lineage,
people who belong to a particular clan in Kurunegala, was an important
feature of the existence of Mundukondapola.

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