King Mayadunne
King Mayadunne (1501–1581) reigned for 60 years in the Kingdom of Sitawaka, from 1521 to 1581. Mayadunne was a fierce enemy of the Portuguese who arrived in the country in 1505. He dedicated his entire life to dethroning his brother Buwanekabahu, the king of the Kotte Kingdom, and thereby protecting the freedom of Sri Lanka, which was suffering due to Portuguese conspiracies. He frequently launched invasions against the kingdom of his brother, Buwanekabahu.
Early Life
Mayadunne was born in 1501 in the city of Kotte, located in the Kingdom of Kotte. He was the son of Vijayabahu VII, who ruled Kotte from 1509 to 1521. Mayadunne was the youngest son of Vijayabahu VII and his chief consort. Buwanekabahu and Raigama Bandara were his brothers. Buwanekabahu reigned in the Kingdom of Kotte from 1521 to 1551.
The Wijayaba Kollaya (Spoiling of Wijayabahu)
The Wijayaba Kollaya is a historical event that occurred in 1521, where the three sons of the King of Kotte (King Vijayabahu VII) rebelled against their father, killed him, and divided the kingdom among themselves. King Vijayabahu VII had three sons from his first marriage: Buwanekabahu (later King Buwanekabahu VII of Kotte), Pararajasinghe (later Raigama Bandara), and Mayadunne (later King Mayadunne of Sitawaka). The king’s second wife, Kirawelle Bisawa, had a son named Devaraja from her first marriage. When the princes learned that the king, at the request of his second queen, had decided to name Devaraja as the crown prince, they turned against the king. The king was assassinated inside the palace by a hired foreigner. This event is known as the Wijayaba Kollaya.
Reign and Struggles
After Mayadunne played a leading role in the Wijayaba Kollaya against his father, Buwanekabahu began to suspect him and maintained close relations with the Portuguese, who had built the Colombo Fort in 1517. Before long, Mayadunne received significant popular support from the chiefs and people of the country who disapproved of Buwanekabahu’s cooperation with the Portuguese. Although Mayadunne led several invasions against the Kingdom of Kotte, Buwanekabahu, with Portuguese assistance, repelled the Sitawaka forces back to Sitawaka. In the initial phase of these battles, Mayadunne received aid from the Kingdom of Calicut in India against the Portuguese. Realizing that Mayadunne would one day pose a great threat to their territory, the Portuguese wished to kill him. However, Buwanekabahu did not allow them to fully manage the invasions against Sitawaka.
Several years after the death of Raigama Bandara in 1538, Mayadunne annexed the Kingdom of Raigama to Sitawaka. From this point on, conflicts between Sitawaka and Kotte rapidly escalated. During this period, when the Buddhist monks in charge of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kotte realized that the Portuguese were hostile towards Buddhism, they secretly took the Relic to Sitawaka and placed it under Mayadunne’s protection. According to local tradition, whoever possesses the Sacred Tooth Relic has the right to the throne of all kingdoms in Sri Lanka. As Mayadunne’s popularity quickly spread throughout the country, growing as much as King Buwanekabahu’s, King Buwanekabahu and later King Dharmapala had to increasingly rely on Portuguese assistance. Due to Mayadunne’s frequent invasions against Kotte, many territories belonging to Kotte had to be annexed by Sitawaka. As Kotte’s local support dwindled, the Portuguese automatically became its protectors. This transformed the conflict between Kotte and Sitawaka into a conflict between Sitawaka and the Portuguese.
The Sinhala–Portuguese War and the Battle of Mulleriyawa
Mayadunne and the Kingdom of Sitawaka played a significant part in the Sinhala–Portuguese War, which sought to remove the Portuguese from the country. During this period, the most severe defeat suffered by a European nation in the East was recorded here. Mayadunne and his son fought against the Portuguese in the Battle of Mulleriyawa, achieving victory and revealing the power of Sitawaka. At that time, they were strong enough to pose a major challenge to the Portuguese. The opportunity for the Portuguese to control the entire island slipped away.