Second Kandyan War and the fall of Kandy

01A king against his chiefs

Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was the last of the Nayak line of Madurai origin that ruled from Senkadagala, the old name of Kandy. His quarrel with his own chief minister, Ehelepola, ended with Ehelepola fleeing to the British in Colombo and his family being put to death in Kandy. A first British attempt on Kandy in 1803 had ended in disaster. This time the British waited for an excuse. It came in late 1814, when merchants from British territory were mutilated on the king’s orders.

02The march into the hills

Governor Brownrigg sent columns up from the coast in January 1815, with Ehelepola marching alongside. The Kandyan chiefs, one after another, came over or stood aside. The British entered Kandy on 14 February. The king had fled; he was found hiding near Medamahanuwara a few days later and taken prisoner. On 2 March 1815 the chiefs and the British signed the Kandyan Convention, which deposed the king, placed the kingdom under the British crown and promised to protect the Buddha Sasana and the customs of the land.

03Exile in Vellore

Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was shipped to Madras and kept in the Vellore fort, where he died in 1832. His tomb still stands in Vellore. The chiefs soon found that the new masters did not mean to share power with them, and in 1817–18 they rose in the Uva rebellion, which was put down with great severity. Lanka was now under one foreign government from the coast to the hills for the first time.