Jaffna fell; its Tamil Hindu king fled to India, and Sapumal Kumaraya ruled the north for about seventeen years until the dynasty returned in 1467.
01The kingdom of the Aryachakravartis
From the late thirteenth century the north of Lanka was ruled by the Aryachakravarti kings, a Tamil Hindu line who called themselves guardians of the bridge to Rameswaram and put the Setu legend on their coins. Their capital was Nallur, near the Kandaswamy temple. Parakramabahu VI of Kotte, who had united the south, sent his adopted son Sapumal Kumaraya north. The Sinhala poem Kokila Sandesaya, written in his day, follows a cuckoo-messenger up the coast to Jaffna and speaks of the prince’s conquest. Kanakasuriya, the Jaffna king, escaped with his sons to the Indian mainland.
02The return of 1467
Sapumal Kumaraya governed Jaffna for about seventeen years. Tamil tradition, recorded in the Yalpana Vaipava Malai, credits him with rebuilding the Nallur Kandaswamy temple. When Parakramabahu VI died in 1467 Sapumal went south to take the throne of Kotte as Bhuvanaikabahu VI. Kanakasuriya’s son Pararajasekaram came back from India with an army and recovered Jaffna the same year. The kingdom stood until the Portuguese took it in 1619. The temple tank called Yamuna Eri at Nallur is one of the few remains of the royal city.
The conquest was the only break in the rule of the Hindu kings of Jaffna between the thirteenth century and the Portuguese conquest.