The Ming–Kotte war

01The Galle stone

On an earlier voyage, in 1409, Zheng He had set up a stone at Galle with inscriptions in Chinese, Persian and Tamil, recording gifts to the Buddha, to Allah and, in the Tamil text, to Tenavarai Nayanar, the Vishnu of the great temple at Dondra on the southern tip of the island. On his return in 1410–11, Ming records say, Alakeshvara tried to seize the fleet. Zheng He marched inland while the Sinhala army was away, stormed the capital and took Alakeshvara and his family.

02Kotte after

Alakeshvara was taken to Nanjing and later released, but he did not regain power. The Ming court approved a new ruler, and within a few years Parakramabahu VI took the throne of Kotte, ruling for more than half a century and briefly uniting the whole island, including Jaffna. The Galle stone, rediscovered in 1911, is now in the Colombo National Museum, a record of Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim worship side by side.