Siege of Trincomalee (1639)

01A fort on Koneswaram’s rock

Koneswaram, the temple of Shiva on the headland at Trincomalee, is praised in the Tevaram hymns of Sambandar and Sundarar and counted among the holiest shrines of Lanka. In April 1622, on the Tamil new year, Constantino de Sá had it plundered and thrown down, and its stones were used to build a fort across the headland. Seventeen years later that fort was the next target of the Dutch–Kandyan alliance after Batticaloa.

02The Dutch take it

In May 1639 a Dutch fleet landed troops at Trincomalee while Kandyan forces closed in by land. The Portuguese garrison was small and could not be relieved, and the fort was taken. Rajasinha had hoped the Dutch would hand the coastal forts to him, but they kept them as security for the cost of the war, the beginning of a long quarrel. Koneswaram was not rebuilt on the rock until the 20th century, after temple images were found buried nearby in 1950.

Person · 7th century CETirugnana SambandarSambandar of Sirkazhi began to sing at three, after Mata Parvati fed him the milk of wisdom, and in sixteen years sang the hymns that fill the first three books of the Tirumurai. He brought the Pandya king of Madurai back to the worship of Shiva.Read →