Srimara Srivallabha’s invasion of Lanka

01The chronicle’s account

The Culavamsa says that in Sena I’s time the Pandu king came with a great army and landed in the north. Many Tamils living in the island went over to him. The Sinhala army was beaten, the king fled to the hill country of Malaya, and the Pandyas entered Anuradhapura and carried off the treasures of the palace and the monasteries, including golden images. In the end Sena sent envoys, terms were agreed, and the Pandya king went home with his spoils.

02The Pandya side

The Sinnamanur copper plates of the Pandya line record Srimara’s victory over the Sinhalas among his other wars. Srimara was the most powerful Pandya of his century, but he was overreaching. In the same years he was fighting the Pallavas on the Kaveri, and a generation later the island he had plundered would send its own army to Madurai, as told in the entry on the sack of Madurai.

Dynasty · 437 BCE–1017 CE (traditional founding)Kingdom of AnuradhapuraThe first great kingdom of Lanka, ruled from Anuradhapura for some fourteen centuries. Its kings received the Dharma from Ashoka’s son Mahinda and built the great stupas, while the island’s Shaiva shrines stood on its coasts.Read →