The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s5.23

v3.c29.s5.23

After the Tamil war the *Prabhu-rāja*, Niççaṅka Alakeçvara, and his brother, Atthanāyaka, lived for a while at Rayigama, but afterwards the *Prabhu-rāja* settled for the remainder of his life at Kōṭṭe, the city which he had himself built, where Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V also held his court, for the reason already explained. At Rayigama, the family seat of the clan, the *Prabhu-rāja’s* son, Kumāra Alakeçvara, probably assumed the reins of government in the usual course, and shortly afterwards, perhaps on the death of the *Prabhu-rāja* and his son (*c.* A.D. 1381–86), his sister’s son, Vīra Alakeçvara, became governor of Rayigama, and another nephew, Vīra-Bāhu, who had distinguished himself as a soldier, succeeded him as Āpā of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V, and lived at Gampola, but Vīra Alakeçvara, being the elder of the two nephews, challenged Vīra-Bāhu’s right to the throne of Kōṭṭe, and a civil war ensued, in which Vīra Alakeçvara was vanquished and driven from the country. It may be added that Senālaṅkādhikāra Senevirat, of the Meheṇavara clan, a close relation of the royal family, probably married the *Prabhu-rāja’s* sister. The two nephews were the issue of this marriage, and hence are referred to as scions of the Meheṇavara clan, and Vīra-Bāhu is styled *saleko* (Sinh. *suhuru-baḍu*) of Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V. It is this last reference that lends some colour to the statement in the *Mahāvaṁsa* and in the *Rājaratnākara* that Niççaṅka Alagakkōnāra became King Bhuvaneka-Bāhu V, but contemporary records, which are to be preferred, controvert this statement. On the death of this king, Vīra-Bāhu II ascended the throne of Gampola and Kōṭṭe, and reigned for about six years, from A.D. 1390 to 1396. Under his patronage another convocation of Buddhist priests, presided over by the Mahāthera Dhammakitti II, author of the *Nikāyasaṅgraha* and other treatises, was held in A.D. 1395. Vīra-Bāhu had two sons, Vijaya Āpā and Tunayesaya, but neither his fate nor theirs is known.