The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c13.269

v1.c13.269

Not long after this Krishnappa was obliged to wage another war in Ceylon against the King of Kandy, probably to exact the tribute he refused to pay to the Empire ⁵. The *Singhala dvipa Catha* states that the Madura Nayak along with fifty-two of his Palaiyakarans embarked for Ceylon at Navapashana and landed at Manar. Before invading the Kandy territory Krishnappa sent a conciliatory message to the King demanding his tribute. But Jayawira the Sinhalese Sovereign rejected it, and despatched an army of forty thousand men under four ministers and eight governors to oppose the invaders. The two armies met at Puttalam, where the army of Kandy was defeated and routed by the general Chinna Kesava Nayaka with twenty thousand men. Among the prisoners there were two ministers, five chieftains and other influential people of Ceylon. The poem says that these captives in vain urged their King to yield. But the Kandy sovereign, collecting an army of sixty thousand Sinhalese and ten thousand Kaffirs (Portuguese?), marched against the Madura King. In the bloody struggle that ensued eight thousand Kaffirs and about as many Sinhalese were slaughtered, while the King of Kandy himself lost his life in the engagement. His corpse was taken with due honours to his capital ¹.