The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c10.4

c10.4

The evidence of the *Mahāvaṃśa* confirms in some measure the statement in the Pāṇḍya grant regarding the conquest of Ceylon.¹ According to that chronicle there was a Pāṇḍya invasion of Ceylon during the reign of the Singhalese king Sēna I. The Pāṇḍyan victory in the battle fought at Mahatalita was complete ‘and the army of king Pāṇḍu spread destruction all over the land’. The Singhalese king fled from his capital and took refuge in the Malaya country. Prince Mahinda, the ‘sub-king’ committed suicide and was followed by others in this act and prince Kassapa, after an exhibition of personal valour, also fled. The Pāṇḍya forces took possession of the capital, carried away a large amount of booty ‘and made Lanka of none value whatsoever’ and eventually the Pāṇḍya king entered into a treaty with the fugitive king of Ceylon restoring the country to him. After this, the chronicle records a counter-invasion of the Pāṇḍya country by the Singhalese in the reign of their next king Sēna II. And this throws some light on the Māyāpāṇḍya, the Pāṇḍya pretender of the Pāṇḍyan inscription. When Sēna II was preparing for counter-attack on the Pāndyas, ‘it came to pass that at that very time a prince of the royal family of Pāndu was come hither, having formed a design to overthrow that kingdom because he had been ill-treated by his king’ (li. 27). Sēna II allied himself with the rebel Pāndya prince and invaded the mainland and succeeded in besieging the very capital of the Pāndyas. The king of the Pāndyas ‘fled from the field of battle on the back of an elephant, and gave up his life in the wrong place. And his queen also died with him at the same time’ (li. 38). ‘The Singhalese took possession of the city, crowned the Pāndya prince who had sought their help and returned to Ceylon with a large amount of booty including the treasures carried away by the Pāndyas when they invaded Ceylon’ (Venkayya).