197th anniversary of th execution of Pilimatalavuva Maha Adikaram III:

Unsung patriot

by Ananda S. PILIMATALAVUVA

The 197th anniversary of Pilimatalavuva the Great Maha Adikaram’s execution by Royal command falls in early June; hence it is appropriate that we look back on the life of this Chieftain to see whether he was a traitor as ascribed by the English or a patriot, nationalist and unrecognised and unsung hero of Sinhale.

Pilimatalavuva Maha Adikaram III was the third son of a family of Kandyan Chieftains descended from an old established family of Sinhale coming down from the time of Panduvasdeva, and served the kings of Sinhale from ancient times.

They had also imbibed royal Pandyan blood by assimilation through marriage with South Indian nobility of North Indian origin who arrived in the Kandyan kingdom during the reign of Sri Vira Parakrama Narendrasimha of Kundasale. His father and elder brother had both served as Maha Adikaram of the kingdom before him.

He was elevated to the post of Pallegampaha Maha Adikaram in 1790 by King Rajadhi Rajasimha. On the death of this king he used his power and prestige to enthrone Kannesamy the late king’s sister-in-law’s son who was not in line of succession, instead of Muttusamy the late King’s brother-in-law, purely with the secret patriotic motive of replacing him at a suitable opportunity and establishing a Sinhala dynasty to replace the Vadugas of South India.

During the reign of King Kirthi Sri Rajasimha he built the inner sanctuary of the Sri Dalada Maligava which an invader had left in ashes; in 1801 he built the Asgiri Aluth Vihara also known as Vijesundararamaya after him, close to the Parana Vihara (Meda Pansala) built by his father in 1766.

He has been described as “portly and well looking, a man of great power and intrigue” by Robert Percival who accompanied Major General Macdowall’s embassy in 1803, and by Tennant as “one of the most illustrious nobles boasting their descent from the Royal line of Ceylon.”

The Adigar’s commendable trait was his love for his country and his wish to have a Sinhala to rule over Sinhale. Although there were many of the Bandara Valiya suitable to occupy the throne, they all shared a failing in that no one would allow another to rise higher than himself.

This inherent jealousy and weakness among the aristocracy, and the fact that the Nayakkar dynasty under Kings Kirthi Sri Rajasimha and Rajadhi Rajasimha had identified themselves closely with the Kandyan national interest and religion, skilfully blending the Nayakkar dynasty into the Kandyan background, had convinced him that no Kandyan Sinhala Radala could ascend the throne without outside assistance.

Hence he adopted the strategy of placing his own man on the throne to await a favourable opportunity to restore a Sinhala line.

Pilimatalavuva the great Adigar, was King Sri Vickrama’s benefactor; the king in gratitude allowed him to exercise all powers of the throne for some time, while he retained only the pomp of regal office. Sometime after the death of Meegastenne Udagampahe Adikaram in 1806, the king divided the administration of the Disavanni of Sath Korale between Ehelepola and Molligoda.

As this was against custom and previous practice and involved payment of additional taxes the people objected and a formidable uprising resulted; using his powers and prestige Pilimatalavuva restored order on condition that the Disavanni was divided between him and his son-in-law Ratvatte Devamedde Nilame.

The king was pleased, but this happy situation changed with the stories of the Adigar’s intrigues with the English Governor and his negotiations to dethrone him coming to his ears, besides there were serious differences of opinion between them over rajakariya labour and governance.

The king wanted to beautify the city with a lake and pattirippuva to be built by ‘forced labour’, while the Adigar and his council saw no need for another lake as they already had two lakes, the Bora Veva and the Bogambara Veva unless it was to be used to asveddumise more land for paddy cultivation by the people.

The king now also entertained thoughts of shifting the Asgiriya and Malvatta monasteries from Kandy to Peradeniya on the outskirts of the city.

The four Devales were also earmarked to be moved out of the city to enable him to transform the temple square into a palace yard; and he was suspected of wanting to convert the government into a Hindu Saivite one based on the Laws of Manu in place of the Dasa Raja Dharma which Sinhala Buddhist kings pledged to observe.

In addition to these two major differences of opinion there were many more which grew wider between the king and his adigar. These being the bringing in of Malabars at an average of about seventy per month from South India on the sly, as immigrants to be trained as soldiers, and the establishment of a harem with young girls mainly from South India who had not even attained age.

Hence to weaken the authority of the chieftains the king adopted a policy of divide and rule by splitting and dividing the Disavannies and appointing members of new families to these offices and transferring the old frequently from district to district to undermine their power.

He also objected to the proposed marriage of the Maha Adikaram’s son to Mampitiya Vahala Bandara’s daughter as Vahala Bandara was the son of late King Kirthi Sri Rajasimha, by a commoner wife.

In this situation the king’s Nayakkar relations took advantage of the weakening Radala and lent them large sums of money thereby making the Radala more and more indebted to them. The increase in the mercenaries from South India and the additional Tamil supervisors for rajakariya work required more funds for the treasury.

To meet this situation additional unpopular taxes such as the Marala (death duty) were re introduced, burdening the people. The recipients of new appointments were also called upon to make increased payments.

Besides these indignations, King Sri Vickrama unlike his two predecessors who were respected for their beneficient rule and support of the indigenous religion openly encouraged Saivaite Hindu customs and the slaughter of goats near the precincts of the Dalada Maligava for the consumption of the royal household and their relatives.

This provoked disgust of the Sinhala Buddhists and their Sangha, and set in motion the process of alienating both the chiefs and common people from the King.

In this background the Adigar engaged himself in regular negotiations with Mr. Boyd the Secretary and Frederick North the English Governor at Avissavella, about a possible embassy to Kandy to sign a suitable treaty.

Hence the Adigar recommended an English embassy to Kandy under General Macdowall to which the king readily agreed. However this embassy of 1800 was a failure, but the Adigar continued his negotiations with Governor North, to achieve his long term objectives for the kingdom.

Taking advantage of minor dispute as an excuse for war the English under General Macdowall and Colonel Barbut set off from Trincomalee with an expeditionary force of about 3000 men in early 1893.

The king evacuated the city but the English troops followed him and his party to Hanguranketa, and found the king and his party had left; hence the English tried to waylay the kings forces and were destroyed at Wagolla in the confrontation that ensued. Macdowall soon realised that the expedition to Kandy was ill advised and he had fallen into a cunning trap set for them by the Adigar and was forced to negotiate with him at Dambadeniya.

As the Adigar continued to negotiate with the English the king progressively became wiser and stronger to act against him. Therefore he deprived him of his powers and deposed him from office sometime after mid 1893. The Adigar sojourned in Saparagamuva during this period and came back to Kandy when he heard the king was afflicted with smallpox and regained his confidence, position and power.

The Adigar while in disgrace had continued to plan the king’s removal. As he found the English now had different ideas to his, he decided to act on his own by bringing the Javanese mercenary guards to assassinate the king and revolt before inviting the English to enter Sinhala and establish a Sinhala dynasty with Mampitiya Bandara the son of King Kirthi Sri Rajasimha and his commoner wife as king.

The plot unfortunately failed as the king was found to be awake when he was expected to be asleep, and Yatinuvara and Udunuvara rose prematurely. The charge levelled against him this time was a serious one.

Sri Vicrama craftily arranged a trial before a court of chieftains. The court sat for three days with the king as judge and the chiefs as jurors at the great Audience hall. As the charges were clear the chiefs forced the king to pronounce his own judgement. The king was willing to pardon the Adigar once again provided, he took an oath never to act against his government.

To everyone’s surprise the chieftain brimming with patriotism responded by refusing to take the oath and saying he did not plan to hurt the king but only to rescue his beloved country from mismanagement.

It was obvious that his resolve to free the country of King Sri Vicrama’s misrule and the entrenched Vaduga dynasty was so overpowering that he preferred death at the hands of the executioner than taking an oath not to work against him and be pardoned.

Immediately in anger the king ordered his execution and he was taken to the Kumara Hapuva at the foot of Bahiravakanda where members of the nobility were executed.

The great Chieftain is supposed to have tested the sword and told the executioner “I possess the will to make such use of this blade, that in a few minutes all the king’s officers will be prostrate on the ground, but I know to respect law and order.”

The Adigar was executed in early June of 1811 and his remains cremated at the family cremation grounds at Alakolange now Pilimatalava. Thus passed away the once powerful chieftain who stood for the protection of the people and was looked upon as the only man who could have brought King Sri Vickrama Rajasimha to his senses.

Judging from the various opinions expressed on him by the early writers and his negotiations with D’Oyly, Boyd and Governor Frederick North, it is obvious Pilimatalavuva, who was also referred to as ‘Deveni Rajjuruvo’, was a chieftain of great power, intrigue and consummate statecraft.

Intellectually, a wise and shrewd tactician with rare negotiation skills and superior in oriental diplomacy; there was really none other in the court circles to match him. Due to his intelligence and skill in manipulating persons and forces he was able to obtain for himself from the monarchs numerous offices ranging from Muhandiram to Pallegampahe Maha Adikaram ranking only next to the king, culminating in a peak of over twenty offices held simultaneously from as early as 1798.

Naturally this superior personality, nationalist and patriot who entertained a long term and risky objective of restoring a Sinhala dynasty in place of the South Indian Vaduga Nayakkars, attracted the jealousy of some of his own chieftains who secretly scurried favour with the king without boldly supporting him in this urgently needed national and patriotic endeavour to establish a truly Sinhala dynasty.

Some of the early historians who wrote through a British point of view, even tended to refer to him as traitorous, treacherous and unprincipled not appreciating that his ultimate goal was a Sinhala dynasty devoid of the alien South Indian Vadugas.

Hence, he could well be described as the first Sinhala nationalist and patriot of the nineteenth century and his rightful place in history must now be reviewed, revised and rehabilitated and established for all time. We cannot and should not forget that as the price of this noble cause he paid with his own life.

(Source - “Pilimatalavuvas In The Last Phase of the Kandyan Kingdom”Revised Edition a Stamfordlake publication to be released shortly).