Jaffna headmen

Who he is

Name

not named in any source we reached

Title

Tamil-speaking headmen and port officers of the peninsula

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

The population is Tamil-speaking and Hindu with Buddhist remains (Kandarodai, called Kadurugoda in the chronicles).

Confidence

low

The English Wikipedia on the Jaffna kingdom says the Aryacakravarti kingdom 'began in 1215' and does not say who held the peninsula before; the Chola link it gives is general. We found no source that gives a ruler of the peninsula on 1 January 1200.

Overlord

Queen Lilavati, loosely (the Sinhalese kings held the north after the Chola were expelled about 1070)

What it holds

• The Jaffna peninsula and its ports (Jambukola, Uraturai/Kayts)
• Mannar island and the shoals of Adam's Bridge
• Mahatittha (Mantai), the old port, in decline
• Kandarodai and the Buddhist ruins
• The pearl banks of the north-west shore (crown property)

How it was acquired

By the expulsion of the Chola in the 1070s and the Sinhalese kings' loose lordship since; the local headmen hold by custom.

Allies and rivals

Trade ties with the Pandya coast and the Coromandel; rival to the Vanni chiefs for the road tolls.

How things stand that morning

A Tamil country under a distant and divided Sinhalese state. When Polonnaruwa's coups go badly the headmen have room to act; the pages we reached give no act for 1199-1200.

Wealth

Pearls, palmyra produce, customs on the strait, rice on the peninsula's thin soils, and the Mannar trade.

Military

Local levies and port craft; no number.

Threats

• A Pandya or Chola seaborne claimant
• Famine after the Chola delta's famine (July 1200) pushes refugees across the strait (the famine itself is reported only in the brief and the campaign board's calendar)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1215 (outside 1200)The Aryacakravarti dynasty is dated from here; Magha's army uses the north as a base.Depends on: The fall of Polonnaruwa. Stopped by: A strong Sinhalese state.

Places of note

• Kandarodai (Kadurugoda): Buddhist ruins of the peninsula.
• Uraturai (Kayts): Ferry port on the island of Kayts.
• Mantai (Mahatittha): The old port on Mannar; by 1200 in decline (the date of the decline is not pinned).

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment asks who holds Jaffna and the Tamil north. Our answer: no kingdom of Jaffna in 1200; the Sinhalese crown holds it loosely through customs and port officers; the headmen are unnamed.
• The gazetteer holds Jaffna at 9.67,80.01; the campaign board puts the peninsula at 9.7,80.1: accepted.
• The campaign board uraturai-kayts and kandarodai are minor points; the campaign board puts Kandarodai at Chunnakam, not in the gazetteer.

Evidence: Absence of evidence for 1200; the 1215 date is the one fixed point.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Drawn as the peninsula alone; Mannar and the Vanni coast are in the Vanni block and the Rajarata outline.

Primary sources for Lanka (Polonnaruwa)

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Lesser Chronicle (the continuation of the Mahavamsa), Dhammakitti and later monks of the Mahavihara tradition (the first continuation about the 13th century (chapters 37 to 79), carried on in stages to the 18th century). The only narrative source for Lanka in 1200. Read online
• Epigraphia Zeylanica: lithic and other inscriptions of Ceylon, Various (the Polonnaruwa kings' chanceries), edited by D. M. de Zilva Wickremasinghe, H. W. Codrington and S. Paranavitana (inscriptions of the 3rd century BC to the 18th century; the series ran from 1904). Prints with translation the stone records of the Polonnaruwa kings who held or lost the throne around 1200. Read online
• South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
• The Book of Roger (the Pleasure of Him who Longs to Cross the Horizons), Muhammad al-Idrisi (completed 1154 at Palermo). The nearest Arabic geography in time to 1200 for the Indian Ocean. Read online
• A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
• Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online