Lanka does not raise all its fighting men from its own peasants.
The English Wikipedia on the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa cites a Tamil inscription of Vijayabahu I (1070-1110) for the Velaikkara, Tamil soldiers of the king's guard, and says Magha's army of 1215 included Kalinga, Kerala and Tamil soldiers and mercenaries. The brief and the campaign board add that the Sinhalese kings keep paid companies at the capital: the Velaikkara (in the campaign board's reading, the guard of the Tooth Relic temple), Kerala men from the west coast and Kalinga men who came with the Kalinga house. Where they live, how they are paid, who commands them and how many they are, no page we read says.
On the brief's reading they decide a coup by the way they go; the coup of 23 August 1200 (the likely course) and Magha's conquest of 1215 (a later event) are the two occasions on which they matter, and the pages we read do not describe the part they play in either.
Who he is
- Name
- not named in any source we reached
- Title
- Captains of the paid companies
- Since
- the Velaikkara were in royal service at Polonnaruwa by the time of Vijayabahu I (about 1100)
- Born
- not known
- Family
- Tamil Velaikkara regiments (a Chola institution of royal bodyguards bound by oath), Kerala and Kalinga companies, and the Sinhalese levies.
- Confidence
- low
The English Wikipedia on the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa says Magha's army (1215) included Kalinga, Kerala and Tamil soldiers and mercenaries, and that the only Velaikkara reference it gives is a Tamil inscription of Vijayabahu I. The Velaikkara of the Tooth Relic temple are the campaign board's. No named company or captain of 1200 is in any page we read.
Overlord
Queen Lilavati and the general Kitti, who pay them
What it holds
- No dated quarters, land or office
- The guard of the Tooth Relic temple (the Velaikkara), on the campaign board's reading only
How it was acquired
By service and oath; the Velaikkara are a Chola-pattern institution adopted by Vijayabahu I.
Allies and rivals
Paid by the crown and by the generals (inference). The Kalinga companies may look to the Kalinga house (inference). Friction between foreign soldiers, the Sinhalese levies and the Sangha is plausible and is not recorded for 1200.
How things stand that morning
No page we read shows the companies in revolt; they are taken as in pay under Kitti (inference). A shortage of pay is the usual cause of a switch.
Wealth
Pay and assigned lands. No figure.
Military
Not described by any source we reached: no arms, no number.
Threats
- Arrears of pay or the loss of a patron, the usual causes of a switch (inference; nothing is recorded for 1200)
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.
- 23 August 1200On the brief's reading the companies decide the coup in which Sahassamalla deposes Lilavati; the pages we read do not describe it.Depends on: A pay dispute or Kitti's loss (our inference). Stopped by: Settlement of arrears and a trusted captain (our inference).
- 1215 (outside 1200)Kalinga, Kerala and Tamil companies serve Magha in his conquest.Depends on: The weakness of Polonnaruwa after 1212. Stopped by: A united army of the Sinhalese chiefs.
Where the sources disagree
- The assignment and board call the Velaikkara guards of the Tooth Relic temple; the English Wikipedia I read has only the Vijayabahu I inscription for them. We carry the campaign board's reading as a lead.
Evidence: A single sentence of the Wikipedia page for the company types; the rest is the brief and the campaign board.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: No land is shown: the companies hold quarters and assignments.
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
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.