Tooth Relic keepers

Who he is

Name

not named in any source we reached

Title

Custodians of the Tooth Relic (the king, the temple's monks, the guard)

Since

the relic came to Polonnaruwa with Parakramabahu I, who obtained 'the tooth and bowl relics' (English Wikipedia)

Born

not known

Family

Monastic and royal.

Confidence

medium for the facts, low for the persons

The English Wikipedia on the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa: relics were 'essential to the legitimacy of royal authority'; Parakramabahu I secured his succession by obtaining the tooth and bowl. The English Wikipedia on Nissanka Malla says the Hatadage was built to house the Tooth Relic.

Overlord

the crown

What it holds

• The relic chamber and the Hatadage
• Offerings, village revenue and the festival of the relic

How it was acquired

By the kings of the Anuradhapura line, carried to Polonnaruwa by Parakramabahu I.

Allies and rivals

Allied to whoever holds the capital.

How things stand that morning

Taken as kept in the Hatadage at Polonnaruwa under Lilavati (the campaign board's and the brief's reading; no page we read dates the relic's place in 1200). Its later wanderings after the fall of Polonnaruwa are later events and are not carried back.

Wealth

Pilgrim offerings and endowments.

Military

A guard: Velaikkara and monks. No number.

Threats

• A coup in the capital
• Looting by unpaid soldiers
• An invasion in 1215 (later)

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. 23 August 1200A coup at Polonnaruwa is a coup at the relic's house.Depends on: Sahassamalla's party taking the capital. Stopped by: Kitti's guard and the Velaikkara holding the temple.

Places of note

• The Hatadage: The Tooth Relic house.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board hatadage-tooth-relic says the Velaikkara guard the temple; we found only the campaign board for it; the Wikipedia pages do not discuss the guard.
• The Temple of the Tooth in Kandy is much later; the relic's later wandering (Dambadeniya, Kotte, Kandy) is not shown.

Evidence: The role of the relic is clear; the persons are not named.

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

On the map: Shown as a point.

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