Vanni chiefs

Who he is

Name

not named in any source we reached

Title

Local chiefs of the northern forest and tank country

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

Local.

Confidence

low

The Vanni chiefs (vanniyar) of the Tamil and Sinhalese tradition are mostly attested after the fall of Polonnaruwa (1215 and later); nothing in the pages we read names a chief of 1200.

Overlord

Queen Lilavati, loosely

What it holds

• Padaviya and the northern tank country
• The road from Anuradhapura to Mannar and Jaffna
• Forest produce and elephants

How it was acquired

By local tenure under the crown.

Allies and rivals

Subordinate to the crown in form; rival to the Jaffna headmen for the road tolls.

How things stand that morning

Quiet frontier. No rising is recorded.

Wealth

Elephants, forest produce, tank-fed rice at Padaviya.

Military

Local levies; no number.

Threats

• Abandonment of the tanks
• Raids from the sea

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. After 1215 (outside 1200)The Vanni chiefs become near-independent after the fall of Polonnaruwa.Depends on: Magha's conquest. Stopped by: A stronger Sinhalese state.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board the-vanni is a region note, not a chief; accepted as a province.
• Vanni chiefs are attested after 1215; for 1200 they are an inference.

Evidence: Later tradition projected back with care.

"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 one block; the chiefs' tracts are unknown.

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