kanday

           

"Kingdom of Kandy first appeared as a separate entity in Sri Lankan history during the reign of Parakramabahu VI of Kotte Kingdom in Sri Lanka of 15th century A.D" (Dewaraja, 1985, p. 120). Initially kingdom of Kandy happened to be a sanctuary for all the rebels who were hostile to the rule of low country Sinhalese kingdoms like "Kotte" and "Sitawaka", but the real strength and its sui generis nature was exposed when Kandy was at bay by the Western invaders (Dewaraja, 1985, p. 120 121) (Wickremesekera, 2004, pp. 133,145). In that point resistance against Western invaders who came with renaissance military technology such as gun powder and cannon balls turned into be a Herculean effort, but Kandy could hold its helm till 1815 (Schrikker, 2007, p.15). This paper intends to trace down how Kandy survived against all odds and what reasons strengthened its resistance militarily and strategically. In order to provide a proper analysis this paper discusses the time period of western invaders Portuguese, Dutch separately. Besides the fact of tracing the historiography of Kandyan resistance against Portuguese and Dutch powers this study intends to examine how Kandy was finally subjugated by British in 1815,