Showing posts with label Capture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Capture. Show all posts

Monday, December 18, 2017

The capture of King Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe of Kandy

 The King
 Queen Rangammal

 The golden armor of the King - Looted by the British and sold by auction in 1820 in Britain
 Ivory statuette of King Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe



  The Throne
The arrest of the King

 Place of  arrest, Medhamahanuwara, Bomure.

 
 Kandyan cheifs with Doyly

 The signatories to the Kandyan treaty

  Place in Colombo where the King was held before deportation to Vellore, Kerala, India.

 The King's  last residence in Vellore


After the fall of city of Kandy in February 1815 to the British rule, Eheylapola Maha Adhikaram ( who was one of the main conspirators who helped the British to take over Kandy ) sent a group of his people to help the British to capture the king who had escaped from the palace. After several days this team found that the king was in hiding in the area of “Bomure”
What happened after the Eheylapola’s gang headed by Ekneligoda Nilame surrounded the house in which the king Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe was hiding on the 18th of February 1815, was published by C.T.A Dias (who was a translator who participated in the group who captured Kandy) in the 1861 April issue of Sinhala publication.
Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe – Last king of the Nation

After a brief resistance, The king appeared delivered himself. The gang of Ekneligoda Nilame pulled the king out of the house and stole every valuable worn by the king and the queen. One of the goons called “Kiriporuwe Mohottala” tore the queen Venkathi Rangammal‘s earlobes to steal the earrings worn by her. The queen with the bleeding earlobes, fearing for her life ran in to the house.
The Tholkamudali called Dias who was with this crowd, called the queen with due respect and the queen now in her white undergarments (all the cloths being stolen) came out and asked for protection from him. The Tholkamudali got some herbal plants treated her bleeding earlobes.
Meanwhile the Ekneligoda Nilame asked his goons for bring some creeper to tie the king. The Tholkamudali distressed at the way the king was being treated told the Ekneligoda Nilame, “Sir, we have been under british rule for a long time and we do not consider him as our king but he has been your king untill now and you (the Kandyans) have been calling him with great respect up to now.” and offered his Satakaya (an Indian Toga) to tie him. But the Ekneligoda Nilame refused it and tied the king with creepers and delivered to the British.