From their appearance in 1505 on the shores of Ceylon till the present
day, Portuguese has enriched our culture. Just to mention a few words in
present day use eg Casadha bandinawa, Cidadiya, Alavango, solderaya,
Almariya ets. What is less known is the fact that Portuguese and Tamil
were the court languages in the Kotte and the Kandyan Kingdoms. King
Wimaladharmasuriya, was proficient in Portuguese and Dona Catherina his
Queen was proficient in both languages and educated their offspring to
understand and communicate in Portuguese. The Dutch and the British
communicated with the Kandyan Kings using the Portuguese language,
through an interpreter, as late as in 1812.
Below is a court
document signed by King Buvenaka Bahu of Kotte possibly around 1520.
This is reproduced in a book 'History of Ceylon' published in 1932.
