“fencing the field whilst the oxen were within engaged in devouring the corn."[2] The power of the Malabars had become so firmly rooted, and had so irresistibly extended itself, that, one after another, each of the earlier capitals was abandoned to them, and the seat of government carried further towards the south.  Pollanarrua had risen into importance in the eighth and ninth centuries, when Anarajapoora was found to be no longer tenable against the strangers.  Dambedenia was next adopted, A.D. 1235 as a retreat from Pollanarrua; and this being deemed insecure, was exchanged, A.D. 1303, for Yapahu in the Seven Corles.  Here the Pandyan marauders followed in the rear of the retreating sovereign[3], surprised the new capital, and carried off the dalada relic to the coast of India.  After its recovery Yapahu was deserted, A.D. 1319.  Kornegalle or Kurunaigalla, then called Hastisailapoora and Gampola[4], still further to the south and more deeply intrenched amongst the Kandyan mountains, were successively chosen for the royal residence, A.D. 1347.  Thence the uneasy seat of government was carried to Peradenia, close by Kandy, and its latest migration, A.D. 1410, was to Jaya-wardana-pura, the modern Cotta, a few miles east of Colombo.

[Footnote 1:  Rajaratnacari, p. 104; Mahawanso, ch. lxxxiii.]

[Footnote 2:  Rajaratnacari, p. 82.]

[Footnote 3:  A.D. 1303.]

[Footnote 4:  Gampola or Gam-pala, Ganga-siripura, “the beautiful city near the river,” is said in the Rajaratnacari to have been built by one of the brothers-in-law of Panduwaasa, B.C. 504.]

Such frequent removals are evidences of the alarm and despondency excited by the forays and encroachments of the Malabars, who from their stronghold at Jaffna exercised undisputed dominion over the northern coasts on both sides of the island, and, secure in the possession of the two ancient capitals, Anarajapoora and Pollanarrua, spread over the rich and productive plains of the north.  To the present hour the population of the island retains the permanent traces of this alien occupation of the ancient kingdom of Pihiti.  The language of the north of the island, from Chilaw on the west coast to Batticaloa on the east, is chiefly, and in the majority of localities exclusively, Tamil; whilst to the south of the Dederaoya and the Mahawelli-ganga, in the ancient divisions of Rohuna and Maya, the vernacular is uniformly Singhalese.

[Sidenote:  A.D. 1410.]

Occasionally, after long periods of inaction, collisions took place; or the Singhalese kings equipped expeditions against the north; but the contest was unequal; and in spite of casual successes, “the king of the Ceylonese Malabars,” as he is styled in the Rajavali, held his court at Jaffnapatam, and collected tribute from both the high and the low countries, whilst the south of the island was subdivided into a variety of petty kingdoms, the chiefs of which, at Yapahu, at Kandy, at Gampola, at Matura, Mahagam, Matelle, and other places[1], acknowledged the nominal supremacy of the sovereign at Cotta, with whom, however, they were necessarily involved in territorial quarrels, and in hostilities provoked by the withholding of tribute.