A Thai Prince in a Kandyan coup

Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe (1747–1782), the second Nayakkar King, was instrumental in the reformation of the Buddhist institutions in Kandy. Yet, in 1760, senior members of the clergy and aristocracy were involved in a strange coup attempt against him. Had they been successful, Sri Lanka might have had a King of Thai descent. Failed Kandyan coups were common; what is interesting is how events occurring across the Bay of Bengal influenced this failed coup.

The road to a Kandyan Coup

The road to the 1760 coup starts two decades earlier when the ailing King Narendrasinghe passed away in 1739 without a designated heir — that is neither a son from his Nayakkar Queen nor a brother. He did have a son named Unamboowe from his ‘Yakada Doli’. But he was seen as unsuitable for the throne because his mother was not of royal lineage.

Sri Vijaya, the Nayakkar brother-in-law of Narendrasinghe, who had grown up in Kandy and was learned in Buddhism and local customs was seen as the viable candidate. Given Narendrasinghe’s extended period of sickness prior to death, Sri Vijaya might have risen to be regent by 1739 (Obeysekera, 2020). The support of Valivita Saranankara — chief monk and icon of the Buddhist revival — for Sri Vijaya was vital in overcoming concerns about crowning a monarch of foreign origin.

The coronation was a rite of transformation. The person of the king was transformed into a Buddhist bodhisattva-to-be and a god within the pantheon of Sinhala Buddhism. The Tamil origins of the Nayakkars, ideally speaking, became subordinate or irrelevant.
pg. 48, Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period, Michael Roberts, 2004

Opposition to the Nayakkar dynasty appeared more clearly following the ascension of Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe (brother-in-law of Sri Vijaya)in 1747. Kirthi Sri was also brought up in Kandy and been educated in Buddhism and local customs. He had been groomed to be King, with Valivita Saranankara as a mentor, and took on the role as the chief patron of the Buddhist revival in Kandy.

Despite all this, certain factions of the aristocracy and the clergy came to oppose Kirthi Sri’s reign. Roberts (2004) and Dharmadasa (1979) see this as being sourced in the increasing presence of the King’s Nayakkar relatives at court and his continued practice of Saivite Hindu religious practices.

…oral traditions, eventually inscribed in the Sasanavitarna Varnanava (SV)… depicted the king as a person who adhered to the “heretical practice of anointing himself with ash” in the conventional Saivite fashion (Dharmadasa 1979:112). This emphasis in the Kandyan accounts may be a pointer to a series of religious practices on the part of Kirti Sri Rajasinha and his Nayakkar supporters that convinced both bhikkhu prelates that the reign was going to be a threat to the Buddha sasana.
pg. 49, Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period, Michael Roberts, 2004

In contrast, Gananath Obeyesekere (2020) opines that the increasing divinity and constraining court traditions associated with the Nayakkar kings might have affected the sensibilities of at least some Kandyan elites who had got accustomed to greater access to the king under previous Kandyan kings.

During these regimes the model of kingship that we noted earlier was now revitalized in which the divinity of the king was emphasized as never before and along with that a series of rules on public life designed to keep the ruler away from the public gaze…
pg 116
…part of the resentment of the Nayakas by the monks and the aristocracy was note because they were foreign but owing to their aping of divinity that seemed offensive to Kandyan sensibility
pg 120, The Many Faces of the Kandyan Kingdom, Gananath Obeyesekere, 2020

In 1749, the aristocracy first raised opposition due to the high handed actions of the Kirthi Sri’s father, Narenappa, who appears to have taken the reins of royal power as the King was still a minor. Among his transgressions were the dismissal of aristocrats from royal appointments and allowing Christian missionaries re-entry to Kandy (Dharmadasa, 1979). These concerns appear to have been addressed at the time.

Those who continued to see the Nayakkars as a threat seem to have laid low till they had a legitimate alternative to replace Kirthi Sri. The failed attempt of these conspirators would come to be known as the Moladande Rebellion where the “key figures were the Second Adigar Samarakkodi [the second of two Chief Ministers] as well as the foremost and most powerful bhikkhus of that day, Valivita Saranankara and Tibbotuvave.” (Roberts, 2004).

The Siamese Connection

It is during the 1750s that a number of Kandyan delegations arrived in Siam (modern Thailand), under Dutch sponsorship, to obtain monks to re-establish rites of ordination in Kandy under Kirthi Sri’s patronage. This provided the means by which the Kandyan conspirators could access the Siamese court.

The Siamese priests in Sri Lanka at the time were accordingly informed and they were pleased at the prospect of a Siamese prince on the throne of Sri Lanka gave a letter to be conveyed to the king of Siam. In it was a request to the king of Siam to send a Siamese prince to be made the king of Sri Lanka as wished by the priests and the chiefs of Sri Lanka…The King of Siam acceding to the request made to him, sent one of his younger brothers in the guise of a priest.
pg. 138, Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the 17th and 18th centuries, A.H.Mirando, 1985

The Siamese Kingdom was in the midst of its own political turbulence at the time. A new king appears to have come to power by force in 1758 and had put down a coup soon after. One of the Princes involved in this failed coup was Krommun Thepphiphit. He had taken up the robes as a priest and was included in the 1759 delegation of monks sent to Kandy.

According to Mirando’s Kandyan sources, Thepphiphit’s punishment for treason appears to have been the opportunity to carve out his own Kingdom in distant Ceylon. But there does not appear to be Thai sources that confirm such an intention on the part of the Siamese court. Maybe it was a simple desire to get rid of a troublesome Prince. What is clear from multiple Kandyan sources is that the Siamese monks in Kandy at the time were deeply involved in the coup.

Another account, attributed to De la Nerolle, a one-time “gentleman-in-waiting” to the king, states that the plot was initially hatched by the leading Sinhalese monk, Saranankara, and Tibbotuvave, in collaboration with the Siamese monks who came in the first deputation of 1753… The Sinhalese noblemen who were involved in the conspiracy went to Malvatte Temple “and took a resolution to put the Prince of Siam upon the throne of Candy in consideration of his being the king of a country where the doctrine of the Buddhoo is instructed and professed in its purity”
pg 91, The Sinhala Buddhist identity and the Nayakkar dynasty in the politics of the Kandyan Kingdom, K.N.O.Dharmadasa, 1979, as reprinted in Sri Lanka. Collective Identities Revisited — Volume 1, 1997.

Dutch Politicking

Until around 1740, the Dutch had maintained a relatively peaceful relationship with Kandy. The Dutch even attended the annual dakum or homage ceremony at the Kandyan court(Schrikker, 2007). But following the ascension of the Nayakkar kings, the Dutch complained that Kandy was trading with South Indian states in violation of trade agreements. In response, Kandy renewed its claim to the coastline that was under Dutch control (Obeyesekere, 2020).

Thus, the Nayakkar control of Kandy was problematic for the Dutch in Sri Lanka. The Nayakkar dynastic and trading connections with South India were causing commercial losses and also linked Kandy to other European powers — the British and French. Thereby, the Nayakkars prevented Kandy from being totally isolated from the rest of the region and being completely dependent on the Dutch.

While there is no certainty that the Dutch were involved in formulating the 1760 coup, one could see why the Dutch saw fit to support a coup to replace the Nayakkar Kirthi Sri with a Thai prince. The Siamese Kingdom was stronger than the Nayakkars of Madurai in an absolute sense but lacked any real interest in the distant island of Ceylon. The Dutch probably believed a Thai King of Kandy would become even more dependent on them.

The Coup unfolds

The arrival of the Siamese prince marked the final stage of the plot to eliminate Kirthi Sri Rajasimha. A religious ceremony was arranged at the Malvatta Vihara to which Kirthi Sri Rajasimha was invited. A special seat was provided from which he was to listen to the sermon. What was sinister about the whole arrangement was that the seat was mounted over a pit, the mouth of which was covered in such a manner that due to the weight of the king, it would collapse throwing the king into the depths of the pit impaling him on the spikes below.
pg. 138–139, Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the 17th and 18th centuries, A.H.Mirando, 1985

While the coup might have been in the making since 1749, it is the 1760 arrival of Prince Thepphiphit that puts it into motion. But Kirthi Sri got word of the coup, allegedly through a monk (Dharmadasa, 1979), and the conspirators were punished.

The chiefs participating in the plot, namely Samarakkodi Maha Nilame, the Adigar of Udugampaha, Matihatpala Disava, Moladane Battanarala, were executed. Valivita Saranamkara and Tibbotuvave for their part in the plot were imprisoned in Kehelvalla and Bimtanna respectively but were later pardoned by the king. For their complicity in the plot, the Siamese priests were expelled from the capital. It would appear that these priests were handed over to the Dutch to be sent back to Siam
pg. 139, Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the 17th and 18th centuries, A.H.Mirando, 1985

War with the Dutch

The apparent Dutch involvement in the coup further deteriorated relations with Kandy. It would have been a factor in the commencement of open hostilities between them after 1760 when Kandy decided to support a rebellion in Matara. While the Kandyans had some initial successes, Dutch reinforcements from India and Java turned the tide. But conflict dragged on till 1766.

As the conflict dragged on the Dutch continued efforts to secure a Thai prince to succeed to the throne of Kandy, possibly hoping to use the prince to turn the Kandyan elite away from the Nayakkars. They were allegedly egged on by the exiled chief prelate Saranamkara.

A Dutch document , written in 1761 and therefore much closer to
the date of the rebellion, supports the information that Saranankara was
deported to an outlying village. This document, moreover, provides
evidence to the effect that from his place of confinement the sangharaja was
continuing his intrigues to replace Kirti Sri with a Siamese prince and that
he was seeking assistance of the Dutch for the purpose.
pg 91, The Sinhala Buddhist identity and the Nayakkar dynasty in the politics of the Kandyan Kingdom, K.N.O.Dharmadasa, 1979, as reprinted in Sri Lanka. Collective Identities Revisited — Volume 1, 1997.

In September 1762, on the advice of the Governor of Ceylon, Lubbert Jan van Eck (1762–5), a Dutch ambassador was sent to Ayutthaya to conduct secret negotiations with the Siamese court: to obtain the person of Prince Thepphiphit or his son(s).
pg 209–210, Dutch East India Company Merchants at the Court of
Ayutthaya — Dutch Perceptions of the Thai Kingdom c. 1604–1765, Bhawan Ruangsilp, 2007

Despite a repeat attempt in 1764, the Dutch failed to secure a Thai prince. The Burmese invasions of Ayutthaya in 1760 and 1764 and minimal access the Dutch had to the Siamese court foiled these attempts. Regardless of this failure, the peace treaty with Kandy in 1766 was a win for the Dutch as it established Kandy’s complete dependence on them and ended the quasi-vassal status of the Dutch maritime holdings.

Yet, neither side would survive the next fifty years. The Dutch would lose Sri Lanka to the British in 1796; the British in turn set in motion the final Kandyan coup in 1815 that ended the Nayakkar dynasty.

References

Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the 17th and 18th centuries, A.H.Mirando, 1985

Dutch and British colonial intervention in Sri Lanka, 1780–1815: Expansion and Reform, Alicia Schrikker, 2007

Dutch East India Company Merchants at the Court of Ayutthaya — Dutch Perceptions of the Thai Kingdom c. 1604–1765, Bhawan Ruangsilp, 2007

Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period: 1590s to 1815, Michael Roberts, 2004

The Sinhala Buddhist identity and the Nayakkar dynasty in the politics of the Kandyan Kingdom, K.N.O.Dharmadasa, 1979 — as reprinted in Sri Lanka. Collective Identities Revisited — Volume 1, 1997.

The Many Faces of the Kandyan Kingdom, 1591–1765: Lessons for our Time, Gananath Obeyesekere, 2020