The Portuguese ‘King of Malvana’
It seems to be a foregone conclusion that Colombo was the centre and capital of Portuguese Ceylon. The walls of Colombo kept the Portuguese well-guarded and its port ensured trade and communication with the rest of the empire. It’s probably ridiculous to suggest that the little town of Malvana, situated on a bend in the Kelani River, might have been the short-lived administrative capital of Portuguese Ceylon. How could a little town be the centre of the Portuguese administration? Perhaps it was because Ceylon was not merely a colony for the Portuguese, but an inheritance of the Portuguese Crown.
Recently, when reading on the Portuguese in Sri Lanka, Malvana kept popping up, including in P.E. Pieris’ ‘Ceylon: the Portuguese Era’ and Alan Strathern’s ‘Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth-Century Century Sri Lanka’.
My grandfather once told me that Malvana had hosted a Portuguese Fort and the residence of Captain-general Azevedo. Back then I imagined the residence might have been a sprawling citadel on the steep hill on one end of the town. I was once pointed to a small footpath towards the riverbank that led to what remains of the fort’s foundations.[1] It did not seem like it had been anything more than a Portuguese military outpost.
The Casa, the Fort & their destruction
As detailed as Paul E. Pieris is in describing the Portuguese era, his book also tends to brush over the history of little places like Malvana in summary fashion.
“Malwana where de Azavedo constructed the Casa from which the General were known locally as Kings of Malwana. Here de Azavedo resided for nine years, and it was from here that Pereyra directed the military operations during his administration. Close to this de Sa erected his fortress, after his defeat and death both one and the other were destroyed by Raja Sinha II”
pg 321, Ceylon: the Portuguese Era Volume 1, Paul E. Pieris, 1913
Jerónimo de Azevedo was Captain-General in Ceylon (or Ceilão to the Portuguese) from 1594 to 1612; an 18-year period of war, upheaval and rebellion that marked him as the longest serving Captain-General. Pieris says that it is during this time that Azevedo built a ‘casa’ or residence at Malwana, which is understandable given that Sithawaka had fallen in 1593 with the death of King Rajasinghe I and the frontline of war had shifted to the Kingdom of Kandy. Malwana potentially provided a better place to command the military operations and manage the countryside, especially via the Kelani River, while also being relatively close to Colombo.
I have a strong memory of my grandfather’s tale of how Azevedo would have children put to the sword on top of a rock that still stands on the riverbank at Malvana. I cannot confirm its veracity, but it underlines the violent memory of the Portuguese presence in the area.
Between 1618–1630 Constantino de Sá de Noronha built the fort at Malwana as conflict with Kandy dragged on.
The Portuguese ‘King of Malvana’
Alan Strathern describes the ways in which the Portuguese captains-general of Ceylon adopted a sort of ‘Kingship’ unto themselves while residing at Malvana.
“…the captains-general of Ceylon based at Malvana assumed much of the paraphernalia of the Kotte kings, travelling in palanquins, greeted by the prostrations of their subjects, addressed as deviyo (deity), and, until at least 1606, holding the dakum or homage ceremony to which the leading men were obliged to come and pay their dues.”
pg 211, Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth-Century Sri Lanka, Alan Strathern, 2010
This happened to such an extent, that the King of Kandy appears to have flattered the captain-general by using the term ‘King of Malvana’.
“… Azevedo’s court at Malvana in which the captains-general was displayed in the manner of a local king. Senerat (King of Kandy) sometimes referred to him as ‘King of Malvana’ or ‘King of the Lowlands’, indicating that the Portuguese presence has been conceptually incorporated, in a certain sense, within the frame of Lankan kingship.”
pg 247, Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth-Century Sri Lanka, Alan Strathern, 2010
Therefore, it’s probably no wonder that Rajasinghe II, who succeeded in ousting the Portuguese with Dutch assistance, would go on to destroy the Portuguese presence at Malvana that had come to take on the form of a royal court than a simple military outpost.
How the Portuguese took on Kingship
“On the 27th of May 1597 there died in Colombo the King Dharmapala … In addition to the deeds of donation … he left a will declaring the King of Portugal his heir”
pg 315, Ceylon: the Portuguese Era Volume 1, Paul E. Pieris, 1913
King Dharmapala was the last indigenous King of Kotte, and is notorious as the first and last Christian King in Sri Lankan history. Lacking an heir and essentially being a Portuguese puppet at Colombo, he named the King of Portugal as heir to the Kingdom of Kotte in a Deed of Gift and in his Last Will. This in essence meant that the captain-general ruled the Kingdom on behalf of the King of Portugal, who by this point was the Habsburg King of Spain. Thus, its unsurprising that Azevedo would have taken on the paraphernalia of a local king; “travelling in palanquins, greeted by the prostrations of their subjects, addressed as deviyo (deity), and, until at least 1606, holding the dakum or homage ceremony”.
History or Myth? — the Malvana Convention
Paul Pieris states that 2 days after Dharmapala’s death in 1597, Azevedo called a public meeting of nobles and common folk at Malvana to officially declare the transition of Kingship to the King of Portugal and thereby the administration to the Captain-General.
“On 29th May a public meeting was held at Malwana. Here were assembled not only the great Sinhalese noblemen, but, according to the custom observed at the election of a King, the populace as well, while the Portuguese were represented by the various officials and the leading clergy. After much discussion a Convention was agreed upon and signed by the delegates of the Sinhalese and the Portuguese officials as representing their King”
“The Standard of Portugal was then handed to Dom Antao and the whole assembly went in procession through the principal streets proclaiming the King of Portugal King over Ceylon; the Lekam Miti of the Kingdom were delivered to the Portuguese officials, and from that time the inheritance of Dharmapala was administered in the name of the King of Portugal.”
pg 316–317, Ceylon: the Portuguese Era Volume 1, Paul E. Pieris, 1913
However, T.B.H. Abeysinghe (1964) has called this version of history a myth given the confusion and contradiction in the two Portuguese sources that mention a ‘Malvana Convention’ — Fernao de Queiroz and Joao Ribeiro — and the presence of a third source in Diogo do Couto that makes no mention of it.
In his 1687 work ‘The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon’ Queiroz refers to two assemblies following Dharmapala’s death — first at Colombo and a later one at Malvana. In contrast, Ribeiro’s 1685 ‘Historical Tragedy of the island of Ceylon’, mentions only one assembly.
Queiroz’s belief that a Malvana Convention occurred was apparently based on a 1636 petition to the Portuguese captain-general by some locals that cites the guarantees made at the ‘Malvana Convention’. Which is possibly why Paul Peiris does the same in his book.
Abeysinghe says that Diogo do Couto, writing in 1611, confirms that a proclamation did occur in Colombo to signify the passing of Kotte to Portugal:
“… on the 29th of May 1597, there assembled in Colombo the nobles of the household of the late king, mudaliyars and principal persons. Then on Azevedo’s suggestion, five nobles of the royal household, a mudliyar, an aratchi and a patangatin were chosen to take the oath of loyalty to the king of Portugal in the name of all and this was duly done. A document giving details of the ceremony of the proclamation was prepared and Couto himself had seen a copy of the document in the archives of which he was the custodian.”
The Myth of the Malvana Convention, T.B.H. Abeysinghe, pg. 68, The Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, Vol. 7 Jan/Jun 1964
So why a ‘Malvana Convention’?
Abeysinghe asserts that this was the creation of a myth by the locals. In trying to create a basis to air their grievances, locals had transformed the proclamation ceremony in Colombo to a convention in Malvana where the Portuguese had promised to uphold local laws and customs. Abeysinghe accepts that by 1636 Malvana had been the seat of the captain-general for nearly 40 years. Thus, locals could have come to see Malvana as the capital, rather than Colombo.
Malvana had morphed into a mock royal court under the captain-generals as cited earlier from Strathern. It is also possible that the adoption of local customs at Malvana by the captains-general was seen by the locals as the Portuguese acceptance of responsibility to uphold local customs and laws; a sort of convention created at Malvana over time rather than through one particular dramatic event.
Adding to that was Azevedo’s creation of a Tribunal of mudaliyars at Malvana to hear the minor appeals and grievances of locals, a sort of civil court:
According to Sinhalese custom an appeal to the Crown was open to every subject, and the Kings used to give them audience for the purpose. To avoid the delays of Portuguese procedure de Azevedo had established at Malwana a tribunal of noble and experienced Mudaliyars of the King, eight in all and never less than four. These were authorized to dispose of the ordinary suits of the natives, reserving all matters of importance for the decision of the General.
pg 85, Ceylon: the Portuguese Era Volume 2, Paul E. Pieris, 1914
When Rajasinghe II eventually destroyed the Portuguese establishments at Malvana, probably around 1640, he was crushing the Portuguese attempt at creating a royal court in Ceylon to legitimize their claim as inheritors of the Kingdom of Kotte. Rajasinghe’s destruction has been so successful that the memories of Portuguese Malvana left in the collective memory are only that of a ruined fort, the cruelties of Azevedo and the myth of a ‘Malvana Convention’.
[1] http://amazinglanka.com/wp/malwana-fort/ This article describes what is left of the old fort at Malvana. It speculates that what remains might be from a Dutch fort built on the site of the previous Portuguese one.
