Parakramabahu VI

                The greatest of the Sinhalese kings at this time was Parakramabahu VI. His capital was at Rayigama  which is a few miles east of Panadure. Alagakkonara and the kings who came after him had Rayigama for their capital, too. In a few years, Parakramabahu VI moved to Kotte, which was a strong town and well protected because there were marshes all round.

                Parakramabahu VI did not move to Katte because he was afraid of the Tamils. He had another reason. The Sinhalese kins who had moved away from Anuradhapura, Polonnaruva and Magama, had found that they could not get much money from the people because rice did not grow so well in other parts of the island as it did in the places they had left. So they began to improve the trade in cinnamon. It was so that he could look after the trade in cinnamon that Parakramabahu VI moved to Kotte. It was near Colombo, which was the chief port as the time from which cinnamon was sent to foreign countries.

                When Parakramabahu VI became king, he was not king of the whole island all at once. There were three parts of Ceylon which did not want him for their king. One part was the Malaya district, which had become important when Gampola was the capital of the Sinhalese kings. The ruler of the Malaya District, Jotiya Sitana, refused to pay taxes to Parakramabahu VI and fought against him. But Parakramabahu VI won and took the Malaya district as part of his kingdom.

                The next people that Parakramabahu VI fought against were the Vanniars, the chiefs of the Vanni, which was the part of the country between the Sinhalese and the Tamil kingdoms. The Vanniars used to consider either the Sinhalese or the kings of Jaffna as their lords. When Parakramabahu VI became king, the Vanniars were not under the Sinhalese king. So Parakramabahu VI fought against them and took their country.

                The most difficult thing that Parakramabahu VI did was to conquer the Tamil kingdom, which had not been under the Sinhalese for two hundred years. He gave this work to his son, Sapumal Kumaraya. This prince tried once in about 1450 and failed. He tried again later and succeeded. 

                After the time of nissanka Malla, though the Sinhalese race was not so great, many books were written with the help of the Sinhalese kings of Dambadeniya, Kurunegala, Gampola and Kotte. It was in the time of  Parakramabahu VI that the great Sinhalese poet, Totagamuve Sri Rahula, lived. He was a Buddhist bhikku and is said to have known six languages well. He most famous poem is Kavyasekara, a poem giving the story of the Senaka Jataka. He is also the author of a number of sandesa poems.

                The kings who came after Parakramabahu VI were not very good as rulers. During the reign of Sapumal Kumaraya who changed his name to Bhuvanaikabahu VI (1473 - 1480), there was a great war and the rulers of the district of Malaya and of the Tamil kingdom ruled their own kingdoms once more. The Vijayanagara kings in South India at this time were too busy to come over and conquer Ceylon when the Sinhalese king was unable to defend his country. But people from Europe, the Portuguese, came to Ceylon in 1505 and after some time took the provinces by the sea.

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