Jaffna Kingdom

The Jaffna kingdom was a Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka that existed from about 1215 to 1619. It arose around the town of Jaffna on the northern peninsula, traditionally after the invasion of Kalinga Magha, and was also known as the Kingdom of Aryachakravarti. In its early centuries it was a powerful force in the north, northeast and west of the island. It became a tribute-paying feudatory of the Pandyan Empire in 1258, and regained independence when Pandyan power in Madurai collapsed in the early fourteenth century. For a time in the fourteenth century Jaffna was the leading kingdom on the island, and the traveller Ibn Battuta recorded that it had two capitals: Nallur in the north and Puttalam in the west during the pearling season. Jaffna's prosperity rested on trade, pearls and control of the northern coast. Portuguese expansion into Sri Lanka brought conflict in the sixteenth century, and after a long resistance the kingdom was conquered in 1619, ending Tamil royal rule in the north until the colonial period.