Kandy

/kan"dee, kahn"-/, n.

a city in central Sri Lanka: famous Buddhist temples. 93,602.

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Important independent monarchy in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) at the end of the 15th century and the last Sinhalese kingdom to be subjugated by a colonial power.

Kandy survived the predations of the Portuguese by allying with the Dutch and survived the Dutch by seeking British aid; when the British took over Ceylon in 1796, Kandy was left on its own. The first British attack on Kandy in 1803 failed; in 1815 Kandyan chiefs invited the British to overthrow a tyrannical king, and in 1818 those chiefs' rebellion against the British was suppressed.

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▪ Sri Lanka

byname  Maha Nuwara (“Great City”), 

 

city in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, at an elevation of 1,640 feet (500 metres). It lies on the Mahaweli River (Mahaweli Ganga) on the shore of an artificial lake that was constructed (1807) by the last Kandyan (Kandy) king, Sri Wickrama Rājasinha. Kanda, the word from which Kandy is derived, is a Sinhalese word meaning “hill”; from the city's initial construction, about AD 1480, it was known as Kanda Uda Pas Rata (“Palace on Five Hills”). In 1592 it became the capital of the Sinhalese kings, who preserved their independence during the period of European colonial rule—except for temporary occupations by the Portuguese and the Dutch—until 1815, when the British ousted Sri Wickrama Rājasinha.

 From the 13th or 14th century, Kandy became a centre for both Mahāyāna (Mahayana) and Theravāda (Theravada) Buddhism, the religion's two major sects. The most important of its many Buddhist temples is Daḷadā Māligāva (“Temple of the Tooth”), where a sacred relic, supposed to be the left upper canine of the Buddha, has been preserved since 1590. The temple was constructed under Kandyan kings during the periods 1687–1707 and 1747–82. It is joined to a tower (1803) that was originally a prison but now houses an important collection of palm-leaf manuscripts. In January 1998 Tamil separatists bombed the temple, damaging its facade and roof; restoration began immediately afterward. Significant temples southwest of Kandy include the Lankatilaka Vihare (Hindu) and the Gadaladeniya Vihare (Buddhist), both of which were built in the 14th century. The Peradeniya Botanic Gardens and the University of Peradeniya (1942; reorganized 1972) are also situated to the southwest. The city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988. The Esala Perahera, the annual 10-day torchlight parade of dancers and drummers, dignitaries, and ornately decorated elephants, commemorates the sacred tooth; it is now one of the better-known festivals in Asia, and it may be the largest Buddhist celebration in the world.

      Kandy is an administrative, commercial, cultural, and educational centre and attracts many pilgrims and tourists. The surrounding region produces most of Sri Lanka's tea, as well as rice and other crops. Limestone is quarried, and bricks and tiles are made nearby. Pop. (1963) 68,202; (1981) 97,872; (1990 est.) 104,000.

▪ historical kingdom, Sri Lanka

      important independent monarchy in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) at the end of the 15th century and the last Sinhalese kingdom to be subjugated by a colonial power. Kandy survived the attacks of Ceylon's first two colonial rulers—the Portuguese and the Dutch—and finally succumbed to the third and last colonial ruler, the British (British Empire), in 1818. While all the other Sinhalese kingdoms had been extinguished by the Portuguese in the early 1600s, Kandy survived with stubborn persistence for another two centuries.

      Under Portuguese rule, Kandy allied itself with the Dutch; under Dutch rule, it sought assistance from the British. From the time of the British takeover of Ceylon in 1796, Kandy was thrown on its own resources. The British considered the continued independence of Kandy a hindrance to the expansion of both their trade and their communications network in Ceylon. The first British attack against Kandy in 1803 was a failure. By 1815, however, the Kandyan chiefs became dissatisfied with their tyrannical king (of South Indian descent) and welcomed British intervention. In the ensuing agreement of 1815, the Kandyan Convention, the Kandyan king was deposed and sovereignty was vested in the British crown, but the rights of the Kandyan chiefs were largely maintained. Soon, the chiefs became dissatisfied with this arrangement and openly rebelled in 1817 but were decisively subjugated by the British in 1818. Ceylon was thus brought, for the first time in many centuries, under unified rule.

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