Fig: 10.2 The meeting between the Kandyan leaders and the Dutch.It took 20 more years to expel the Portuguese
from the country since the seizure of the
Batticaloa fort in 1638. During this time the
the Portuguese forts in Trincomalee, Negambo,
Galle, Kalutara, Colombo, Mannar and Jaffna
were captured by the Dutch and the Sri Lankan
army. Thus, this combination was able to expel the
Portuguese from Sri Lanka by 1658. According
to the bond signed between the king and the
Dutch, occupying the Dutch army in the forts
captured from the Portuguese should have been
done according to the king’s agreement. But, the
Dutch, who forgot that sentence in the bond,
avoided handing over the forts which located in
the areas advantageous for them. Therefore, this
damaged the goodwill between the king and the
Dutch.
King Rajasinghe II brought the Dutch to this
country in order to achieve two objectives.
- Expelling the Portuguese from Sri Lanka with
the support of the Dutch. - Making Sri Lanka an independent and free
country by annexing the areas which were
under the Portuguese.
Though the king was able to achieve the first
objective out of these two, he could not achieve
the second one as the Dutch had spread their
power in many areas which were saved from the
Portuguese. Therefore, the king implemented a
strategy by attacking the Dutch and minimizing
the number of areas that they could take. Due to
this strategy of the king, by 1658 the Dutch was
able to gain only a lesser quantity of land than
the Portuguese had possessed.King Rajasinghe II was one who gave a new
significance to the Kandyan kingdom after king
Vimaladharmasooriya I. The king claimed that
he was the emperor of Sri Lanka in exchanging
letters with the Dutch. The Dutch too had
accepted the king as “Thrisinhaladeeshvara”
even nominally in such exchange of letters.
When the king wrote letters to the Dutch he
used the phrases such as “ Mata Hithawath
Landesi Jathiya (Dear Dutch who serve me)”
and the Dutch too used the phrases such as “
Oba Vahanseta Suvacha Keekaru Sevaka (the
most obedient servant to you, Lord)” when
they wrote to the king. The Dutch launched a
series of attacks and seized several areas that
belonged to the Kandyan kingdom during the
time between 1665 and 1668. But due to a series