Country Sri Lanka Founder Kulingai Cakravarti | Founded 1200s AD Dissolution 1619 | |
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Titles Cinkaiariyan, Cetukavalan, Kangkaiariyarkoon Final ruler Cankili II in Jaffna Kingdom | ||
The Aryacakravarti dynasty (Tamil: ஆரியச் சக்கரவர்த்திகள் வம்சம்) were kings of the Jaffna Kingdom in Sri Lanka. The earliest Sri Lankan sources, between 1277 and 1283, mention a military leader of this name as a minister in the services of the Pandyan Empire; he raided the western Sri Lankan coast and took the politically significant relic of the Buddha’s tooth from the Sinhalese capital city of Yapahuwa. Political and military leaders of the same family name left a number of inscriptions in the modern-day Tamil Nadu state, with dates ranging from 1272 to 1305, during the late Pandyan Empire. According to contemporary native literature, the family also claimed lineage from the Tamil Brahmins of the prominent Hindu pilgrimage temple of Rameswaram in the modern Ramanathapuram District of India. They ruled the Jaffna kingdom from the 13th until the 17th century, when the last of the dynasty, Cankili II, was ousted by the Portuguese.
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Theories of Origin
The origins of the Aryacakravarti are claimed in contemporary court chronicles; modern historians offer some competing theories.
Pandyan feudatory family
From the thirteenth-century inscriptions commemorating dignitaries calling themselves Aryacakravartis in present day Tamil Nadu we can deduce that they hailed from the coastal region of present day Ramanathapuram District, which they called Cevvirukkai Nadu. They administered land and held important military ranks. It is believed that most of them belonged to one family of Tamil Brahmins in the modern Ramanathapuram District who had become prominent during the days of the Pandyan king Maravarman Kulasekaran.
Furthermore, the title Cakravarti seem to have been commonly used in the Pandyan kingdom as a caste or job title. Compound titles exist, such as Maravacakravarti that belonged to a Maravar chief as well as Malavacakravarti that belonged to a Malava chief. Ariyar in Tamil could denote a noble or a learned person, a Brahmin or alternatively a person from Aryavarta. Thus the title Arayacakravarti seems to fit the structure of similarly used titles across the Pandyan kingdom.
Some of the dignitaries noted in the inscriptions are one Devar Arayacakravarti, Alakan Arayacakravarti, Minatungan Arayacakravarti and Iraman Arayacakravarti of whom Devar Arayacakravarti has at least two known inscriptions of which one at Sovapuri in Ramanathapuram in 1272 is the earliest. He caused a second inscription (1305) in Tirupulani in Ramanathapuram to be engraved thus indicating he was a minister or a feudatory. Notably the inscriptions also had the epithet Cetumukam signifying "in the order of Cetu."
According to a Sinhalese primary source Culavamsa, a warlord or minister named Aryacakravarti invaded the Sinhalese capital of Yapahuwa on behalf of the Pandyan king Maaravarman Kulasekaran between the years 1277–1283 and took the politically significant Buddha’s tooth relic.
Brahmins from Rameswaram
The Cekaracecekaramalai written during the Aryacakravarti rule in Jaffna asserts that the direct ancestors of the Kings belonged to a group of 512 Ariyar (a Brahmin priestly caste) of the Pasupata sect of the Rameswaram Hindu temple. The source also claims that two out of the 512 were selected as Kings of Ariyars. It also explains that a direct ancestor of the kings was a scribe in the Pandyan kingdom and was called during a war with other kingdoms to assist the king, and that the ancestors of the kings fought in wars against kings in the Hoysala and Karnataka.
During Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan's rule the Pandyas overwhelmed their Hoysala enemies and killed the Hoysala monarch Vira Someshwara in 1254.
A study of their epithets, such as Teevaiyarkoon ("King of Teevai"), Kantamalayaariyarkoon ("Ariyan King of Kantamalai") and Ceetukaavalan ("Protector of Cetu") confirms their connections to Rameswaram Hindu temple, as Teevai, Cetu and Kantamalai are all names for the same location: Rameswaram.
Ganga dynasty
In the opinion of Rasanayagam Mudaliar and Swami Gnanapragasar the Aryacakravarti dynasty was connected to the Eastern Ganga Dynasty. Rasanayagam believes that a Brahmin from the town of Rameswaram married into the surviving family members of the Kalinga Magha, an invader claiming to be from Kalinga kingdom in India. Magha apparently belonged to the Eastern Ganga Dynasty. The Royal flag of the Jaffna kingdom is similar to the Royal insignia of the Eastern Gangas. Gangas themselves also claimed Brahmin origins. The Setu coins minted by the Aryacakravarti kings also have a similar symbol.
Swami Gnanapragasar believes that the first Ariyacakravarti also called Cinkaiariyan (Ariyan from Cinkainakar) was Kalinga Magha himself. Three main arguments are adduced to support the claim that these kings were of Eastern Ganga descent. The first is the similar device on their coins; the bull couchant and the crescent surmounting it were struck on coins issued by the Eastern Gangas and Ariyacakravartis. The second is the traditions of their origins are almost identical. The last is the assumption of titles Kangkainaadan (From the country of Ganges) and Kangkaiariyan (Ariyan from the Ganga dynasty). According to S. Pathmanathan's history of the Jaffna kingdom, these only establish similarity, but not any conclusive direct connections. Pathmanathan believes that we cannot categorically link the Aryacakravarti dynasty with Eastern Gangas and can explain most of the similarities based on influence, even Western Ganga Dynasty descendants who had moved into Tamil lands after their defeat by the Chola Empire around the year 1000 and interpret them simply as reflecting a claim of origin from the Hindu holy city of Varanasi on the banks of the holiest river Ganges.
Javaka-Kalinga invaders
S. Paranavitana offered a novel surmise explaining the origins of the Ariyacakravarti. According to him the Aryacakravarti are descendants of Chandrabhanu a Malay chieftain, who invaded the island from Tambralinga in 1247. According to him refugees and immigrants from the Indian kingdom of Kalinga founded similarly named Kingdoms in South East Asia, and some of them came due to various reasons to north Sri Lanka and founded the Jaffna Kingdom. This view has been refuted by noted Indian historian K.A. Nilakanta Sastry as having no credible evidence, and other historians such as Louis Charles Damais (1911–66), an expert on Indonesian studies, Yutaka Iwamoto (1910–88), a Buddhist scholar, and S. Pathmanathan. They assert that there were no kingdoms in South East Asia called Kalinga and such assertions are based on erroneous readings of the Chinese name for a locality called Ho-ling which actually stood for Walain not Kalinga. Further S. Pathmanathan asserts that Chandrabhanu had categorically claimed Padmavamsa lineage whereas S. Paranavitana had adduced a Gangavamsa lineage to the Aryacakravarti. Further he notes that the inscriptions that S. Paranavitana used to make his theory have not been deciphered by any other scholar to imply a Javaka connection to the Aryacakravartis.
Current consensus
The current consensus held by historians such as S. Pathmanathan, Patrick Peebles and K.M de Silva is that the Aryacakravartis were a Pandyan feudatory family that took power after the chaos created by the invasions of Kalinga Magha and Chandrabhanu. That the family was connected to the Ramanathapuram Hindu temple and was of Tamil Brahmin origin. It may have married into the family of eastern gangas or even for that matter the Chandrabanu’s successors, but the direct undeniable evidence for it is lacking. The influence of Eastern gangas in its royal flag and the coins is indisputable. Kulingai Cakravarti mentioned by the Tamil chronicles of the Kingdom may have been Kalingha Magha.