Kirimäṭiyāvē Mätivaraya
Depicting the Dutch in Court Poetry
The presence of colonizers in Sri Lanka generated a novel genre of Sinhala poetry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that depicted wars against the Portuguese. These war poems were likely composed for royal courts, designed to praise the reigning monarch. After King Rajasinha II forged an alliance with the Dutch to definitively defeat the Portuguese, the “Hollanders” became recurring characters in these compositions. One poet, the Minister from Kirimetiyawa, dwelled on the Dutch more than any other, depicting the might of this new foreigner as an asset to Rajasinha and proof of his worldwide power. Unaware that the Hollanders would become long-term enemies of Rajasinha and generations of Kandyan kings to come, this poem reflects a moment when the defeat of the Portuguese with Dutch assistance was still to be celebrated unequivocally.
Kirimäṭiyāvē Mätivaraya: The Minister from Kirimetiyawa
The Sinhala poet carefully etched his rounded letters into the dried palm leaf with his metal stylus, creating quatrain after quatrain of elegiac verse in honor of King Rajasinha II. When he had finished inscribing the text, the poet would rub the leaves with ink so that the black dye settled into the grooves of the letters and made them more legible. He would then bind the leaves together with a cord, and protect them with covers made from wooden boards, perhaps carved or painted. Once this meticulous bookmaking was finished, the poem would be ready to sing before the king and his court.
At the time the poet sat composing, Rajasinha had recently allied with foreigners from Holland to oust the despised Portuguese from the island, and the poem was meant to commemorate this in the style of haṭana kavi, or war poetry, a genre produced by Lankan royal courts over the preceding century of colonial incursions. When he inscribed the final line of his final verse, the poet would identify himself as the Minister from Kirimetiyawa, an outlying highland village in the Kandyan kingdom. He may have served as a minstrel minister, a member of the “hall of poets” (kavikāra maḍuva) tasked with composing fine verse in praise of the king.
War in the Hall of Poets
Many poets had been composing panegyrics (elegy) for King Rajasinha since he routed the Portuguese at the Battle of Gannoruwa in 1638. After liberating Colombo in 1656, many more praises were to follow. As the Minister from Kirimetiyawa sat composing another such elegy, called Mahāhaṭana, or The Great War, he surely considered ways to make his creation stand out (scroll down to read it in full!). He would follow the format of prior war poems by casting the overarching narrative of the work as both history and elegy. He began with the moment the Portuguese arrived in Lanka more than a century earlier, and then proceeded through descriptions of previous highland kings who had resisted the invaders, thereafter turning to the current Rajasinha’s auspicious birth and prior heroic victories. The minister then planned to reveal his own unique flourish in the poem’s final act by focusing more than any other poet on the glorious foreign allies of the king.
Emphasizing associations with the Hollanders would illuminate Rajasinha’s prowess by showing his wisdom to send an envoy and request aid against the Portuguese, as well as his courageous might in merging forces and sieging Colombo alongside the Dutch. It would also demonstrate his grace and generosity in welcoming Dutch officers into his court, occasions of great novelty and pomp that were surely long remembered by royal retinues. The Minister from Kirimetiyawa sought to transport his audience back to those times with his descriptions of the feasts and gifts received by Dutch officers from the king.
Bound only by syllabic meters and rhyme schemes, the medium of poetry allowed the Minister from Kirimetiyawa to craft a highly imaginative narrative of the alliance between Rajasinha and the Hollanders. He decided to condense time and space in his verses, moving rapidly across many years from the arrival of the Dutch to their final siege of Colombo. The verses leap around the island to describe the dismantling of every enemy encampment, from the southern shores of Galle to the northern tip of Jaffna, and from the eastern trenches around Trincomalee to the western port of Negombo.
Useful guests?
The poet had no need to refer to the occasional cooling of relations between Rajasinha and the Hollanders amid their repeated alliances, nor to mention the Dutch refusal to vacate Colombo after ousting the Portuguese. Instead, with each flourish of his stylus, the poet sought solely to praise and promulgate the accomplishments of his king, naming him in the first line of almost every quatrain in this part of the poem. Like any good courtier cognizant of his larger audience, the Minister from Kirimetiyawa also lauded the larger royal retinue, crediting the king’s ministers with devising and executing the plan to recruit the Hollanders.
War was revelry in the hall of poets, a cause for celebration in honor of a powerful ruler who tamed his enemies like animals and obliterated them with ease, with a retinue shrewd enough to conduct courtly diplomacy and recruit foreign armies to assist. Long after the clatter of battle fell silent, the Minister from Kirimetiyawa filled ears with Sinhala songs that dramatized those military engagements in fantastic fashion, casting the newly arrived colonizers as useful guests of the king.
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This story is a guest contribution by Alexander McKinley. Read his long read on more Dutch depictions in Sinhala and Tamil Literature here.
Verses 113-143 from Mahāhaṭana
by Kirimäṭiyāvē Mätivaraya
The reverend lord king issued letters in secret.
The great ministers lined up on both sides flawlessly.
Immediately worshipping the royal lotus foot,
they informed him of the power of the Hollanders like this.
“Their lord shines as the pinnacle of the solar clan with full-moon virtue.
In all of meritorious famous India,
there will be none equal to the Hollanders in fierce warfare
if your bring them and they encamp in Lanka.”
Lovingly at that time, the noble lord king with happy mind,
to the beautiful and wise king of Holland,
so as to sever the skillful enemies in Colombo,
wrote a royal letter requesting armies to that effect.
Delighted, the noble King Rajasinha who increases prosperity
unerringly adorned with various ornaments
the massively famous minister of Galtämbuve,
who was esteemed so as to travel for diplomacy.
The divinely beautiful Lord King Rajasinha happily
wrote a gilded letter for the Minister of Galtämbuve.
Then bowing to the foot of the lord king with all divine beauty,
he boarded a ship to leave and went to Jakarta.
The pleasant Sinhala minister eagerly departed and went.
He went calmly due to the glory of that king of solar clan.
Doubtful about the oceanic body of water extended all around,
they sighted and landed at that fully prosperous Holland.
The king of Holland got that gilded letter
and saw all the information presented there.
Having gathered together the virtuous ministers,
he was pleased to gather armies to come to Lanka.
With courageous power and glory, the king of Holland,
making armies with twelve-thousand of his kinsmen,
selecting and summoning sixteen ships,
entrusted them over mindfully.
To please meritorious Rajasinha, high king of the solar clan,
the king of Holland
carefully appointed the top official Admiral.
Minds made happy, they departed Jakarta.
Due to the words spoken by powerfully tough King Rajasinha,
thoughtfully bringing ships loaded with powder and banners,
workers landed at this famous Sinhala Sri Lanka,
and the armies arrived in Galle at once.
That king who saw that gilded letter was greatly pleased
and united the unshakeable armies in one place,
and to show his pleasure to our noble lord king
he sent letters that came to this Lanka.
Beholding those messages, our king of the solar clan,
to receive the people as friends without suspicions,
happily gives delicious food, innumerable kindnesses
and reclaimed land to the Hollanders.
Our Lord King brought the Admiral before him,
displayed the luxurious fashion of the glorious city,
bestowed various titles and garlands of pearls,
and had the generals explain the war.
Those ships were filled and taken across the whole sea.
The Admiral ordered that enormous warfare be done.
Enemies were killed and all their pride was obliterated.
First the army encampment at Galle was opened up.
To the satisfaction of famous King Rajasinha, lord of the whole world,
the busted coarse Portuguese were bombarded and their strength sapped,
having been made into feasts for all the dogs, jackals, and demons.
Removing the darkness, they then proceeded to Sabaragamuwa.
The war Admiral with shining powerful glory
saw the power of the army that did not tame Lanka by battle,
the Lanka that was chewed up by gangs who came to the country,
sent for fun and games to the five regions of Denawaka.
Those lowly Portuguese are always pleased with their own prestige.
The large Hollanders brought our own fiery majesty.
Flames of musket wicks were bound around from four directions.
Sabaragamuwa was liberated and enemy armies broken.
Noble Rajasinha who displays the majesty of floral wind,
eagerly made war and finished off the Portuguese.
He arrived at the time when the enemies came for war,
and broke open and obliterated the fort at Malwana.
Famous Lord King Rajasinha, majestic and noble,
not abandoning the battle and the well-bred Admiral,
courageously making war for beautiful Lanka,
went to Menikkadawara and broke its powerful fort.
With the meritorious, tough, and powerful King Rajasinha
in these urgent affairs, his retinues, named the army barricades,
made war with the Portuguese which allowed no passage,
and then went with the Hollanders to Kandy.
Esteemed Rajasinha, for the noble people of meritorious Sri Lanka,
made merry by giving delicious food at feasts
and garlands of pearls of varied splendor around necks,
as minds were well pleased by the warfare of the Hollanders.
King Rajasinha of the solar clan, being like God Sakka,
having smoothly brought the dignified Hollanders,
at the encampment established at famous Trincomalee,
courageously waged war and removed those entrenchments.
That majesty of King Rajasinha was made plentiful.
Taking the army of almighty Hollanders,
at beautiful Kottiyarama and Jaffna,
he had those camps rolled up, demolished, and removed in an instant.
Made to worship the royal feet of famous King Rajasinha,
prepared by the Hollanders according to the words he dispatched,
the troublesome Portuguese were beaten and released
like Mara’s army when the king caused Negombo to be returned.
King Rajasinha, full of glory without narrowness,
jostled shoulder to shoulder with those enemies who secured forts,
beating, yanking, and trampling their necks like jackals.
Time after time he opened up the forts at the ports.
King Rajasinha, who is like the sun for the world, was pleased.
At once he had all the encampments pulverized around this Lanka.
Becoming happy that the Portuguese were destroyed,
he sent word to remain in Colombo for merit.
The victorious King Rajasinha’s glory had not been recognized.
Everywhere in Lanka like cattle they were pulled along
without realizing the future disastrous results to come.
He crushed the stupidity of the ignorant bears.
As our lord of men was living feeling great fortune,
although they had sat in Sri Lanka in the city of Colombo,
the cattle were not allowed to live and feel the future.
His mind was fulfilled having mindfully returned Colombo.
Majestic King Rajasinha, as a glorious emperor,
brought the un-flimsy Dutch of pleasing Holland.
The army asks whether the city is to be sieged.
The message given says to sever, break, and claim.
Having heard it, the Admiral brought that letter to his head.
Happily he brought his troops without delay.
Shackling the strength of the Colombo encampments to sever them,
the troops went and covered everything like titans.
With stalwart strength, the Portuguese resided in Colombo,
compelled to wage war on both its fronts without intervals.
Knowing the valor and courage of war, the Portuguese rioted.
Having waged war for four months, Colombo was opened up.