the royal cannon of kandy
palace of king of kandy then
Four
kings in Kandy were trading with Dutch but the resentment of not honoring the
agreement remained a thorny point in their relations. However none of them could bring this sporadic
frictions into a conclusion because Kandyans lacked sea power to fight European
powers at sea or blockade them bringing in reinforcements from their nearby
Indian colonies when their possessions here are attacked.
In
1760,
King
Kirthi Sri, the
second Nayakkar king was reigning in Kandy, who after visiting
Polonnaruwa had decided he will follow the footsteps of ancient king
Parakramabahu the great, sent an army to help rebellion in low lands and captured many cities from Dutch
including Mathara and Hanwalla. Mathara fort on the peninsula between sea and
Nilwala River was destroyed by the Kandyans.
The
governor Jan Schreuder was recalled and Lubbert Jan baron Van
Eck replaced him as the 31st governor of coastal areas of Ceylon. He wrestled
back the disavanis captured by king of Kandy with reinforcements from India and
mounted a retaliatory invasion to Kandy. In Mathara he built a star fort and
named it after himself, Van Eck redoubt. His experience in India as governor of
Coromandal, made it easier for him to exercise his control in Ceylon because of
many similarities between the two countries.
New
governor’s first invasion to Kandy in 1764 ended in dismal failure. They had to
fall back to Colombo with heavy losses after Kandyan armies defeated the Dutch
van guard attempting to enter the city from Sath korale. They succeeded in
reaching Kandy in the second attempt next year and occupied the city briefly.
Before entering the city King sent many massages to the general who had camped
at king’s garden at Katugasthota to save the city but general imposed so many
conditions king refused them and fled.
Whilst occupying Kandy Dutch, it
seems, very busy not only making preparations for the defenses of their
temporary occupation but they were busy too in looting kings treasure and
shipping them into Colombo for onward dispatch to their home country. Not only
palace of kandy but palaces at Kundasale and Hanguranketha were also ransacked.
Among the war booty there were many jewelry, weapons and other artifacts. One
of them, a decorated bronze canon inlaid with silver and rubies
had been the royal canon of the Kandyan kings belonging to royal household of
king Kirthi Sri Rajasingha.
After few months Kandyan armies attacked
occupiers and Dutch had to fall back to Colombo again with many losses.
Governor sent many reconciliatory massages to king for armistice, and it was
king’s turn to turn tables, massages were sent back unread. Kandyans could not pursue the fleeing army because
people in Kandyan areas were starving as they could not plant rice due to war
and the king’s food stores have been set on fire by the invading armies. Then an armistice was signed in 1766 between
the two warring parties in which two main clauses were that Dutch would keep
the control of the coast as per earlier status quo and when Dutch ambassadors
come to see king in Kandy they will
present themselves in front of the king without kneeling down at the audience
in Magul Maduwa. Interestingly the
second condition had to be abandoned later because king refused to grant
audience unless ambassadors agree to kneel down. Governor died in Colombo shortly afterwards.
The cannon meantime, probably with large amount of
treasure looted from Kandyan invasion had arrived in roads of Texel, Nederland
in June 1766 in a ship called Overns. After arrival It has been in the
curiosity cabinet of the Prince William V having being described at various
stages as a gift from many
head of states including Emperor of Tunis to the states general or from the Dey
of Algiers and eventually catalogued as
‘a gift from certain Indian king.’
Painting by Renier Vinkeles showing how the cannon was brought
into the building of the State General
After the French troops seized power in
Nederland in 1795 this cannon along with four other historical objects were
brought into a new museum and presented to new parliament where they were given
place of honour in the building of states General at Binnenhof of Hague. The
cannon from there found its way into east wing of the ground floor of Rijkmusuem in Amsterdam where it is in
permanent displayed now.
This is the
background story of the decorated cannon at display at Rajikmusuem in
Amsterdam. The cannon as depicted by the image is priceless and probably one of
its kind in anywhere in the world. It’s antiquity; dating back to at least 1750
no doubt, ads further value to its already priceless stature. This artifact
would be a pride to any nation to whom it belongs, and in this case the
Sinhalese nation.
It belongs
to Sinhalese nation because of many reasons;
1. That it was looted by a force of
invading Dutch during an unjust war, from Sinhalese people.
2. It was an illegal acquisition; Dutch
had attempted to conceal the fact that it came from Srilanka for many decades
and claimed it was a gift from several other head of states.
3. All relevant documentation of its acquisition,
storage, transportation and display are available on record.
We must be
grateful to the Nederland for keeping it in the government possession because,
if it became a private property as many of the other war booties, we wouldn’t even
know that it still exist. However it’s time to claim back this nationally
significant monument. Srilankan people
can display it, at its rightful place which is next to the palace of king of
Kandy, from where it was forcibly removed 253 years back.
Our government,
even at this late stage, must request the people of Nederland to return this decorated
field piece and I cannot see any reason for them to not to honor such a
reasonable and just request.
ඒක එතනම තිබුනාවේ. ලංකාවට ගෙන්වා ගත්තට පස්සේ කන්ගැට්ටා ඇවිත් හොරෙන් අරන් ගියොත් ආයි කවදාවත්ම දකින්න නැහැ.
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