The
royal cannon of Kandy
In
1740 Dutch officially replaced Portuguese in coastal areas of Ceylon with the
help of the king of Kandy, king Rajasingha ll. Although there was an agreement between
king of Kandy and the Dutch to handover the coastal areas to Kandyan kingdom
after Portuguese leave Dutch refused to do so claiming a enormous fee that’s impossible for the king of Kandy to
pay for their contribution in wrestling back the Portuguese
possessions in the island. Though the Dutch were less cruel and more professional
traders than Portuguese the resentment among the Kandyans, for cheating them of
the coastal area remained a serious and contentious issue between the two. The
origin of the conflict was having two different clauses in copies of the
agreement signed between Dutch and king Rajasingha ll in 1738.king’s copy said
after expelling Portuguese Dutch would occupy forts if king would ask them. But
copy of the VOC of the same agreement, strangely, said Dutch would occupy the
forts after Portuguese are expelled.
Although four consecutive kings were trading with Dutch 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 in order to 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. However Dutch 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 to discuss them and fled.
Dutch map of Kandy
around 1765
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 to 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.
Kings palace in Kandy at
that time
Then Dutch governor of Ceylon lubbert
Van Eck , who led the invasion had
recorded that the cannon should be sent to Duke of Brunswick , the
administrative guardian of William V, Prince of Orange, the last Stadtholder of
the Dutch Republic.
After few months Kandyan armies attacked Kandy
and occupiers and 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 royal court. 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.’
Texel harbour
then
Rijksmuseum
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.
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