the coast of India. After its recovery Yapahu was
deserted, A.D. 1319. Kornegalle or Kurunaigalla, then called
Hastisailapoora and Gampola[4], still further to the south and more
deeply intrenched amongst the Kandyan mountains, were successively
chosen for the royal residence, A.D. 1347. Thence the uneasy seat of
government was carried to Peradenia, close by Kandy, and its latest
migration, A.D. 1410, was to Jaya-wardana-pura, the modern Cotta, a few
miles east of Colombo.

[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 104; _Mahawanso_, ch. lxxxiii.]

[Footnote 2: _Rajaratnacari_, p. 82.]

[Footnote 3: A.D. 1303.]

[Footnote 4: Gampola or Gam-pala, _Ganga-siripura_, "the beautiful city
near the river," is said in the _Rajaratnacari_ to have been built by
one of the brothers-in-law of Panduwaasa, B.C. 504.]

Such frequent removals are evidences of the alarm and despondency
excited by the forays and encroachments of the Malabars, who from their
stronghold at Jaffna exercised undisputed dominion over the northern
coasts on both sides of the island, and, secure in the possession of the
two ancient capitals, Anarajapoora and Pollanarrua, spread over the rich
and productive plains of the north. To the present hour the population
of the island retains the permanent traces of this alien occupation of
the ancient kingdom of Pihiti. The language of the north of the island,
from Chilaw on the west coast to Batticaloa on the east, is chiefly, and
in the majority of localities exclusively, Tamil; whilst to the south of
the Dederaoya and the Mahawelli-ganga, in the ancient divisions of
Rohuna and Maya, the vernacular is uniformly Singhalese.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1410.]

Occasionally, after long periods of inaction, collisions took place; or
the Singhalese kings equipped expeditions against the north; but the
contest was unequal; and in spite of casual successes, "the king of the
Ceylonese Malabars," as he is styled in the _Rajavali_, held his court
at Jaffnapatam, and collected tribute from both the high and the low
countries, whilst the south of the island was subdivided into a variety
of petty kingdoms, the chiefs of which, at Yapahu, at Kandy, at Gampola,
at Matura, Mahagam, Matelle, and other places[1], acknowledged the
nominal supremacy of the sovereign at Cotta, with whom, however, they
were necessarily involved in territorial quarrels, and in hostilities
provoked by the withholding of tribute.

[Footnote 1: _Rajavali_, p. 263; _Mahaw