113992242-Dravidian-Settlements-in-Ceylon-and-the-Beginnings-of-the-Kingdom-of-Jaffna-By-Karthigesu-Indrapala-Complete-Phd-Thesis-University-of-London-1965

43i
of Ngha's forces before the invasion of Candrabhnu. Secondly,
the C!fllavaisa judiciously avoids any mention of the forty-year
occupation, although this work is later than the P'jvaliya
and its accouut of the campaign against the forces of )gha is
remarkably similar to that of the P11jvaliya. This, too, casts
some doubt on the validity of the Pjvaliya statement. It is,
therefore, possible that the figure 'forty' in the statement of
the P11jva1iya is a mistake. It may also be possible that
MAgha was ousted from Polonnaruva before l2k7 but his forces were
not completely routed till 1255. The forty-year occupation may
refer to the presence of the enemy in the northern parts of
Ceylon and not to MAgha's rule in Polonnaruva.
Parana'uitana's second argument in favour of 1255
as the date of MAgha's defeat is that
If we take that Polonnaru and the Rjaraftha were
recovered by Parkramabhu before l2k7, in which year
the invasion of Candrabhnu was repulsed, he had no enemies
to contend with until the second invasion of Cand.rabbnu,
which, as will be shown later, occurred in or about 1260,
and the P4ya invasions, the first of which was in or
about 125k. He was, therefore4 free on this supposition,
to realise his ambition of being crowxied at Polonnaru,
and of restoring the Tooth Relic to its ancient shrine
at that city. But, for about ten or fifteen years after
the first defeat of Candrabbnu, Parkramabhu paid no
attention toolonnaru. All his religious and other
activities during these years were in the MAyraf a, or
in the south-western or central districts of the Island.
The reason for this must have been that Polonnarurwas
still in the hands of the enemy, who abandoned it after
an occupation of forty years, as stated by the PUjva1!,
in 1255. 1
1. U.C.H.C., I, pt.2, p. 621.