Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan

Who was Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan?

Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan was the Aryacakravarti king of the Jaffna Kingdom in modern-day northern Sri Lanka, who had a military confrontation with a southern chief known as Alagakkonara. According to traditional sources, Alagkkonara defeated Jeyaveera's naval and land forces and assumed royal power in the southern Gampola Kingdom. Later, King Harihara II's brother Yuvaraja Virupanna invaded Sri Lanka from Karnataka, defeated Alagkkonara and established a pillar of victory there. With this, many Karnataka soldiers, their families and merchants settled down in the Jaffna area. Hence some contemporary visitors refer to part of Jaffna as Vadamarachi literally a city of northerners. Thus by 1385 AD, Jaffna area was well known as a Vadumarachi.

Until this defeat all southern kings were paying tribute to the Aryachakravartis. He or his successor is credited with having left behind an inscription in the South Indian Hindu temple Rameswaram about renovating its sanctum sanctorum. It indicated the stones for the renovations were shipped from the city of Trincomalee in present day eastern Sri Lanka.