Ethirimanna Cinkam ( ta, எதிர்மன்னசிங்கம்) (died 1617) was the penultimate ruler of the

Aryacakravarti The Arya Chakravarti dynasty ( ta, ஆரியச் சக்கரவர்த்திகள் வம்சம், Sinhalese language, Sinhalese: ආර්ය චක්‍රවර්තී රාජවංශය) were kings of the Jaffna ...

line of Kings of the

Jaffna Kingdom The Jaffna Kingdom ( ta, யாழ்ப்பாண அரசு, si, යාපනය රාජධානිය; 1215–1624 CE), also known as Kingdom of Aryachakravarti, was a historical kingdom of what today is northern Sri Lanka. It came i ...

in northern

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. He came to power due to the second

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

expedition led by André Furtado de Mendonça in 1591. In that expedition, the King of Jaffna,

Puviraja Pandaram Puviraja Pandaram ( ta, புவிராஜ பண்டாரம்) (died 1591) ruled the Jaffna kingdom during a period of chaos during and after the death of his father Cankili I in 1565. He became king in 1561 following a local uprising ag ...

(1561–65, 1582–91) and the father of Ethirimnna Cinkam was killed.

A client

Ethirimanna Cinkam was injured in the battle and was saved by a Portuguese

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Simão Pinhão. Eventually he was installed as client monarch. The conditions imposed were that Catholic missionary activity to be freely allowed and the Elephant export monopoly to be handed over to the Portuguese as well as the tribute to paid by the Kingdom was increased.de Silva, A ''History of Sri Lanka'', p. 166

Balancing act

But Ethirimanna Cinkam who became the king under the name Parasasekaran VII (1591–1617) interrupted the Catholic missionary activities and the Portuguese monopoly on Elephant exports. He carried out an undercover campaign against the Catholic

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

and did not look with favor on converts. He interfered with the passage and shipping of Elephants of the Portuguese government through his territories thereby securing advantageous terms for his Elephants. By 1595 the King of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

had issued an order to remove him but colonial authorities in Goa did not oblige as Ethirimanna Cinkam was not overly disruptive to Portuguese colonial interests.

The end

He also helped the re-founded

Kandyan Kingdom The Kingdom of Kandy was a monarchy on the island of Sri Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in the late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century. Initially a client kingdom of the Kin ...

King Vimaladharmasuriya I (1593–1604) and King Senarat (1604–1635) to secure help from

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union terr ...

to resist the Portuguese. Like Bhuvanekabahu VII of

Kotte Kingdom The Kingdom of Kotte ( si, කෝට්ටේ රාජධානිය, Kottay Rajadhaniya), named after its capital, Kotte, was a Sinhalese kingdom that flourished in Sri Lanka during the 15th century. Kotte, under the rule of Ming-back ...

through a mixture of native cunning and the ability to perform a delicate balancing act he secured a surprising degree of room for maneuver.Abeysinghe, T ''Jaffna Under the Portuguese'', p. 3 He died peacefully in April 1617 leaving a young son as the heir apparent that precipitated events leading to the demise of the Kingdom.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cinkam, Ethirimana 1617 deaths Kings of Jaffna Sri Lankan Hindus Sri Lankan Tamil royalty Year of birth unknown 16th-century monarchs in Asia 17th-century monarchs in Asia