Gajabahu II was
king
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
of
Rajarata
Rajarata ( (); ; meaning "King's country") was one of three historical regions of the island of Sri Lanka for about 1,700 years from the 6th century BCE to the early 13th century CE. Several ancient cities, including Tambapanni, Upatissa Nuwara, A ...
from 1131 until 1153, following his father
Vikramabahu I. He was defeated and succeeded by
Parakramabahu I
Parākramabāhu I (Sinhala language, Sinhala: මහා පරාක්රමබාහු, 1123–1186), or Parakramabahu the Great, was the List of Sinhalese monarchs, king of Kingdom of Polonnaruwa, Polonnaruwa from 1153 to 1186. He oversaw ...
.
Background
Religious views
In the Tamil chronicles of
Trincomalee
Trincomalee (; , ; , ), historically known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee District and major resort port city of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Located on the east coast o ...
, Gajabahu II is described initially as being a Buddhist king responsible for the spread of
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
. The king then adopts
Shaivism
Shaivism (, , ) is one of the major Hindu denominations, Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Para Brahman, supreme being. It is the Hinduism#Demographics, second-largest Hindu sect after Vaishnavism, constituting about 385 million H ...
, and spends his days devoted to Saiva learning, and regularly sponsoring
pujas and festivals. He richly supports the
Koneswaram Temple with grants, spending his last days at the Brahmin village of
Kantalai.
[ pp.252-253] The
Mahavamsa similarly claims that he strongly supported non-Buddhist religions. However, the inscriptional evidence suggests that he supported both Hindu and Buddhist temples alike.
[ pp.123-125]
See also
*
Mahavamsa
*
List of monarchs of Sri Lanka
The monarchs of Sri Lanka, also referred to as the Sinhalese monarchy, were the heads of state and rulers of the Sinhala Kingdoms located in present-day Sri Lanka, from 543 BCE (according to chronicles) until its abolition in 1815 CE.
The Sinha ...
*
History of Sri Lanka
The history of Sri Lanka covers Sri Lanka and the history of the Indian subcontinent and its surrounding regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.
Prehistoric Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years and possibly even as far back a ...
References
External links
Kings & Rulers of Sri LankaCodrington's Short History of Ceylon
Monarchs of Polonnaruwa
Sinhalese kings
House of Vijayabahu
12th-century Sinhalese monarchs
{{SriLanka-hist-stub