[12] During this period, important local Tamil literature was produced and Hindu temples were built, including an academy for language advancement.

[17] The arrival of the Portuguese on the island of Sri Lanka in 1505, and its strategic location in the Palk Strait connecting all interior Sinhalese kingdoms to South India, created political problems.

[22][23][24][25][26] Among mainstream historians, such as K. M. de Silva, S. Pathmanathan and Karthigesu Indrapala, the widely accepted view is that the kingdom of the Aryacakravarti dynasty in Jaffna began in 1215 with the invasion of a previously unknown chieftain called Magha, who claimed to be from Kalinga in modern India.

[2] After the conquest of Rajarata, he moved the capital to the Jaffna peninsula which was more secured by heavy Vanni forest and ruled as a tribute-paying subordinate of the Chola empire of Tanjavur, in modern Tamil Nadu, India.

[27] Sri Lanka was invaded for the 3rd time by the Pandyan Dynasty under the leadership of Arya Cakravarti who established the Jaffna kingdom.

[2] When the Pandyan Empire became weak due to Muslim invasions, successive Aryacakravarti rulers made the Jaffna kingdom independent and a regional power to reckon with in Sri Lanka.

[2][6] All subsequent kings of the Jaffna kingdom claimed descent from one Kulingai Cakravarti who is identified with Kalinga Magha by Swami Gnanaprakasar and Mudaliar Rasanayagam while maintaining their Pandyan progenitor's family name.

[6] However, it met with simultaneous confrontations with the Vijayanagar empire that ruled from Vijayanagara, southern India, and a rebounding Kingdom of Kotte from the south of Sri Lanka.

Apparently connected with this war of conquest was an expedition to Adriampet in modern South India, occasioned according to Valentyn by the seizure of a Lankan ship laden with cinnamon.

The Tenkasi inscription of Arikesari Parakrama Pandya of Tinnevelly who saw the backs of kings at Singai, Anurai, and elsewhere, may refer to these wars; it is dated between 1449–50 and 1453–54.

[35][36] The first expedition led by Viceroy Dom Constantino de Bragança in 1560 failed to subdue the kingdom but wrested Mannar Island from it.

[34][37] In 1591, during the second expedition led by André Furtado de Mendonça, king Puvirasa Pandaram was killed and his son Ethirimanna Cinkam was installed as the monarch.

Cankili II, a usurper, and nephew of the late king killed all the princes of royal blood including Arasakesari and the powerful chief Periya Pillai Arachchi.

On his part, Raghunatha Nayak of Thanjavur made attempts to recover the Jaffna kingdom for his protege, the Prince of Rameshwaram.

[44] According to Ibn Batuta, a traveling Moroccan historian of note, by 1344, the kingdom had two capitals: one in Nallur in the north and the other in Puttalam in the west during the pearling season.

[47] The village headman was called talaiyari, pattankaddi or adappanar and he assisted in the collection of taxes and was responsible for the maintenance of order in his territorial unit.

[47][49] Vannimais were regions south of the Jaffna peninsula in the present-day North Central and Eastern provinces and were sparsely settled by people.

The non-agriculture tradition of the kingdom became strong as a result of large coastal fishing and boating population and growing opportunities for seaborne commerce.

[12] The king's officials, namely Mudaliayars, were also paid in cash and the numerous Hindu temples seem not to have owned extensive properties, unlike the Buddhist establishments in the South.

Columbuthurai, which connected the Peninsula with the mainland at Poonakari with its boat services, was one of the chief port, and there were customs check posts at the sand passes of Pachilaippalai.

[47] Not all payments in kind were converted to cash, offerings of rice, bananas, milk, dried fish, game meat and curd persisted.

The obverse of these coins have a human figure flanked by lamps and the reverse has the Nandi (bull) symbol, the legend Setu in Tamil with a crescent moon above.

He built a pond called Yamuneri and filled it with water from the Yamuna river of North India, which is considered holy by Hindus.

The Hindu New Year falling on the middle of April was more elaborately celebrated and festivals, such as Navarattiri, Deepavali, Sivarattiri, and Thaiponkal, along with marriages, deaths and coming of age ceremonies were part of the daily life.

[51][60] The service providing communities were known as Kudimakkal and consisted of various groups such as the Ambattar, Vannar, Kadaiyar, Pallar, Nalavar, Paraiyar, Koviyar and Brahmin.

[80] The Chettys were well known as traders and owners of Hindu temples and the Pallar and Nalavar castes composed of the agriculturist labours who tilled the land.

[81][82] Mercenaries of various ethnic and caste backgrounds from India, such as the Telugus (known locally as Vadugas) and Malayalees from the Kerala region were also employed by the king as soldiers.

According to the earliest historiographical literature of the Kingdom of Jaffna, Vaiyaapaadal, datable to 14th–15th century, in verse 77 lists the community of Papparavar (Berbers specifically and Africans in general) along with Kuchchiliyar (Gujaratis) and Choanar (Arabs) and places them under the caste category of Pa’l’luvili who are believed to be cavalrymen of Muslim faith .

[15] During the reign of Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan rule, a work on medical science (Segarajasekaram), on astrology (Segarajasekaramalai)[15][86] and on mathematics (Kanakathikaram) were authored by Karivaiya.

This academy performed a useful service in collecting and preserving ancient Tamil works in manuscripts form in a library called Saraswathy Mahal.