Rajasinha I
When word reached Veediya Bandara in Uva Province, he made haste to descend upon the army of Kandy before it joined forces with Mayadunne.
[citation needed] This however was an ambush; secretly deployed forces above Sitawaka fort attacked Veediya Bandara's men and took them by complete surprise.
Veediya Bandara himself retreated with several of his guards only to be betrayed by them, as Prince Tikiri had announced a hefty price for his head.
Veediya Bandara was angry and ordered them to fall back and carry the body of the loyal commander-general of his bodyguard, Maggona Arachchi, his childhood friend.
Combined Sitawaka and Portuguese troops attacked Veediye Bandara's fort at Pelenda, chasing him down to Devundara and capturing Tikiri Kumari.
Infuriated by this relationship with Portuguese invaders, with the support of Weerasundera Mudali of Peradeniya, Rajasinha led his troops up to the entry point at Balana in 1583 and chased Karalyadde Bandara.
According to Queros, though he solicited the support from Malabar coast or Kerala troops, the non-availability of a naval fleet caused by the Portuguese raids of port towns affected his endeavors to cleanse the country from invaders despite his remarkable sieges of Colombo Fort in 1581 and 1587.
[6][3] A Portuguese army led by Captain Major Afonso Pereira de Lacerda was defeated by Sitawakan forces at Mulleriyawa in 1562.
So Goa sent a veteran commander named Jorge de Menezes (nicknamed Baroche for his exploits at the city of Broach which lies in the bay of Cambaya) to take over.
[7] De Menezes held the office of captain-major of Portuguese Ceylon from 1559 to 1560 which places the battle sometime after May 1559 and at the same time questions the above date (1562).
[10] King Mayadunne received the news of this invasion force and sent an army under the command of his son Rajasimha toward Hewagama.
It is believed that after the fall of the Kingdom of Kotte with the Veediya Bandara's son, Don Juan Dharmapala Maggona fighters were desperate for the country and the nation.
Encouraged by this early success, de Menezes prepared his forces to capture the grand stockade of Mapitigama.
When the captains approached de Menezes regarding low gunpowder reserves, it led to the famous reply “...If there is no powder they might load their muskets with sand, and if they did not shoot, they might finish the fight with the sword, because such brave Portuguese had no need of arms as long as they had nails and teeth.”[14] De Menezes renewed the attack, but his men withdrew against his orders to hold back.
[11] Then he reinforced Wickramasinghe Mudali's remaining forces with elephants and elite targe bearers and deployed them in left and right wings.
[15] Finally, Tikiri Bandara deployed the remaining targe bearers, war elephants, and cavalry in the center and assumed the command himself.
[11] Meanwhile, the Portuguese found their rear blocked by large trees[14] and the enemy close by, so they drew up themselves (arranged in battle ranks) in an open area at Mulleriyawa.
[11] The intensity of the battle described in Portuguese sources by accounts of men trying to stop elephants with banner staffs, and a soldier attacking Chingalaz (Sinhalese) with teeth when he lost his weapons.
[16] Tikiri Bandara rode throughout the battle line, encouraging men to continuously press the attack and to close the gaps.
Although the Sitawakans were no longer pressing the attack, Portuguese sources provide names of six soldiers who were killed in this wood by Sitawaka forces using musket fire alone.
[17] After the battle, Tikiri Bandara sent for the Arachchies of Koratota, Hewagama, Korale, and Hokanrdara, rewarding them for their vital charge against the Portuguese rear.
[19] The Arachchi of Koratota was gifted Bandara's sword, and to this day his descendants (who have changed their surname to Perera) still maintain the weapon in their possession, using it to practise the martial art of angampora.
King Rajasinghe I appointed a South Indian named Aritta Kivendu as his chief advisor and acted on his advice.
King Rajasinha arranged the marriage of Mannamperuma Mohottala to a sister of a junior queen known as the "iron daughter" He reverted to Shaiva Siddhanta,[23] the first since Devanampiya Tissa's conversion.
Traces of the era exist in temples like Barandi Kovila (Bhairava-andi kovil) in Sitawaka and the worship of other Shaivite deities by the Sinhalese, like the syncretic Natha deviyo, Sellakataragama and others.
In the Sath korale region, a prince named Pothupala Bandara rebelled against Rajasinha with the support of the Portuguese.
