The Unknown Queen Consorts of Kandy
I have been fantasizing about ancient Kandy and its queen consorts. As I am planning short stories for Parampara's second collection, which includes two Kandyan necklaces from the 18th–19th centuries, I wanted to write stories inspired by the lives of the queen consorts of that time. I was excited about the idea, but the reality was much more challenging than I expected—There isn't much information about Kandyan queen consorts in English.
I was surprised by my discovery because there are many famous queen consorts, such as Anne Boleyn, the second queen consort to Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I. When the king wanted to marry Jane Seymour, Anne was charged with high treason and beheaded. Wu Zetian was the Tang dynasty royal concubine. Through seduction and murder, she earned her way to become a powerful empress consort who ruled alongside Emperor Gaozong. When her husband died, Wu Zetian deposed or exiled all her heirs and established the Zhou dynasty. Marie Antoinette, the last queen before the French revolution, was a lavish fashion icon of her time. She, along with her husband Louis XVI, lost her head to the guillotine. As for Sri Lankan queen consorts, I only found their name mentioned alongside their husbands.
Rangammal Devi, Queen Consort. Drawn by William Daniell in the 1800s (Credit: Wikimedia Commons).
Vencataranga Rajammal, also known as Rangammal Devi, was the queen consort of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, the last Kandyan king. Like other queen consorts before her, she was a member of the Madurai Nayaks dynasty hailing from a region comprising most of modern-day Tamil Nadu, southern India. On February 10th, 1815, the British troops, collaborating with the disgruntled Kandyan nobility, entered the kingdom and deposed the king. The king, his wives and children fled, but the British captured them and kept them under house arrest in Colombo. In 1816, the colonial power exiled the whole family to Vellore, Tamil Nadu, where the king died in 1832.
I can't help but wonder, who was Rangammal Devi? What was her relationship like with the king? Was she active in court life? Was she popular? Who were her friends and confidants? On that fateful day in 1815, did Rangammal Devi knew what was coming? Did she have time to pack a bag as she fled with her family? I will probably never find the answer to these questions and can only rely on my imagination.
Going back about 100 years in history, Pramila Devi was the queen consort of Sri Vira Parakrama Narendra Singha, the last Sinhalese king. She was known for two things: 1) She single-handedly altered the bloodline of the Sinhalese, Kandyan royal family. After the death of her husband, she appointed her brother, a Madurai Nayak prince, to be the new king. 2) She allegedly had a love affair with Dakson, the Prime Minister of European origins and the king's best friend. Jealous of his political powers, the other Kandyan ministers convinced the king that Dakson was a traitor and had an affair with his wife. He was beheaded. Again, Pramila Devi was only mentioned in relations to men—as a wife, a sister, and a potential lover. The affair was never confirmed, of course. Pramila Devi remains a mystery. It was difficult to imagine what she might have been like as a woman of her time without additional information.
The Portuguese Pedro Lopez welcomes the Empress of Ceylon, Dona Catharina.(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Kusumasana Devi, known as Dona Catarina, was the only Kandyan queen consort who has her own Wikipedia entry. Her father was the king of Kandy who was converted to Catholicism and was loyal to the Portuguese. After he died, she became the Queen Regent in 1581 but was deposed by Rajasinha I of Sitawaka on the same year. In 1891, Vimaladharmasuriya I defeated Rajasinha I and married Dona Catarina to solidify his legitimacy as a ruler. In 1604, after the death of Vimaladharmasuriya, she married her former brother-in-law, Senarat, who ascended the throne. After the death of her second husband, her youngest son became Rajasinha II. Despite her marriages to kings who practised Theravada Buddhism, Dona Catarina remained a Catholic her whole life, secretly spreading the word of God to her subjects.
It's hard to imagine what these women's lives might have been like. I am mostly interested in Rangammal Devi and Pramila Devi, who lived in the 18th-19th century. I want their lives to be an inspiration for the short stories I will be writing for Parmapara's second collection. However, I included Dona Catarina in this post because she is one of the better know queen consorts in ancient Ceylon. I wish there are more materials out there about the social aspects of Kandyan court life. I found quite a few journal articles on JSTOR that explained the Kandy kingdom’s long survival and its eventual demise and occupation, and there is an article about the historical roles of Sinhalese women in a more religious context. What I am looking for though, is information about the lives of the queen consorts independent of their roles as wife, mother, and sister. There is a Sinhalese teledrama, Dakson, that dramatizes the forbidden romance between Dakson and Pramila Devi. However, with long stretches of dialogues in Sinhalese, I can't make sense of it. All I can do is to admire the period drama's garments and accessories.
Dear reader, do you have any information about the social aspect of Kandyan court life or additional information about the queen consorts? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Please write to us.