Rajasinha II vs Vimaladharmasuriya I

Rajasinha II signed a treaty with the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to expel the Portuguese from Sri Lanka. The treaty promised the Dutch a monopoly on cinnamon trade and control of captured Portuguese forts.

Rajasinha II's forces, allied with the Dutch, captured Colombo from the Portuguese after a long siege. This ended Portuguese rule in Sri Lanka.

After the capture of Colombo, the Dutch refused to hand over the fort to Rajasinha II, as stipulated in the 1638 treaty. This led to a breakdown in relations and subsequent conflict between the Kandyan kingdom and the Dutch.

Dutch forces, in retaliation for Rajasinha II's attacks, captured and sacked Kandy. The king fled to the mountains, and the Dutch briefly occupied the capital.

Vimaladharmasuriya I established Kandy as the capital of the Sinhalese kingdom. He fortified the city and made it the center of resistance against Portuguese expansion.

Vimaladharmasuriya I's forces ambushed and defeated a Portuguese army at Danture. The Portuguese commander, Pedro Lopes de Sousa, was killed, and the Kandyan kingdom secured its independence.

Vimaladharmasuriya I restored Buddhism as the state religion in the Kandyan kingdom. He brought the Tooth Relic of the Buddha to Kandy and built a temple to house it, reviving Buddhist traditions.

Vimaladharmasuriya I built the first Temple of the Tooth in Kandy to house the sacred Tooth Relic. This established Kandy as the primary Buddhist center in Sri Lanka.