Jaffna

Jaffna lies on a peninsula in northern Sri Lanka, facing the sea routes to southern India. It was the port of a Tamil kingdom whose royal centre stood at nearby Nallur. Merchants exchanged the products of the peninsula and the interior across the strait, including elephants sought in overseas markets. Hindu temples and the Tamil language linked the kingdom to the cultural world of southern India.

The Aryacakravarti rulers maintained a kingdom at Jaffna through much of the later medieval period, although Kotte briefly conquered it in the fifteenth century. In 1619 a Portuguese expedition defeated Cankili II and ended the independent kingdom. Resistance continued, including support from forces associated with Thanjavur. The Portuguese shifted their headquarters from Nallur to the coastal settlement of Jaffna, where a fort could be supplied by sea. They built churches and defensive works across the peninsula. In 1658 the Dutch captured Jaffna from the Portuguese and made the fort a centre of their own administration. The harbour and its fort remained a strategic link between Sri Lanka and the mainland across the strait.