Early reign There was a rival claimant to succeed
Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha, the brother of Queen Upendrama, Muthuswamy, who had a stronger claim. However, Pilimatalauwa, the first
Adigar (prime minister), chose Prince Kannasamy, reportedly with deep-seated plans to usurp the throne to set up a dynasty of his own. Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was faced with numerous conspiracies to overthrow him and reigned through one of the most turbulent periods in Sri Lanka's history.
Internal conflict During his time, the
British who had succeeded the
Dutch in the Maritime Provinces had not interfered in the politics of the
Kingdom of Kandy. But
Pilimatalauwa, the first Adigar of the King, desiring British control over the island, covertly worked with the British administration to provoke the King into acting aggressively towards them in order to give Britain a
casus belli against the
Kandyan Kingdom. The Adigar manipulated the King into starting a military conflict with the British, who had gained a strong position in the coastal provinces. War was declared and on 22 March 1803, the British entered Kandy with no resistance, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha having fled. The
Adigar massacred the British garrison in Kandy in June and restored the King to the throne. Pilimitalava plotted to overthrow the King and seize the crown for himself, but his plot was discovered, and, having been pardoned on two previous occasions, he was
executed. The disgraced
Adigar was replaced by his nephew,
Ehelepola Nilame, who soon came under suspicion of following his uncle in plotting the overthrow of Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. A rebellion instigated by Ehalepola was suppressed, after which he fled to
Colombo and joined the British. After failing to surrender (after 3 weeks of notice ), the exasperated King dismissed Ehelepola, confiscated his lands, and ordered the imprisonment and execution of his wife and children. A propagandised account of the execution was widely circulated by sympathisers. in the 1800s. Ehelepola fled to
British-controlled territory, where he persuaded the British that Sri Vikrama Rajasinha's tyranny deserved a military intervention. The pretext was provided by the seizure of a number of British merchants, who were detained on suspicion of spying and were tortured, killing several of them. An invasion was duly mounted and advanced to Kandy without resistance, reaching the city on 10 February 1815. On 2 March, the Kingdom was ceded to the British under a treaty called the
Kandyan Convention. Regarding the King's reign, the historian
Louis Edmund Blaze states that "He was not as ardent a patriot as his immediate successors; nor did he show those mental and moral qualities which enabled former Kings to hold their own against rebellion and invasion. To say he was cruel does not mean much, for cruel Kings and nobles were not rare in those days; and it is questionable whether all the cruel deeds attributed to Sri Vickrama Rajasinha were of his own devising or done by his authority. It might be more fair to regard him as a weak tool in the hands of designing chiefs than as the monster of cruelty, which it is an idle fashion with some writers to call him. He did a lot to beautify his
capital. The lake and the Octagon in Kandy have always been considered the work of the King." == Death ==