Moving into the Native Ground

Abstract

Much of the second half of the sixteenth century was spent, even after the brutal looting in 1551 of the most sacred site of Lankan Buddhism at Kōṭṭe, in wars during which Portuguese troops followed Lankan orders. If comparisons with the New World can be made, then it is not so much with reference to the ‘Middle Ground’ paradigm coined by Richard White, as to the ‘Native Ground’ identified by historians such as Kathleen DuVal and Pekka Hämäläinen in other parts of North America. The kingdom of Kōṭṭe itself was constantly besieged by rival Lankan forces. In Colombo, an increasingly complex Mestizo society appeared, especially after this city absorbed the royal court of Kōṭṭe in 1565. The new capital remained politically dependent on the old imperial project of Kōṭṭe, but also became a potential breeding ground for plans of conquest—some inspired by Spanish deeds—that could not be controlled indefinitely by the Lankan elite.