Abstract
It is nominally stated in historical sources that the war waged by the British, the controller of the coastal area of Ceylon, against the Kingdom of Kandy ended with the massacre of British soldiers in 1803. Suspicions arise that the British administrators purposefully avoided including the word "massacre" in their written evidence. The War of 1803, begun by order of Governor Frederick North, led by Hay McDowell, was commanded on the ground by Adam Davie. The objectives of this research were to find out whether this war ended in a massacre on the British side if there was a massacre, what quantitative and qualitative numerical data and information could be used to confirm it, and what methods were used by the Kandyan army to the massacre. Historical research methodology has been used for this research. Encirclement; silent attack; massacring after grouping and isolation as ordinary soldiers and officers, Asian soldiers, and European soldiers; starving to death; killing by cutting the body into parts using a sword; abandoned to death in the mud while alive; beating to death only on the head of a person by using sticks and clubs until the brain comes out; were the methods of destruction used by the Kandyan army to assassinate the British army. For the war of 1803, 7 regiments from the British and a pioneer Lascarin army entered the Kandy state. The total number of troops that entered Kandy for the subjugation of Kandy was 3387. from 1st January to 30th June 1803, the number of soldiers who died on the British side was 1091. Adam Davy died while a hostage in Kandy. It is justified to include in Sri Lankan war history that the British soldiers were "massacred" in the war with the Kingdom of Kandy in 1803.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4038/jdrra.v2i2.38 | Journal eISSN: 3030-7015
Language: English
Page range: 1 - 17
Published on: Dec 31, 2024
Published by: The Library, University of Kelaniya
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
© 2024 S. Herath, published by The Library, University of Kelaniya
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.
