Rival King Mayadunne had soon annexed much of the Kotte kingdom and is threatening the security of the capital city itself.

The Portuguese are obliged to defend Dharmapala (and their own credibility) because the ruler lacks a popular following.

They are subsequently forced to abandon Kotte and retreat to Colombo, taking the despised puppet king with them.

Mayadunne and, later, his son, Rajasinha, besiege Colombo many times.

The latter is so successful that the Portuguese are once even forced to eat the flesh of their dead to avoid starvation.

The Portuguese would probably have lost their holdings in Sri Lanka had they not had maritime superiority and been able to send reinforcements by sea from their base at Goa on the western coast of India.

The Kingdom of Sitawake puts up the most vigorous opposition to Western imperialism in the island's history.

For the seventy-three-year period of its existence, Sitawake (1521-94) rises to become the predominant power on the island, with only the Tamil kingdom at Jaffna and the Portuguese fort at Colombo beyond its control.

When Rajasinha dies in 1593, no effective successors are left to consolidate his gains, and the kingdom collapses as quickly as it had arisen.

Sitawakan rule over Kandy, located in the central hills of Ceylon, has proved difficult to enforce.

Wirasundara Mudiyanse, Rajasinha's viceroy in the area, had rebelled soon after the initial conquest; though his uprising had been crushed another occurs in 1588.

Rajasinha, the son and successor of Mayadunne of Sitawaka, has besieged Colombo, the capital of Portuguese Ceylon, for twenty-two months.

In the absence of a Sitawakan navy, the Portuguese—supplied from Goa via the sea—can hold out for extended periods of time.

After a shift in policy by Calicut ensures that there is no hope of rekindling the old alliance with the south Indian kingdom, Rajasinha is forced to abandon the siege in February 1588 to deal with unrest further inland.

His main battle is against the Portuguese forces in defense of the sovereignty of the Sinhala monarch, but he continues to battle numerous internal forces—some regional and individual, supported directly and indirectly by forces from Portugal.

Rajasinha's defense of his kingdom's borders is made more difficult by the Portuguese invasion of the northern Jaffna Kingdom in 1591.

The Kandyan resistance eventually coalesces around Konnappu Bandara, son of Wirasundara, who had fled to Portuguese lands following his father's murder by agents of Rajasinha.

He defeats Rajasinha in 1593 at Balane and Mawela, effectively securing Kandy's independence from Sitawaka.

Adopting the name Vimaladharmasuriya, he seizes the throne of Kandy, converts back to Buddhism, and marries Princess Kusmasana Devi who, as Dona Catherina, had been put forward by the Portuguese as the rightful claimant to the throne.

At the time of his coronation Buddhism is on the verge of disappearing from the island.

Learning that ordained Buddhist monks no longer exist on the island, he sends one of ministers to Southern Burma and reestablishes Buddhism in the island.

By this time the Relic of the tooth of the Buddha is hidden in Delgamuwa Raja Maha Vihara in Sabaragamuwa Province.

The king brings the Tooth relic to Kandy and builds a two-story Temple near the royal palace to house the relic.

He also repairs many ruined Buddhist temples throughout his kingdom.