War, Cultural Difference, and Kingship: Perspectives from the British Defeat in Kandy of 1803, in Comparative Context

The 1803 war between the British and the Kandyans was one of great drama: the British thought they had taken the kingdom, and its capital, only to be surrounded and slaughtered by the troops of the king. By considering both colonial sources and a valuable 300 verse compilation in honour of the king of Kandy, preserved in palm-leaves, this paper will discuss the role of colonial warfare in generating discourses of difference, and in particular kingship as well as despotism. The discussion will then broaden into comparative perspective, by placing the 1803 war against British advances in South and Southeast Asia and examining the extent to which war and its attendant cultural discourses had a transregional life.