Certain kinds of stories are so common in Indian peninsula that they keep us aware of our shared cultural history.
One of such stories comes from an ancient Srilankan chronicle Cūḷavaṃsa.
The legend about King Dhatusena, the 1st of Moriya dynasty of the region we call Sinhala or Srilanka and his son King Kashyap1 also has an India connection. During his 26year rule starting from CE 455, Dhatusena united the Anuradhapura region under his rule defeating rulers of Pandyan or Tamil origin whom old Srilankan texts describes as "six Dravidian kings". Belief is that his ancestors were overthrown by the ancestors of the same rulers by 1st century CE. He built at least one large Buddha statue and established a modern irrigation system consisting of water canals and tanks. His life story is no doubt interesting but his children's is even more.
Dhatusena had three children - one daughter and two sons among whom the eldest one Kasyapa 1 was born of his concubine. Hence the youngest, Moggallana1 born of the queen was declared the heir of the kingdom. Kasyapa was given the role of a royal official and he happily performed his duties. But the princess, who was married to the King's sisters son Migara developed a bitter relationship with her aunt or mother in law. Dharusena's affection to his daughter made him blind. So when she complained against her mother in law, the king simply passed the death sentence to his sister. And this became reason for the long conflict or rather a game of thrones in the dynasty.
Migara wanted to take revenge for his mother's killing but was also aware of own fragile status in comparison to the king. So he started instigating Kasyapa against his father. Kasyapa started believing that he should be the rightful owner of the throne. Migara told him that his father had hidden immence wealth somewhere. But upon his demand of accessing the wealth, his father showed him the ocean; said, "this is the place where all my wealth is hidden". Infuriated Kasyap attacked him, and buried him alive under the Bund Kalaweva. Another opinion about the event is, he only imprisoned Dhatusena and ascended the throne through a palace coup. The royal official obviously was influential enough to lead a revolt.
Thus Kasyapa captured the throne of Sinhala taking the title Kasyapa1 in CE 473. Moggallana fled to the southern part of India in fear of own life while Kasyapa became a powerful ruler of the region. However he could not get rid of the fear of his father's ghost or his brother's return to the kingdom. On the other hand, his heinous act brought him into disrepute. Either to avoid angry subjects and Buddhist monks, who had influence over people or to secure himself from his brother, he decided to shift his capital from Anuradhapura to Sigiriya.
Many efficient architects and engineers were given the task of creating a new fort capital. The well constructed palace on the Sigiriya rock or Lion-stone, the citadel and the city was not only an engineering Marvel of that time, it's elaborate plan draws our awe even today. No wonder Sigiriya is today an unesco heritage site.
No, even the high rock fortress, strong lion gate, mirror walls that reflected any intruder's movement towards city or the thousand feet steps to reach his palace could not save him for ever. Moggallana made friends with powerful Tamil rulers, organised a large structured army and then attacked Sigariya in CE 495.
In the battlefield, King Kasyapa1 led his army sitting on an elephant. He decided to take his elephant towards the left to be able to cover the battlefield better. But as his elephant started moving, the army thought he was defeated. They surrendered before Moggallana without wasting time. By the time Kasyapa realised what had happened, he had no other option but to commit suicide using own sword.
Moggalllana1 became 3rd king of Moriya dynasty. He took the capital back to Anuradhapura and converted Sigiriya into a monastery. Historical records show that Buddhist monks inhabited the place till 14th century.
After hundreds of years, when modern archaeologists of British Srilanka found the trace of that grand Sigiriya near Dambulla, it was covered by dense forest.
The ruins of the fort city of Sigiriya in central Srilanka, aerial picture from Wikipedia.
