In 473 CE, a prince named Kashyapa killed his own father — and then tried to outrun the guilt by building his throne in the sky. His father, King Dhatusena, ruled Anuradhapura, the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. Dhatusena was a builder-king who created the Kala Wewa — a massive reservoir covering six thousand acres that kept the kingdom’s rice paddies alive. But Kashyapa’s mother was a lower-caste woman, which meant the throne was promised to his younger half-brother Moggallana, the queen’s son.
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Crowns & Conquests·5/5·1′
The place
Sigiriya
The Patricide King
A prince murders his father, builds a palace in the sky, and discovers that no fortress can protect a man from the sin that lives inside him
473-495 CESigiriya
Moral of the Story
“A throne seized through the blood of a father is not a throne at all — it is a prison in the sky, and no fortress, however high, can protect a man from the judgment that already lives inside him.”
Characters
K
King Kashyapa I (the patricide king)K
King Dhatusena (his father)P
Prince Moggallana (his half-brother, rightful heir)M
Migara (Dhatusena's nephew, army commander and conspirator)Source
Culavamsa (chapters 38-39); Geiger, Wilhelm, trans. Culavamsa: Being the More Recent Part of the Mahavamsa, 1929; Bandaranayake, Senake. Sigiriya: City, Palace and Royal Gardens, 2005; De Silva, K.M. A History of Sri Lanka, 1981; UNESCO World Heritage Nomination File 202