Jaffna

Jaffna and its surrounding region was part of the chiefdom of Naga Nadu. During the medieval times the kingdom of Arya Chakravarti came into existence in the 13th century. As an ally to the Pandyan Empire in South India. The Portuguese established Jaffna city in 1621 as their colonial administrative center from 1590.Portuguese merchants and catholic missionaries were active within Jaffna and the last king of Jaffna kingdom Cankili was captured, the Portuguese moved the center of political and military control to Jaffnapato which was a small town with a fort, a harbour, catholic chapels and government buildings. In 1658 the Portuguese lost Jaffna to the Dutch and the city grew in population and size. Most of the Hindu temples destroyed by the Portuguese were rebuilt by the Dutch. Historically Jaffna citizens are Tamils. Jaffna is divided into 15 Divisional secretary’s divisions and 425 GN divisions with population is nearly 600,000 and density 569km2.