Magul Maduwa (Royal Audience Hall)

The Magul Maduwa, the Royal Audience Hall, is an open-sided timber pavilion in the Royal Palace complex of Kandy, right beside the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. It was the hall where the last kings of Kandy held court, and it is where, in March 1815, the Kandyan Convention was signed, ending the island's last independent kingdom. Its rows of carved wooden pillars under a steep Kandyan roof make it one of the finest surviving examples of Kandyan timber architecture. In Sinhala the name means roughly "ceremonial pavilion": magul is auspicious or festive, maduwa a pavilion.

History

The hall was begun by King Rajadhi Rajasinha in the early 1780s. The temple's official account dates it to 1783, while other writers give 1784. Its architect is remembered as Devendra Mulachari, the leading royal craftsman of the time, and the work went on for years. It was completed under King Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, the last king of Kandy.

Under the kings the Magul Maduwa was the stage for the formal business of the court. The king received envoys and foreign ambassadors here, conferred royal grants, and sat in judgement, for the hall also served as the high court of the kingdom. At the close of the Esala Perahera, the kapuralas, the priests of the shrines that take part in the procession, reported to the court here.

The Kandyan Convention of 1815

In early 1815 British forces entered Kandy with the support of leading Kandyan chiefs who had turned against Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. On 2 March 1815 the British and the Kandyan chiefs concluded the Kandyan Convention in the Magul Maduwa. The agreement deposed the king, vested the kingdom in the British Crown, and promised to protect Buddhism and Kandyan law and custom. With it, more than two thousand years of Sinhalese monarchy came to an end and the whole island passed under British rule. The story of the kingdom's long resistance and its fall is told on our page on the last kingdom of Ceylon.

The hall stayed at the centre of events in the early British period. After the failed rebellion of 1817 to 1818, the death sentences on the rebel leaders Keppetipola and Madugalle were pronounced here, and for a time the hall was also used for Christian worship.

Architecture

The Magul Maduwa is built almost entirely of timber. Its pillars were cut from halmilla, na and teak and carved with the flowing floral and figurative motifs typical of Kandyan woodwork, including figures of the goddess Lakshmi. The pillars stand in long rows that carry a high, steeply pitched roof with wide eaves, leaving the sides of the hall open to the air.

The hall was not always the size it is today. As first built it measured about 18 metres by 10.9 metres. For the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1875, the British lengthened it by 9.6 metres, using sixteen carved wooden columns taken from the Palle Vahale, the queens' quarters of the palace, eight on each side. Brick pillars were put up in the Palle Vahale in their place. Today the hall has sixty-four carved pillars in two long rows.

The design has been widely admired since. When Sri Lanka built the Independence Memorial Hall in Colombo to mark the country's independence, its architects modelled it on the Magul Maduwa, linking the end of the kingdom in 1815 with the return of self-rule.

Visiting

The Magul Maduwa stands within the Royal Palace complex, a short walk north of the main temple building, and most visitors see it as part of a visit to the Temple of the Tooth. Its open sides mean the carved pillars and roof timbers can be appreciated from the surrounding grounds. Arrangements for going inside vary, so follow the guidance of temple staff or your guide. As with the rest of the sacred precinct, dress modestly, covering shoulders and knees.

Nearby

• The Sri Dalada Museum, the temple's own museum, which holds documents connected with the Kandyan Convention.
• The Royal Palace, including the Kandy National Museum in the Palle Vahale, and the International Buddhist Museum.
• The Natha Devale and Kandy Lake, both a few minutes' walk away.