 At the time, the mainland south of Elephant Pass was claimed by the King of Kandy, Senerat; he and his troops were consistently harassing the Portuguese in the Jaffna Peninsula.His wife's two sons, Vijayapala and Kumarasinghe, were also married to princesses from Jaffna.After the fall of Jaffna to the Portuguese, Senarat dispatched a 10,000 strong army to Jaffna under the command of Mudaliyar Attapattu.