The first Ariyan king of Sri Lanka. He was the eldest of the thirty-two sons of Sīhabāhu, king of Lāla, and of Sīhasīvalī. Because of his evil conduct he, with seven hundred others, was deported by the king, with their heads half shaved. Their wives and children were deported with them. The children landed at Nāgadīpa and the women at Mahilādīpaka (MT. 264). Vijaya and the other men landed at Suppāraka, but he was obliged to leave owing to the violence of his supporters.

According to Dpv.ix.26, Vijaya went from Suppāraka to Bhārukaccha, where he stayed for three months. They reached Sri Lanka on the day of the Buddha’s death, received the protection of the deva Uppalavaṇṇa, and thus escaped destruction by the yakkhas. The yakkhinī Kuveṇī fell in love with Vijaya, and he, with her assistance, killed the yakkhas of Laṅkāpura and Sirīsavatthu, and founded the city of Tambapaṇṇī. Vijaya’s chief ministers, Anurādha, Upatissa, Ujjena, Uruvela and Vijita, founded separate colonies, named after themselves.

Vijaya had two children by Kuveṇī, Jīvahattha and Dīpellā; but when he wished to be consecrated king, he sent for and obtained, for his wife, a daughter of the Paṇḍu king of Madhurā. Kuveṇī, thereupon, left him and was killed by the yakkhas. Vijaya reigned for thirty-eight years and was succeeded by Paṇḍuvāsudeva. For details of Vijaya’s life, see Mhv.vi.38 ff; vii.6 ff; viii.1-3; Dpv.ix.6 ff.

Ajātasattu and Vijaya were contemporaries, Ajātasattu’s twenty-fourth year of kingship corresponding to Vijaya’s sixteenth year. Dpv.iv.27; v.77.