Vannimai
| Chiefdom of Vanni Vannimai |
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| வன்னி நாடு | ||||||||||
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 Sri Lanka in the 1520s
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| Capital | Not specified | |||||||||
| Languages | Tamil | |||||||||
| Religion | Hinduism | |||||||||
| Government | Chieftain | |||||||||
| History | ||||||||||
| • | Established | 12th century | ||||||||
| • | Vanniyar Rebellion | 1782 | ||||||||
| • | Death of last Vanni ruler Pandara Vanniyan | 31 October 1803 | ||||||||
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The Vannimai, or Vanni chieftaincies, were feudal land divisions ruled by chiefs south of the Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka. These chieftaincies arose in the 12th century, with the rise of the medieval Tamil kingdom's golden age and the collapse of the Rajarata kingdom. The chieftaincies developed in sparsely settled areas, and were ruled by Vanniars. An extension of the Jaffna kingdom's territory, the chiefs of the Vannimais were, for most of their existence, tribute-paying subordinates to Jaffna. At 1621, the Jaffna Kingdom was conquered by the Portuguese and the Vanni chiefs became tributaries of the Portuguese Ceylon. The Portuguese colony in Sri Lanka was later taken over by the Dutch. During the Dutch rule it came to Vannian resistances against the colonial rule, one of these was the rebellion of Pandara Vanniyan. Allied with the Kingdom of Kandy, Pandara Vanniyan fought with guerrilla tactics against the Dutch and British. At 1803, he was defeated by Lt. von Driberg and Vanni fell into hands of the British.Vanni had been reincorporated with Jaffna Peninsula to form the Malabar Coylot Vanni country which later became the Northern Province of Sri Lanka.
Vanniar or Vannia was a title used by tribute-paying feudal chiefs in medieval Sri Lanka. It was also recorded as the name of a caste amongst Sri Lankan Tamils in the Vanni District of northern Sri Lanka during the early 1900s.
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