A king of the Rohana dynasty in Ceylon. He was the great-grandson of Mahánága, brother of Devánampiya-Tissa, and his father was Gothábhaya (Mhv.xv.170f; Mbv.132). His capital was at Mahágáma. He had as wife, Deví (better known as Viháradeví), daughter of Tissa, king of Kalyáni, who had been cast into the sea to expiate her father's crimes (Mhv.xxii.20ff). Their children were Dutthagámani Abhaya and Saddhá-Tissa. Kákavanna-Tissa gathered round him all the foremost Sinhalese warriors of the time so that they should be available for Gámani, when the time came for his campaign against the Damilas (Mhv.xxiii.2).
But at the start Kákavanna-Tissa was very reluctant to allow his son to make preparations for such a campaign (Mhv.xxii.82f), so much so that, in exasperation, the young prince once sent his father some female ornaments to indicate that the king was no man (Mhv.xxiv.4). Kákavanna-Tissa was very pious, and is said to have built sixty-four viháras, sixty-four years being also the length of his reign (Mhv.xxiv.12; see also AA.i.279). Among the religious edifices built by him were the Tissamaháráma, the Cittalapabbatavihára (Mhv.xxii.23) and the Mahánuggala Cetiya. He was cremated at Tissamaháráma (xxiv.8, 13). He evidently received his name on account of his dark colour. The Dípavamsa (Dpv.xviii.20; were their names Mahilá and Samantá?; see also xix.21f) speaks of Kákavanna-Tissa's daughters as having been proficient in the history of the, Religion (saddhammavamsakovidá).
He was once a milakkka in India and looked after a Pacceka Buddha. One day he gave the Pacceka Buddha a meal of ripe jack-fruit. On another occasion, when the Pacceka Buddha visited his house in his absence, his wife tried to tempt him. Having failed, she complained to the husband that the Pacceka Buddha had assaulted her. The latter sought the Pacceka Buddha to kill him, but, seeing him in mid air putting on his robe, he was filled with wonder and asked the Pacceka Buddha's forgiveness. Later he was born in a hunters' village near Amaruppala-lena, his name being Amaruppala, and did various good deeds.
He was called Kákavanna-Tissa because he knew the speech of crows. Ras.ii.53f; see also p.64, where a crow announces various things to him.