Senarat of Kandy in the context of "Kandy"

Danish India (Danish: Dansk Ostindien) was the name given to the forts and factories of Denmark–Norway (Denmark after 1814) in the Indian subcontinent, forming part of the Danish overseas colonies. Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions in India for more than 200 years, including the town of Tharangambadi in present-day Tamil Nadu state, Serampore in present-day West Bengal, and the Nicobar Islands, currently part of India's union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Danish and Norwegian presence in India was of little significance to the major European powers as they presented neither a military nor a mercantile threat. Dano-Norwegian ventures in India, as elsewhere, were typically undercapitalized and never able to dominate or monopolize trade routes in the same way that British, French, and Portuguese ventures could.

Despite these disadvantages, the Danish-Norway concerns managed to cling to their colonial holdings and, at times, to carve out a valuable niche in international trade by exploiting wars between larger countries and offering foreign trade under a neutral flag. For this reason, their presence was tolerated for many years until the rise of British imperial power led to the sale of all Danish holdings in India to Britain during the nineteenth century.

Ove Gjedde (alternatively spelled Giedde; 27 December 1594 – 19 December 1660) was a Danish nobleman and Admiral of the Realm (Danish: Rigsadmiral), who established the first Danish colony in Asia.

Born in Tomarps (Tommerup), Denmark–Norway, in 1594 to Brostrup Gjedde and Dorthe Ulfeldt, Ove Gjedde went to Sorø Academy from 1609 to 1612 and studied thereafter at various German universities. In 1616, Gjedde was employed in the Danske Kancelli (Danish Chancellery) and was ordered by King Christian IV of Denmark to lead an expedition to the East Indies in 1618. Gjedde arrived in Ceylon in May 1620 and negotiated trade agreements with Senarat of Kandy and Raghunatha Nayak, ceding the coastal towns of Trincomalee and Tranquebar to the Danish East India Company.