Vijaya was one of the five orphaned elephants with which the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage opened in February 1975. A wild-born male, he became the orphanage’s main breeding bull: with Kumari he fathered the first calf born at Pinnawala (1984), and he sired several later calves, including Rangiri and Salia. The Elephant Database records his death on 11 September 1999.