I had never been to the sacred site during festival time. In fact, going there was only after marriage to a husband from Ratnapura. They were devout believers in the power of the gods there, while we in Kandy were Dalada Maligawa devotees and hardly went to the devales in Kandy, including the Kataragama kovil.
Facts
Kataragama is a temple complex dedicated to the local guardian deity Kataragama Deviya and Hindu war god Murugan; unique since it is sacred to Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and the Veddah people. It is ancient, its beginnings lost in antiquity and difficult to access. Say as recent as six decades ago, it was approached by bullock cart caravans, which those who went in them from Tissamaharama, took all of two days to reach. Woolf in his Village in the Jungle narrates the pilgrimage of Silindu (the principal chracter of Village In The Jungle) and family to this sacred site.
Kirivehera stupa is the principal Buddhist site in the complex, dating back to the third century BC when it was supposedly built by regional ruler, King Mahanaga, brother of Devanampiyatissa. It is one of the most poular 16 sites of Buddhist pilgrimage. Associated with God Murugan is Wedahiti Kanda and Sella Kataragama, where in the flowing stream encircled land is believed to live Valli Amma, Veddah consort to God Murugan.
Since the latter part of the 20th century, the site rose in popularity among Sinhalese pilgrim so that now the majority of worshipers are Buddhists. Slowly, the conducting of devale rituals was shifted from Hindu to Sinhala kapuralas. One strong negative of this was that the Ramakrishna Mission which ran a large facility offering free board and lodging to pilgrims was closed. That place was such a sanctuary to tired pilgrims with free food, often cleaned toilets, and rooms to sleep in on mats. Adequate. Always to be remembered with gratitude was the food offered. You sat on the ground in a row, banana leaves were distributed then came rice, dhal and two vegetable curries in slop pails-on-wheels, toted by helpers who served everyone. A swami in yellow perched himself on a half wall supervising the serving of meals.
“It is difficult to reconstruct the factual history of the place and the reason for its popularity among Sri Lankans and Indians based on legends and available archaeological and literary evidence alone, although the place seems to have a venerable history. The lack of clear historic records and resultant legends and myths fuel the conflict
between Buddhists and Hindus as to the ownership and the mode of worship at Kataragama.”
Kiran Desai
With reference to the above quote from Internet, I make bold to say that Kataragama is very popular to go to for very many Buddhists due to self-interest. They go there to bargain for favours, bless new cars, cure sicknesses, et al, since the Kataragama God, which to most is the Hindu Pantheon God Murugan. grants favours, hence the placing of symbolic metal cutouts and large amounts of money in the Pooja vatti of fruits presented to the kapurala. He returns some of the fruits and blessings chanted proportionate to the money gifted!
I knew a professional who was however superstitious who said that in Kataragama an old man came to him and blessed him. To him the God had come down in human form. He also said that once on returning from a pilgrimage, as he started his car, pink rain fell on the windscreen, a blessing again.
A well-known myth explains why the Sinhalese find the pilgrimage so easy to make while Hindus send forks through their cheeks, even draw a cart with nails driven in their backs to pacify the God. It is because once when the Menik Ganga was in spate an old man on the outer bank requested a Hindu Tamil to help him across. He refused. A Sinhala man hoisted him on his back and ferried him across, soon to disappear. Needless to say, the old man was the God Murugan in disguise.
True and simple personal anecdotes. We were frequent visitors. Latterly as I came to understand pure Buddhism which disapproves rites, rituals and the worship of gods my attitude changed. I was very keen to pay homage to the Kirivehera and the ancient Bodhiya close to the Devale. But felt I lacked sincerity in carrying a pooja and paying homage to the Hindu Pantheon God within the main kovil. So, I quietly stood outside while the others in our party were within. I was priding myself on my integrity and not being sheep-like, when a warm liquid cascaded direct on me. Heard a sound and knew I had been despoiled by a monkey – directed by a godly hand or on its own caprice!
Kiran Desai
In 2006, Kiran Desai shot to fame with winning the Booker Prize with The Inheritance of Loss, her second attempt at novel writing. It was about a teenage romance in India. Thereafter she struggled to follow her fame with more novels. It was said that while her mother, Anita Desai was a three times finalist for the Booker, the daughter succeeded winning it at a young age – 35 (born 1971). Up until 14 years she lived with her parents, mostly in Delhi. Then they moved to London and one year later, to the US. Now in 2025, Kiran has been nominated for the prestigious international price for novel writing in 2024. Her entry The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, is one of 13 long-listed novels. Goodreads has its advertising blurb going thus: “The spellbinding story of two young people whose fates will intersect and diverge across continents and years – an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity.”
mong other nominees are Katie Kitamura’s Audition, about an actress who becomes embroiled with a man who claims to be her son; Susan Choi’s Flashlight –a Korean American family saga; and David Szakay’s Flesh, which tells the tale of a man who inveigles his way to a life of privilege.
There are six American authors in the long list; the Booker being open fairly recently to the US from being strictly Commonwealth. Memory recollects that our own Michael Ondaatji (English Patient) and Shehan Karunatileke (The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida) are among other prestigious winners: V S Naipaul, Iris Murdoch, William Goldberg, Margaret Atwood and Salmon Rushdie.-
from The Island https://ift.tt/iTtysfe
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