Koneswaram Temple, Trincomalee – History

Koneswaram Temple, Trincomalee – History

Origins & Date of Establishment:

The construction time of Koneswaram has been estimated by comparison between carved reliefs on the temple's ruins, literature on the shrine and the inscriptions commonly used in royal charters from the 5^th to 18^th centuries. Koneswaram was likely founded before 400 B.C., although its exact date of birth remains vague. The evidence extant attests to the shrine's classical antiquity. Construction of Hindu temples was made possible due to the prevalent faith amongst the locals and mercantile communities in the region during the Sangam period.

Kaviraja Varothiyan's Tamil poem inscribed on the Konesar Kalvettu, the 17^th century stone inscription chronicle of the temple, gives the shrine's date of birth as circa 1580 B.C. Archaeologists point to its initial phase consisting of a rock cave, multilayered brick shrine style popularly constructed to Tamil deities of a range of faiths during the Sangam period. Contemporary historians such as S. Pathmanathan and Paul E. Peiris suggest Koneswaram temple has a recorded history from 300, when it finds mention in the Vayu Purana.

Peiris notes that Koneswaram was one of the five recognized Iswarams of the Hindu deity Shiva in Lanka before the sixth century B.C.; a widely famous centre of deity worship long before the arrival of the mythical exile Vijaya to the island, attributed to the period 543 – 505 B.C. Koneswaram is the easternmost shrine of the Iswarams, the others being Naguleswaram, Thiruketheeswaram, Munneswaram and Tenavaram. The historian Diogo de Couto of the 16^th century adds Ramanathaswamy Temple, Rameswaram to this group of principle temples in the region most revered on the Indian subcontinent.

Other writers point to the worship of Eiswara by mythical royals on the island like Kuveni before the exile's arrival. Pathmanathan differs from Peiris in his view on the shrine's birth however, stating that Koneswaram temple was most likely established as a Hindu shrine by the mercantile communities that frequented the island from the fourth-century B.C. Kalinga region in India, where another temple dedicated to Shiva in the form Gokarna Swamy at Mahendra mountains is found.

The Yalpana Vaipava Malai, an 18^th century Tamil chronicle connects the figure Vijaya and seven hundred of his followers to the shrine, stating they extensively repaired the five Iswarams upon their arrival to the island, before mixing with native tribes on the island forming matrimonial links with the Tamil kingdom through Pandyan queens. The Encyclopedia Britannica currently appears to follow this view, although in volume 10 of the encyclopedia, printed in 1974, the shrine's establishment is attributed to Tamil migrants. Encyclopedia Americana and New International Encyclopedia note that early Tamil rulers erected the temple of a thousand columns on the hilltop.

King Ellalan Manu Needhi Cholan in 205 B.C. and the prince Kulakottan of the Chola Dynasty extensively renovated the Koneswaram temple and the Kantalai Tank, responsible for irrigating plains belonging to the shrine. The latter's reign is alternatively attributed to between 1580 B.C. and 1250. Due to royal patronage by various Tamil dynasties from the early classical to medieval era, the temple flourished in the early centuries of the First Millennium. Hindus built at least three great stone temples with gopura on Swami Rock during Koneswaram's zenith, one to Vishnu-Thirumal, one to the goddess and the principal temple of the complex to Lord Shiva at its highest eminence.

Under Native Tribes:

Mahabharata, the Hindu epic written between 400 – 100 B.C. notes that Koneswaram is at Gokarna bay, in the middle of the ocean and is the island shrine of Uma's consort Shiva, known in the three worlds and worshiped by all peoples from the subcontinent, including the native tribes Naga, Deva and the Yaksha, the rivers, ocean and mountains. It continues that the shrine is the next pilgrimage spot for Hindus en route south following Kanyakumari of the early Pandyan kingdom and Tamiraparni island (Kudiramalai) and that worshipers should fast for three days at the temple. 

In the same time period, the Ramayana in written form describes how King Ravana and his mother had worshipped Shiva at the shrine, when the former wanted to remove the temple of Koneswaram when his mother was in ailing health around 2000 B.C. This literature continues that as the king was heaving the rock, Lord Shiva made him drop his sword. As a result of this a cleft was created on the rock, today called Ravana Vettu – meaning Ravana's Cleft.

Under the rule of Kulakkottan:

The Chola royal Kankan (Kulakkottan), a descendant of the legendary King Manu Needhi Cholan of Thiruvarur, Chola Nadu, restored the Koneswaram temple at Trincomalee and the Kantalai tank after finding them in ruins. He was the son of the king Vara Rama Tevan, who had been a prolific benefactor of the Konesar temple. Kulakkottan visited the Munneswaram temple on the west coast, before settling ancient Vanniars in the east of the island. According to the chronicles, he extensively renovated and expanded the shrine, constructed several lofty gopuram towers and lavished much wealth on it; he was crowned with the epithet Kulakkottan meaning Builder of tank and temple.

Further to the reconstruction, Kulakottan paid attention to agriculture cultivation and economic development in the area, inviting the Vanniar chief Tanniuna Popalen and several families to a new founded town in the area including Thampalakamam to maintain the Kantalai tank and the temple itself. The effects of this saw the Vanni region flourish. The Vanniar claim descent from this chief. Kullakottan's restorations took place despite interferences from the queen of the Pandyan King Pandia, who was absent from his throne in Anuradhapura on a visit to Jaffna.

Kullakottan constructed and re-established the large temple of Shiva, the temple of Vishnu and that of the Mother-Goddess (Tirukkamakkottam) on the promontory, these shrines of the compound becoming the Three Pagodas of Tirukonamalai. The Yalpana Vaipava Malai and Konesar Kalvettu, as well as a 16^th century Tamil inscription in Trincomalee and Tamil copper-plate inscriptions of the temple relate many details about Kullakottan's founding of Trincomalee and the Vanni. Modern historians and anthropologists agree as historically factual the connection of the Vanniars with the Konesar temple. Dating the reign of the king has proved difficult. The Konesar Kalvettu dates Kullakottan's renovations to specifically between 432 – 440. 

C. Rasanayagam notes that the Vanniar chiefs who were in control of the temple could not have multiplied so fast within 150 years causing the king Aggrabodhi I of Anuradhapura to take elaborate steps to contain the Vanniars in 593. He argues the Vanniars of the Vannimai were a buffer state between Trincomalee and Mannar from the classical period. Other historians suggest that Kullakottan arrived to the island during the island's reign of the Five Dravidians of Pandyan descent, between 103 – 88 B.C., corroborating the Yalpana Vaipava Malai equation of his grandfather Manu Needhi Chola's identity with that of Ellalan Chola, a historical king who ruled the island from 205—161 B.C. that shared many character traits with the legendary Manu Needhi.

In Geography of Avienus, a poem of Latin geographer and writer Rufius Festus Avienus in 350 A.D., the author bases his writing on the island on Orbis descriptio by Alexandrian Greek poet Dionysius Periegetes (117 – 138 A.D.), who called the island the "great Island of Coliadis" whose inhabitants worship the multi-towered Cholian temple to Venus on their Cholian rock promontory by the sea. A twelfth-century commentary on Periegetes by Eustathius of Thessalonica also compares the shape of Konesar Malai to a phallus.

The Portuguese historian De Quieroz cited poetic and inscriptional evidence to date Kullakottan's renovations to 1589 B.C., based on a Tamil poem by Kavi Raja Virothayan he read which was translated into English in 1831 by Simon Cassie Chitty. A major temple of the compound was built to the glory of the God Videmal by King Manica Raja 1300 years before the nativity according to Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën written in 1726 by François Valentijn. Some consider the story of Kullakotan to be mythical based on the travails of historical figures such as Gajabahu II, Kalinga Magha or a Chola regent of Sri Lanka.

Under Pallavas:

In the 6th century, a special coastal route by boat travelled from the Jaffna peninsula southwards to the Koneswaram temple, and further south to Batticaloa to the Thirukkovil. Koneswaram temple of Kona-ma-malai is mentioned in the Saiva literature Tevarams in the late sixth century A.D. by Thirugnana Sambandar. Along with Ketheeswaram temple in Mannar, Koneswaram temple is praised in the same literature canon by the 8^th century Nayanar Saint Sundarar in Tamilakam. Koneswaram henceforth is glorified as one of 275 Shiva Sthalams (holy Shiva abodes glorified in the Tevarams) of the continent, part of the "Paadal Petra Sthalam" group. The only other holy temple from Eela Nadu (the country of the temple as named in the Tamil literature) is Ketheeswaram. 

During this period, the temple saw structural development in the style of Dravidian rock temples by the Tamil Pallava Dynasty. This occurred when Pallava King Narasimha Varman I (630–668 A.D.) armies conquered the island and when the island was under the sovereignty of his grandfather King Simhavishnu (537–590 A.D.), when many Pallava-built rock temples were erected in the region and this style of architecture remained popular in the next few centuries. The 8^th – 10^th century Kanda Puranam (a Puranic Tamil literature epic and translation of the Skanda Puranam) authored by Kachiyappa Sivachariyar of Kanchipuram describes the Koneswaram shrine as one of the three foremost Shiva abodes in the world, alongside Chidambaram temple in Tamil Nadu and Mount Kailash of Tibet. 

Several inscriptions written in the Tamil and Vatteluthu scripts interspersed with Grantha characters relate to the temple from this period. Koneswaram temple is mentioned in the 10th century Tamil Nilaveli inscriptions as having received a land grant in the Tamil country of one thousand seven hundred and ten acres (two hundred and fifty four veli) of dry and wet land to meet its daily expenses – revealing the temple's role in providing various services to the local community by 900—1000 A.D. The fertile Koddiyapuram area of Trincomalee district paid one hundred avanams of rice to the shrine and was tasked with growing oil seed for Koneswaram annually.

Under Chola Empire:

Trincomalee figured prominently during the medieval golden age of the Tamil Chola Dynasty, due to the proximity of the Trincomalee bay Harbour with the rest of the continent and its benefits for the Chola's maritime empire and the two powerful merchant guilds of the time – the Manigramam and the Five Hundred Lords of Ayyavolu in their trade with the far east and conquest of Srivijaya of the Malay archipelago & Indonesia. The Koneswaram temple compounds and its adjacent region, from Periyakulam & Manankerni in the north, Kantalai and Pothankadu in the west, and Verugal in the south, formed a great Saiva Tamil principality. 

Residents in this collective community were allotted services, which they had to perform at the Koneswaram temple. An inscriptional record containing a praiseful poem of Rajaraja Chola I, who ruled the northern Malabar country from 993 to 1014 A.D. was discovered in the 1970s within the premises of the Koneswaram temple. The 1033–1047 A.D. Tamil inscriptions of the nearby Choleeswaram temple ruins of Peraru, Kantalai and the Manankerni inscriptions reveal the administrative practices of the Chola King Ilankeshvarar Devar (Sri Cankavanamar) with the Koneswaram shrine and the Trincomalee region at the time.

Construction activities at the temple were aided by architect and Chola dignitary Muventavelan Kanavati. The Palamottai inscription from the Trincomalee district, found amongst the inscriptions in nearby Kantalai, records a monetary endowment to the "Siva temple of Then Kailasam (Kailash of the South)" by a Tamil widow for the merit of her husband. This was administered by a member of the Tamil military caste – the Velaikkarar, troops deployed to protect shrines in the state that were closely associated to King Ilankeshvarar Devar.

King Gajabahu II who ruled Polonnaruwa from 1131 to 1153 A.D. is described in the Konesar Kalvettu as a devout worshipper of Lord Shiva and a benefactor of the temple of Konamamalai. King Chodaganga Deva, a descendant of King Vira Rajendra Chola's grandson Ananta Varman Chodaganga Deva – the progenitor of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh – made rich donations after visiting Konamamalai on Tamil New Year’s Day 1223 A.D., according to a Sanskrit inscription in Grantha script excavated on a doorjamb at the Hindu temple. A millennium-old Tamil inscription of the Chola Vatteluthu alphabet was discovered in October 2010 when digging for construction on an esplanade on the right side of Konesar Road leading to the shrine.

Under Pandyas:

Involvement of the medieval Pandyan Dynasty in the affairs of the Tamil country became stronger after the conquest of Pandyan king Srimara Srivallabha from 815 – 862, a strongly welcomed intervention by the local Tamils on the island. While under Pandyan suzerainty in 1262 A.D., Prince Jatavarman Veera Pandyan I, brother and lieutenant of King Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I repeated his brother's 1258 conquest of the island to intervene and decisively defeat Chandrabhanu of Tambralinga, a usurper of the northern Tamil throne; he proceeded to implant the Pandyan bull flag of victory and insignia of a "Double Fish" emblem at Konamalai while he subjugated the other king of the island.

Historically, the Pandiyans were known to have sculpted two fishes facing each other on the ceilings of their multi-storey temple gopurams once they were completed (and left it with one fish in case it was incomplete). Sundara Pandyan had renovated the gopurams by gold plating the roofs and installing gold gilded Kalasam atop them, a work of art displaying affinity to Dravidian architecture. Swami Rock at this time is described as "Kona ma-malai, around which the ocean waves swept pearls, gold, precious stones, and shells from the depth of the ocean and heaped them along the shore."

Local residents contributed to the wealth of the temple under the Pandiyan’s rule of the north of the island. The 13^th century Tamil stone inscription in Kankuveli village records the assignment by Vanniar chiefs Malaiyil Vanniyanar and Eluril Atappar of income and other contributions from the rice fields and meadows of the Vannimai districts of the ascending Jaffna kingdom to the Koneswaram shrine.

Under Jaffna Kingdom:

The Tamil Aryacakravarti dynasty kings of the Jaffna kingdom paid homage to the Koneswaram shrine under its sovereignty, offering gifts of gold and silver. Among the visitors were King Singai Pararasasegaram and his successor King Cankili I. King Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan (1380—1410 A.D.) had the traditional history of the temple compiled as a chronicle in verse, entitled Dakshina Kailasa Puranam, known today as the Sthala Puranam of Koneswaram Temple. 

The literature describes how from the middle of Sivanoli Padam Malai, three rivers or "kankai" (Ganges) were generated to rise out of Shiva's foot print – Mavillie-Kankai flowing towards the North, reaches Shiva's abode at Trincomalee, and falls into the sea south of it. Manikka-Kankai flows towards the East and passes by the temple of Kadirkamam, dedicated to Muruga, son of Shiva, and then falls into the eastern sea. Kavary-Kankai flows towards the West, and passes into the place of Shiva called Thiruketheeswaram at Manthottam in Mannar. These three rivers are described as "highly meritorious streams". He shipped stone blocks from Trincomalee to the temple of Rameswaram to renovate its sanctum sanctorum.

Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan's successor Gunaveera Cinkaiariyan (Pararasasegaran V), a trustee at Rameswaram who also oversaw structural development of that temple and the promotion of Saivite belief, donated part of his revenue to Koneswaram. The powerful Jaffna emperor Marthanda Cinkaiariyan (Pararasasegaram III) took the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta to Sivanoli Padam Malai in 1344 A.D. along with four yogis who were in the habit of visiting the foot-mark on the mountain peak annually; and with these men they were also accompanied by four Brahmanas and ten of the king's companions.

In 1468 A.D. Saint Arunagirinathar Swamigal paid homage at Koneswaram during his pilgrimage from Jaffna's Nallur Kandaswamy temple to Kadirkamam. At Koneswaram, he offered a garland of Thiruppugazh verses in praise of the Sthalam. The population, he stated, at Koneswaram, where the deep ocean rolled its furious waves, was vast, the temple well organized and the priests well versed in the Four Vedas. The shrine of Muruga, adoring son of Konesar and his consort, was near one of the gopuram entrances of the complex.

A rich collection of local texts written since the fourteenth century record the traditions pertaining to the shrine, including Konamamalai temple's use of the alternate name "Maccakeswaram". A temple of a thousand columns, during this medieval period, Koneswaram attracted pilgrims from around the Coylot Wanees Country and across Asia, culminating in it becoming the richest and most visited place of worship in the world of any faith.

The last rites during the funeral of King Bhuvanekabahu VII of Kotte, a Hindu monarch who signed all of his official proclamations in Tamil were conducted at Koneswaram in 1551. His closest religious official and most trusted ambassador was of Hindu faith. Historian Diogo do Couto described the Pagode of Triquinimale as a principle temple of its kingdom while Portuguese Catholic priest and author Fernão de Quieroz described it as the "Rome of the Hindus of the Orient more frequented by pilgrims than Rameshwaram, Tirumalai-Tirupati, Kilvelur, Kanchipuram, Jagannath in Odisha or Vaijayanti in Bengal."

Furthermore, he described the splendor of the famous temple of Tenavarai at its zenith as similar in its greatness on the island to Koneswaram and how idolatrous navigators would descry Koneswaram from the sea. In a 1613 written letter by Jesuit fray Manuel Barradas, Koneswaram is described as a "... massive structure, a singular work of art. It is of great height, constructed with wonderful skill in blackish granite, on a rock projecting into the sea, and occupies a large space on the summit”. King Ethirimana Cinkam had resisted a call by D. Hieronymo de Azevedo the previous year to aid the latter in building a fortress in Trincomalee. The enterprise was abandoned. 

With the defeat of King Cankili II, all of the territory of the kingdom of Jaffna, comprising Trincomalee and Batticaloa, was assigned to the "spiritual cures of the Franciscans." This decision was taken by the bishop of Cochin, fray Dom Sebastião de S. Pedro. By the end of 1619, a small Danish fleet had arrived at Trincomalee; in May 1620, the Danes occupied Koneswaram temple and began works for the fortification of the peninsula before being defeated.

17^th Century Destruction:

The shrine was attacked and destroyed on 14 April 1622, the Tamil New Year’s Day, by the Portuguese general Constantino de Sá de Noronha (who called it the Temple of a Thousand Pillars). Eleven brass lamps had been lit in the shrine and the main statues were taken out to town during the their procession in the festive period, during which time Portuguese soldiers entered the temple dressed as Iyer priests and began robbing it. In an act of religious zeal, the temple was then levered over the edge into the sea.

Fleeing priests buried some of the temple's statues in the surrounding area, and all remaining priests, pilgrims and employees were massacred. The final monument of the temple complex was destroyed two years later in 1624. Temple stones and its carved pillars were used to construct Fort Fredrick to strengthen the colonists' influence over the eastern seaboard of the island against other invading European armies, including the Dutch navy during the Dutch–Portuguese Wars. A new church and village were built in and around the fort.

An extensive campaign of destruction of five hundred Hindu shrines, the Saraswathi Mahal Library and forced conversion in the Tamil country was conducted by the Portuguese upon their arrival to the island and conquest of the Jaffna kingdom; the temple had been paying protection fees of 1280 fanams a year to the Portuguese. Trincomalee witnessed several naval battles of Europe's Thirty Years' War under Phillip II's man Filipe de Oliveira. Between 1639 and 1689 A.D., the Ati Konanayakar temple was built in nearby Thampalakamam to house the idols on procession that survived.

The destruction of the Konesar temple is historically viewed as the biggest loot of one of the richest temples of Asia. Gold, pearls, precious stones and silks collected for more than a millennium were robbed within a few hours. A site plan by De Quieroz states: "On the first rise to the summit of the rock was a Pagoda, another at mid-ascent – the principal one of them all at the highest eminence, visited by a concourse of Hindus from the whole of India." He describes three temples of the compound on the promontory, stating that pilgrims leaped from the last temple into the ocean in sacrifice to their idols.

In his dispatch to Philip III, King of Portugal, Constantine described: "The land of the Pagoda is 600 fathoms long and 80 feet at its broadest, narrowing to 30 feet." Regarding a prophetic Tamil inscription de Noronha found at the site, he added "When I went there to make this Fort, I found engraved on the Pagoda, among many other inscriptions, one that ran thus: Kulakottan has built this pagoda."

18^th – 20^th Century:

Under Dutch Ceylon, most of Trincomalee town was administered under Jaffna-dependent Vanniars again, while the fort was occupied by the Dutch on what they called "Pagoda Hill". Batticaloa district remained dependent to Trincomalee's fort until 1782. No ceremonies were permitted to take place on Swami Rock until British rule of the island, when pilgrims were permitted to return and worship Shiva at the fortressed sacred site. By the mid-19th century, sailors, the high priest and other pilgrims visited the rock, broke a coconut and said prayers, performing sacred rites every January. Fruits and other offerings were often cast over the edge of the cliff, falling to the ruins below. 

The first photograph of the shrine's remains and its promontory was taken in 1870. Literature on the shrine began to be written as the site began to regain popularity among pilgrims. Thirukonasala Puranam was written during the 19th century by Tamil scholar Masilamanipillai Muttucumaru on the temple and the Thirukonasala Vaipavam on Koneswaram was written by V. Akilesapillai in 1889, published sixty years later in 1952.

Idol recovery, ruins and 20^th Century Reconstruction:

In 1950, the Urban Council of Trincomalee recovered a number of the original shrine's statues buried five hundred yards from the Koneswaram site. The discovery occurred during digging for a water well. The statues are of gold and copper alloy bronze and are believed to be from the tenth century A.D. They depict a seated figure of Shiva (in the form of Somaskanda), Shiva as Chandrasekhar, his consort goddess Parvati, the goddess Mathumai Ambal and Lord Ganesha. They were taken in procession around the region before being reinstalled at Koneswaram.

Other Koneswaram statues that survived remain at the Ati Konanayakar temple. A pillar from the original temple stands under a decorated Vilvam (Aegle marmelos) tree on Swami Rock. In 1956, while scuba diving, photographer Mike Wilson and author Arthur C. Clarke discovered ruins from the sunken original temple spread on the shallow surrounding sea-bed. Relics found by Wilson and Clarke included masonry, architecture, idol images, carved columns with flower insignias, and stones in the form of elephant heads.

These ruins, as well as the pillar on Swami Rock, display Tamil, Pallava, and Chola architectural influence of the 3rd–9th century era. Corroborated by the discovery of Pallava Grantha and Chola script inscriptions and Hindu images found in the premises, this suggests that the dynasties took a keen interest in the temple. Wilson and Clarke also retrieved the legendary Swayambu lingam from the ocean floor. According to legend, this large natural stone obelisk was one of 69 naturally occurring lingams from time immemorial originally found on Mount Kailash of Tibet and housed in Koneswaram by King Ravana – his most sacred power object from mythological times. This lingam was reinstalled at the Koneswaram site.

Publishing their findings in the 1957 book The Reefs of Taprobane, Clarke expresses admiration for Swami rock's three-thousand-year veneration by Hindus. Identifying at least three Hindu temples as having been built on and around Swami rock, Clarke describes the tenth century A.D. Koneswaram idols as "among the finest examples of Hindu bronze sculpture known to exist", the seated Shiva Chola bronze "a masterpiece" and the battered stone work at the foot of Swami Rock as "probably the most photographed underwater ruins in the world." 350 years after its destruction, Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu people of Trincomalee organized the temple restoration committee to restore the temple; the old images were reinstalled amid opening ceremonies in the newly restored shrine on 3 March 1963.

Some of the artefacts from the demolished temple, including De Sa de Noronha's translation of the prophecy sent to Portugal, are kept in the Ajuda Library of Lisbon (Bibliotheca da Ajuda), along with a painting and map of the original shrine. The chronicler António Bocarro shows three monuments of the Trincomalee Koneswaram Temple Compounds on the extremity of the peninsula in his map of the Livro das plantas das fortalezas cidades e povoaçois do Estado da India Oriental document of 1635, but these temples are missing from the copy of the document stored at the Paço Ducal di Vila Viçosa library in Lisbon.

The stone inscription discovered by the temple's destroyer has a Double-Fish insignia and its engraved prophecy, translated from ancient Tamil script, warns of the "coming of the Franks" after the 16^th century. The prediction reads "O King! The franks shall later break down the holy edifice built by Kullakottan in ancient times; and no future kings of this island will rebuild it. Following the successive reigns of the cat eyed, the red eyed and the smoke eyed nations it will voluntarily revert to the Tamils." Pandyan king Jatavarman Veera Pandiyan’s insignia of the old Koneswaram temple and a portion of the prophetic inscription are seen today at the door entrance to Fort Fredrick. The Kumbhabhishekams were performed during 1963 and 1981.

Buddhist Claims & Conflicts:

A temple dedicated to a deity in "Gokarna" city is mentioned in a 5^th century A.D. religious and historical literary work called Mahavamsa. It mentions that Mahasena (334–361) a Mahayanist zealot known for his temple destructions, who ruled a central kingdom of the island from the southern city of Anuradhapura destroyed temples dedicated to a deity in Gokarna and built Buddhist Viharas in its place. A twelfth-century commentary on Mahavamsa indicates that the destroyed deity temple had a lingam – a form of Shiva in it. The interpretation of deity temples into specifically a Siva temple by the commentary on Mahavamsa is disputed by Sinhalese writers such as Bandu De Silva.

Sri Lanka has had a history of conflict between its minority Hindu Tamils and majority Sinhalese Buddhists since its political independence from Great Britain in 1948 which led to the Sri Lankan Civil War. Since the 1950s Sinhalese Buddhists have claimed that the Tirukoneswaram temple was originally exclusively a Buddhist temple. They cite and interpret historical information of three Pagodas at the Koneswaram site as alluding to Buddhist temples. Buddhists have also claimed that the site was the location of the ancient Gokarna Vihara built by King Mahasena. 

It was also based on an assertion made by historian Senarath Paranavithana in reading a 13^th century Sanskrit donative inscription in Grantha Tamil script made by a Chodaganga Deva found in the Hindu temple's premises. The inscription reads that Deva landed in Gokarna in 1223. No evidence, archaeological or otherwise, supports the claim the Vihara existed at the site. Other sources indicate that the complex may have had Hindu and Buddhist sections prior to its destruction. 

In 1968, the unity government of majority Sinhalese dominated United National Party and the minority Tamil dominated Federal Party collapsed over disagreements about declaring the holy Hindu site a protected area. A committee appointed by a Federal Party Minister to study the viability of declaring the site protected was disbanded without consultation by the Prime Minister at the time, Dudley Senanayake, after receiving a letter of complaint from a prominent Buddhist monk who objected because the temple area would "get into the hands" of those "who are neither Sinhalese or Buddhist".

The Federal Party withdrew its support to the government following that action. According to journalists like T. Sabaratnam, this incident had negative repercussions towards the future co-operation between Tamil and Sinhalese communities. The temple and its environs are currently occupied by the Sri Lankan Army, which maintains a base at Fort Frederick. On 21 September 2008, the chief priest of the temple Sivashri Kugarajakurrukal was assassinated in a campaign that has targeted Hindu priests in the region.