Kataragama Murugan Temple,
Srilanka – Legends
Hindu Legends:
According to Hindus and some
Buddhist texts, the main shrine is dedicated to Kartikeya,
known as Murugan in Tamil sources. Kartikeya, also known as Kumara, Skanda,
Saravanabhava, Visakha or Mahasena, is a god of war. The Kushan
Empires and the Yaudheyas had
his likeness minted in coins that they issued in the last centuries BCE. The
deity's popularity has waned in North India but has survived in South India. In
South India, he became known as Subrahmanya and was eventually fused with
another local god of war known as Murugan among Tamils. Murugan is known
independently from Sangam
literature dated from the 2nd century BCE to the 6th
century CE.
Along the way, a number of
legends were woven about the deity’s birth, accomplishments, and marriages,
including one to a tribal princess known amongst Tamil and Sinhalese sources
as Valli.
The Skanda Purana, written in Sanskrit in
the 7th or 8th century, is the primary corpus of all
literature about him. A Tamil rendition of the Skanda
Purana known as the Kandha Puranam written in the 14th
century also expands on legends of Valli meeting Murugan. The Kandha
Puranam plays a greater role for Sri Lankan Tamils than Tamils from India,
who hardly know it.
In Sri Lanka the Sinhala
Buddhists also worshiped Kartikeya as Kumaradevio or Skanda-Kumara since at
least the 4th century, if not earlier. Skanda-Kumara was known
as one of the guardian deities until the 14th century, invoked to
protect the island; they are accommodated within the non-theistic Buddhist
religion. During the 11th and 12th century CE, the
worship of Skanda-Kumara was documented even among the royal family. At
some point in the past Skanda-Kumara was identified with the deity in
Kataragama shrine, also known as Kataragama deviyo and Kataragama deviyo,
became one of the guardian deities of Sri Lanka. Numerous legends have
sprung about Kataragama deviyo, some of which try to find an independent origin
for Katargamadevio from the Hindu roots of Skanda-Kumara.
Buddhist Legends:
One of the Sinhala legends tells
that when Skanda-Kumara moved to Sri Lanka, he asked for refuge from Tamils.
The Tamils refused, and he came to live with the Sinhalese in Kataragama. As a
penance for their refusal, the deity forced Tamils to indulge in body piercing
and fire walking in his annual festival. This legend tries to explain the
location of the shrine as well as the traditional patterns of worship by
Tamils. Another Sinhala legends attests that Kataragama deviyo was the deity
worshiped by Dutugamunu in the 1st century
BCE, before his war with Ellalan,
and that Dutugamunu had the shrine erected to Skanda-Kumara at Kataragama after
his victory. This legend has no corroboration in the Mahavamsa,
the historic annals about Dutugamunu.
Another Sinhala legend makes
Kataragama deviyo a deification of a Tamil spy sent by Elara to live amongst
the Sinhalese or a Tamil juggler who made the locals deify him after his
death. Yet another legend says that Kataragama deviyo is a deification of
the legendary king Mahasena, who is born as a bodhisattva or
Buddha in waiting. Anthropologists Richard
Gombrich and Gananath Obeyesekere were able to
identify new strands of these legends and the originators of these legends
since the 1970s, with the burgeoning popularity of the shrine and its deity
amongst the Sinhala Buddhists.
According to the practice of
cursing and sorcery peculiar to Sinhala
Buddhists, Kataragama deviyo has his dark side represented by Getabaru and Kadavara. The current
Getabaru shrine is located in an isolated place near Morawaka. The shrine for
Kadavara is in the town of Kataragama. His power to curse is carried out
in secret outside the Main Kataragama deviyo shrine at a place at the Menik Ganga, where he
receives animal sacrifices. Katagama devio is also directly invoked in
sorcery practices.
Muslim Legends:
Muslim or Islamic legends about
Kataragama are relatively newer. According to Muslims Kataragama is referred to
as al-Khidr or land of Khidr. A number of Muslim pious and holy men seems
to have migrated from India and settled down in the vicinity. The earliest
known one is one Hayathu, whose simple residence became the mosque. Another one
called Karima Nabi is supposed to have discovered a source of water that when
drunk provides immortality. Historic figures such as Jabbar Ali Sha (died
1872) and Meer Syed Mohhamed Alisha Bawa (died 1945) also have mausoleums built
over their tombs.
Vedda Legends:
The Veddas who
have kept out of the mainstream culture of Sri Lanka do not subscribe to
Kataragama deviyo as their deity. Unassimilated Veddas consider Kande
Yakka or Gale Yakka (Lord of the Rock) as their primarily deity
to be propitiated before hunts. They propitiate the deity by building a shrine
made out of thatched leaves with a lance or arrow planted in the middle of the
structure. They dance around the shrine with the shaman
becoming possessed with the spirits of the dead ancestors who guide the hunting
party in techniques and places to go hunt.
Anthropologist Charles Gabriel Seligman felt
that the Kataragama deviyo cult has taken on some aspects of the Kande Yakka
rituals and traditions. A clan of Veddas who lived near to the shrine was
known as Kovil Vanam (Temple precincts). As a clan they are extinct but
were to be found in the eastern province during the 19th century.
Local Veddas believed that the nearby mountain peak of Vaedihitti Kande (The
Mountain of Veddas) was the abode of the deity. The deity after coming over the
shore married a local Vedda woman named Valli, a daughter of a Vedda chief and
resided in the mountain. Eventually he was coaxed into settling down at
the current location.
No comments:
Post a Comment