Kataragama Murugan Temple,
Srilanka – Religious Significance
Buddhism doesn’t encourage
beliefs in gods or their veneration and yet Buddhists in Sri Lanka make an
annual pilgrimage to Kataragama. The deity has attained the position of
national god amongst the Sinhalese. This reflects the similar position held by Murugan
amongst Tamils.
Murugan Cult:
Murugan is known from Sangam
Tamil literature. The earliest reference to Murugan was as a god who was
propitiated to help in good hunting. He was the primary god of hunter-gatherer people
from the mountainous region of southern Tamil
Nadu very much like the Veddas of Sri Lanka. With the
advancement of settled agriculture, Murugan became identified with the tribal
chieftains as a god of war, becoming popular among all segments of the society.
He was worshiped symbolically as lance and trees such as the Kadamba (Neolamarckia cadamba) were considered to
be sacred to him. Birds such as the peafowl or rooster were
also identified with the deity.
Velans were a special class of
priests identified with his worship. With advent of North Indian traditions
arriving with the Pallava and Kadamba
dynasties, Murugan was infused with the aspects of Kartikeya or Skanda, a god
of war from North India. All legends that were attributed to Kartikeya
were also attributed to Murugan. The syncretic deity
has six major temples in Tamil Nadu and countless many other
smaller temples. Legends developed that bound the worship of syncretic Skanda-Murugan
to Tamil Nadu as a god of the Tamils. It included his marriage of Valli from
Thondainadu.
Katargamadevio Cult:
Legends in Sri Lanka claimed
that Valli was a daughter of a Vedda chief from Kataragama in the south of the
island. The town of Kalutara, known in some sources as Velapura,
became associated with Murugan worship as well. The cult of Murugan was grafted
onto the worship of Skanda-Kumara that was prevalent in Sri Lanka. Amongst the
Sinhalese he became known as the god of Kataragama village, thus Katargamadevio
shrines of Katargamadevio are found in almost all Sinhala Buddhist villages and
towns. He is recognized as one of the guardian deities.
Worshipers take an arduous
pilgrimage on foot through jungles to fulfill their vows to the deity. The
pilgrimage included both Tamils from India and Sri Lanka as well as Sinhalese.
Number of temples mostly in the east coast of Sri Lanka became identified with
Kataragama temple and synchronized their festivals based on the arrival of
pilgrims all the way from the north of the island. These include temples
in Verugal, Mandur, Tirukovil and
Okanda.
In the interior of the island temples such as Embekke were built in the 15th
to 17th century CE to propitiate the Murugan aspect of
Kataragamdevio by the Sinhalese elite.
Since the 1950s the cult of
Kataragama has taken a nationalistic tone amongst the Sinhalese people. People
visit the shrine year long, and during the annual festival it looks like a
carnival. People get into trance and indulge in ecstatic rituals formerly
associated with Hindus such as fire walking, Kavadi and
even body piercing or hook swinging. These ecstatic rituals
have carried through the island and are widely practiced. Prominent Sinhalese
politicians such as Dudley
Senanayake and Ranasinghe Premadasa have associated with
the temple upkeep by building, renovation and cleaning projects.
Hindu and Buddhist Conflicts:
Sri Lanka has had a history
of conflict between its minority Hindu
Tamils and majority Buddhists since its political independence
from Great Britain in 1948. Paul Wirz in
the 1930s wrote about tensions between Hindus and Buddhists regarding the
ownership and mode of ritual practice in Kataragama. For the past
millennia the majority of the pilgrims were Hindus from Sri Lanka and South
India who undertook an arduous pilgrimage on foot. By the 1940 roads were
constructed and more and more Sinhala Buddhists began to take the
pilgrimage. This increased the tensions between the local Hindus and
Buddhists about the ownership and type of rituals to be used.
The government interceded on
behalf of the Buddhists and enabled the complete takeover of the temple complex
and in effect the shrines have become an adjunct to the Buddhist Kiri
Vehera. Protests occurred upon this development in the 1940s, particularly
when restrictions were placed on Tamil worship at the shrine. Typical Tamil
Hindu rituals at Kataragama such as fire
walking, Kavadi dance and body
piercing have been taken over by the Buddhists and have been
spread to the rest of the island. The Buddhist takeover of the temple and
its rituals has profoundly affected the rationale nature of austere Theravada Buddhism practiced in Sri
Lanka to that of the personal Bhakti veneration
of deities found amongst the Hindus of Sri Lanka and South India.
The loss of Hindu influence
within the temple complex has negatively affected the Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu
society. According to Paul Younger, the Buddhist takeover was precipitated
by the overwhelming participation of Buddhists in what are essentially Hindu
rituals that worried the Buddhist establishment. There is a strong political
and religious pressure to further modify the temple rituals to conform within
an orthodox Theravada Buddhist world view.
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