Kataragama Murugan Temple,
Srilanka – The Temple
The Temple is facing east with
an entrance arch. Almost all the shrines are small rectangular buildings
without any ornamentation. There is no representative of deities adorning the
outside of the buildings. This is in contrast to any other Hindu temple in Sri
Lanka or India. Almost all shrines are built of stone except that one dedicated
to Valli which shows timber construction. They have been left as originally
constructed and there are not any plans to improve upon them, because people
are reluctant to tamper with the original shrine complex.
The most important one is known
as Maha Devale or Maha Kovil and is dedicated to
Skanda-Murugan known amongst the Sinhalese as Kataragama deviyo. It does not
have a statute of the deity; instead it holds a Yantra,
a spiritual drawing of the deity's power. Of all the shrines in the complex, it
is the largest and the first that all pilgrims come to visit.
Although it does not have a
representation of the deity, kept in an adjoining room is a statue of Shiva also
known amongst Sinhalese as Karanduva. Within it there is a clay arm chair known
as Kalana Mandima that supposedly belonged to Kalyanagiri Swamy. It
is covered by a leopard’s skin and on it has all the ceremonial instruments. To
the left of the main shrine lies a smaller shrine dedicated to Hindu god Ganesha who
is known as Ganapati devio amongst Sinhalese. Tamils refer to him as
the Manica Pillayar as well. It too is a small rectangular building
without any decoration.
To the left of Ganesha shrine
stands the Vishnu Devale the shrine dedicated to Vishnu within
which there is also a Buddha image. Behind this is a large Bo
tree that tradition holds as sprung from the sapling of the
original Bo tree in Anuradhapura, hence is very much held in high
esteem by the visiting Buddhists. Attached to the western wall of the shrine
complex are shrines dedicated Kali, Pattini,
Managara devio, Dedimunda and Suniyam.
Outside the temple yard and
beyond the northern gate lies the shrine to Deivanai,
the consort of Murugan. Deivanai shrine is managed by the Sankara Mutt from Sringeri in Karnataka, India. The
shrine dedicated to Valli, the consort of the main deity lies in
front of the mosque. Close to the Valli shrine is a Kadamba
tree that is sacred to Murugan. Within the mosque are number of
tombs of Muslim holy men.
There is also a separate shrine
dedicated to the tomb of Kalyanagiri Swamy known amongst Tamils as
Mutuligaswamy Kovil. It is also known as the Siva Devale. Next to the Maha
Devale, the modest Archeological Museum features Buddha statues, moonstones,
ancient inscriptions, huge fiberglass replicas of religious sculptors from
various places in the island, along with other bits of religious statuary &
paraphernalia-conch shells, stone figurines.
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