Kataragama Murugan Temple, Srilanka – The Temple

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.