KATARAGAMA

Kataragarama is one of the most celebrated pilgrimage sites in Sri Lanka, sacred alike to the Buddhist, Muslims and also to the Hindus.

Sheltered in the foothills, it lies in the same meridian of 81°10’ with Uttara Kailasa (Mount Kailas) and Dakshina Kailasa (Tirukkoneswaram of Trincomalee).

Here, Lord Murugan is worshipped in the form of light or jyothi. Almost all the shrines are free of any embellishments and absolutely no representation of deities decorating the exterior of the building. 

There are only printed images of the yantra, a tanric instrument made out of gold, silver or copper plate believed to absorb and preserve the sound power of the mantra. The yantras at the Kataragarama temple is a charged instrument that is able to emanate spiritual vibrations of the pilgrims.

The temple is a spiritual power house from which millions of devotees draw their spiritual sustenance. This is in marked contrast to many other Hindu temples from around the world.  

Legend states that Lord Murugan, after defeating demon Surapadma decided to stay at Kataragama. It is also the place where the Lord meets Valli.

            The portrait of God Kataragama seated with Valliamma and Thevaniamma on a peacock adds much to the overall sacredness of Kataragama. Sri Lankan Hindu devotees generally fallow ritualistic practices because God Katharagama is closely identified with Skanda Kumara or Subramanya (a god in Vedic mythology). Hindus attribute the typical character of Vedic God of Skanda Kumara for the God of Kataragama and believe him to be their saviour.However, Hindu interpretation of the origin of God Kataragama based on Vedic literature runs counter to the Buddhist tradition that holds that God is a follower of Buddhism. He dispels all evil influences from the life of man according to Buddhist tradition .Yet according to Buddhist tradition God Kataragama is none other than King Mahasena who worshipped and respected the God Kihiri Vehera (Kiri Vehera) and the great Bo tree.It further spells out the prominence of this God as one of the four gods, the guardians of Sri Lanka and a God in Buddhism, committed to bring happiness and power for the people.

Another popular version of origin of God Kataragama is well illustrated in the mythology of Hinduism. The Hindu concept identifies him to be Skanda Kumara, the brother of Ganesha, the God of wisdom parented by God Shiva and Paarwathi. Following a minor dispute in the family, Skanda Kumara came to Sri Lanka and practised an ascetic life together with Thevaniamma and Valliamma. Hindu mythology glorifies his humanitarian mission to relieve people of their sufferings on the banks of Menik Ganga

 

Those familiar with Kataragama know it as a place of sacred power, governed by an ever youthful spirit that defies human comprehension. Most pilgrims attest to a baffling “unseen hand” of a higher power prevailing at the age-old jungle shrine, even behind a crassly commercial facade. Astute politicians have also taken note.

Recognising the shrine’s socio-political potential, some non-government organisations (NGOs) have jumped on the bandwagon by organising a mass march from Okanda to Kataragama, which they have styled a “pada yatra” or traditional pilgrimage on foot. The ostensible purpose of the march is to honour the tradition of the Kataragama Pada Yatra.

Significant references to Kataragama have been made in a recently published book entitled Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga tradition, written by Marshall Govindan of Montreal, Canada, an initiate in Kriya Yoga. This book has been described as "the most accurate and comprehensive exposition of the ancient Kriya Yoga traditions and method published in English to date." [Editor's note: The book, however, contains numerous inaccurate statements about Kataragama and its traditions.]

The author, Marshall Govindan, states that he has been gathering material for this book for about two decades on a scientific basis since he got initiated into Kriya Yoga techniques at the International Babaji Yoga Sangam centre at Los Angeles in 1970. He has travelled during this period to India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Australia.

In 1989 he was inspired by Kriya Babaji himself to write this book to introduce to the world the glory and greatness of the 18 Siddha Yoga traditions, from which Babaji synthesized and revived his Kriya Yoga techniques, and to propound to the public the approach to life and the worldview of Babaji and the 18 Siddhas that "all countries are my homeland" at a time when the world is locked in a self-destructive spiral.

The author states that during his visit to Sri Lanka he had made several pilgrimages to the Kataragama shrine to ascertain the details of any records relating to the traditional story of Kriya Babaji's visit to Kataragama in 214 AD as a chela of eleven years of age called Nagaraj to meet his first guru the fabulously long-lived rishi siddhaBhoganathar (one of the 18 siddhas pertaining to the present cycle of the four yugas, namely Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali Yugas). Siddha Bhoganathar is credited with inscribing a mystical yantric geometric design etched into a metalic plate and its installation at the sanctum sanctorum of the Kataragama Devale. The term siddha is used here to denote a perfected human being.

Islamic Kathirkamam is one of the foremost living examples. Its fabulous wealth -- still largely untapped -- is amply testified by the thousands of Muslim pilgrims who go there annually even from distant places far beyond the shores of blessed Serendib. A simple yet powerful Mosque & Shrine there are intimately associated in quranic and pre-quranic lore with Hazarat Khizr (alai), 'The Green Man', identified with the mysterious servant of Allah and holy teacher of prophet Musa (Moses) spoken of in the Holy Quran (Sura Khalf 'The Cave'), is believed to be the discoverer of theMa'ul Hayat or Water of Life.

As the contemporary author M.C.A Hassan once observed:

In olden days, people held this place in such reverence that a Muslim traversing the wilds in the entire Eastern Province and parts of the Northern Province shuddered to refer to Kataragama by name. If one were to inquire from another as to where he was going the latter's answer often was "to the Khizr region". The surrounding hamlets were listed as places receiving the patronage and blessings of Hazarat Khizr.

A parallel testimony is found in the 1870 report by the Government Agent, Hambantota, Mr. Hudson who certified that:

Mohammadans of the Village of Hambantota and the nearby villages come in vast numbers to Kataragama in search of a secret subterranean spring, the waters of which, if drunk are said to endow a person with the blessings of perpetual immortality.

• The Veddas have worshipped here far longer than anyone else.  They called him the ‘Spirit of the Mountain' or Kanda Yaka in Sinhala.

   

• During the Portuguese period, so many Muslim bawas came down via Jaffna by foot to Kataragama that the colonial authorities feared a Kandyan plot to overthrow them and closed the route to pilgrims.  Even today, many pilgrims still follow the old route by foot.

   

• Kataragama Mahadevale is the only temple in all of South Asia that never, even for a moment, displays the object of reverence.  There is no image or idol at all; there is said to be only a metal plate with a six-cornered star or yantra etched upon it.

   

• About four or five hundred years ago, a North Indian recluse named Kalyanagiri came to Kataragama with a yantra or magical device to capture god Kataragama-Skanda and take him back to India.  The ploy failed but even today the magical six-cornered snare or yantra is still believed to be the seat of the Swami or Lord of Kataragama.

   

• The Sanskrit title swami, ‘a free man or lord', was orginally applied only as a title of the youthful war god Skanda or Kumara  Swami, the ‘tender lord'.  In time the title came to be applied to any representative of God who had left home life behind in quest of the holy life.

   

• The bricks of Kiri Vihera stupa are over 2,200 years old.  It is built on the site where Lord Gautama Buddha is said to have addressed King Mahasena 2,500 years ago.  Buddhists believe that god Kataragama is the same powerful bodhisattva or ‘awakening being' who ruled then as King Mahasena ‘Who Has a Great Army', also a title of wargod Skanda.

   

• The kapuralas or priests of Kataragama Mahadevale follow an ancient secret tradition which they inherited from their Vedda predecessors. The twelve alatti ammas likewise preserve their own secret tradition begun in remote antiquity by jungle princess Valli Amma herself.

   

·         Regarded by the Buddhists as one of the four guardian deities of this land, so dominant is his power that the entire south is known locally as ‘Deviyange rata' (God's own country). The Hindus know him by many names - as Skanda - the God of War, Lord Murugan, Kadirkamam, Subrahmanya, or Kandaswami, the deity with six faces and twelve hands whose symbol is the lance (vel) and whose vehicle is the peacock. How God Skanda left the sacred mountain of Kailasa in the Himalayas to make his home in the forests of Lanka for the love of a beautiful maiden named Valli-amma who had been raised by the Veddahs (indigenous people) is a story often told.

There are many reasons for Kataragama's sanctity. Chief among them is that it was hallowed by ′Lord Buddha who meditated here, making it one of the solosmasthana- sixteen sacred sites visited by the Buddha which are Buddhist places of veneration in Sri Lanka. Kiri Vehera - the main shrine worshipped by the Buddhist devotees on the spot hallowed by the Buddha, has been built a little distance away from the 'devale' - the main shrine.

Kataragama: Its Origin, Era of Decline and Revival

 

by Godwin Witane

 

The history of Sri Lanka beginning from the 3rd Century B.C. to 18th Century A.D. is one of the best documented. Our island has a collection of historical chronicles and religious writings which have no parallel in South Asia. Pre-eminent is the great chronicle the Mahawansa written in the early years of the 6th century.

However, there are a large number of stories believed as history but mainly legend now ingrained in the minds of the people as truth. Kataragama has a history beginning from the time of Buddha’s third visit to Lanka in the 6th century B.C. during the reign of sub-king Mahaghosha.

Buddha is said to have visited Kataragama after a stop at Digavapi and meditated there to sanctify the place. The present Mangala Maha Cetiya or Kiri Vehera is supposed to have been put up at the spot where Buddha had sat. Some of the Kshatriya nobles who accompanied Vijaya to Lanka in 543 B.C. settled down and ruled there. Mahawansa records the name of the village as Kajara-Gama (p. 132-54), meaning the village flourishing with paddy fields. These nobles were among those who were invited by King Devanam Piyatissa to grace the occasion of the planting of the sacred Bo-sapling at Maha Mega Uyana which was brought from Gaya by Theri Sangamitta (Mahawansa p. 132-54).

Later one of the shoots that sprung from the eight fruits yielded by the sacred Bo Tree was planted at Kataragama which is worshiped upto date by all Buddhists. Mahawansa p. 133-62). While Kiri Vehera is believed to have been built by the Ksastriyas history records that King Devanam Piyatissa’s younger brother’s son Aggabodhi who ruled at Magama during the 3rd Century B.C. also built a stupa. It is speculated that it may be Kiri Vehera.

Kataragama was thus a centre of Buddhist worship long before the advent of Elara.

The origin of Kataragama Devale is not known but probably it should be after the death of Elara who ruled at Anuradhapura (Mahawansa p. 145-101). According to legend, when Elara invaded Lanka and began his reign at Anuradhapura, he had brought an Indian called Kadira and sent him to Rohana to spy on the Sinhala royals there. Kadira brought with him an Indian wife called Thevani and settled down in the village of Kataragama. (Prof. Abaya Ariyasinghe, Island) Kadira established himself so successfully that he contracted a marriage with a local damsel called Valli with the consent of his Indian wife Thevani.

He had six squads of spying agents under him who in turn formed twelve sub-divisions. It was this feudal system consisting of numbers six and twelve which gave the inference that he had six heads and twelve arms at a later date when he was deified after his death. After the death of Elara he gave up his mission of spying and became a powerful man of the area helping the populace in their needs especially the Sinhalese who accepted him as a benefactor. But the Tamils living there did not recognise him but ignored him. After his death the Sinhalese put up a shrine for him, a simple building devoid of all decorations such as arches, statues of gods and idols and paid homage to him accepting as a god known as Kadira Deva or Kataragama Deviyo.

The Sinhalese became the inherited officials or Kapuralas of the Temple. It is said that the Tamils living there at Kataragama did not entertain Kadira Deva at the time. The Hindus worshipping at the shrine introduced Skanda Kumara, son of Siva or Iswara of the Hindu pantheon, who is the god of war, as the reigning deity of the shrine.

Skanda Kumar is the slayer of Asura named Taraka who was an enemy of the gods mentioned in the Vedas who lives in his glorious abode in heaven, where he is the chief of the martial gods and thus powerful.

He has many names; Murugan, Arumugam, Kandasami (Skanda Swami), Subrahmanya, etc. He is the fearful god of war or youthful god of wisdom. Kataragama Deviyo is identified in human form illustrated in the front curtain of the shrine accosted by his two wives riding on a peacock, his vehicle of transport. He was once real and full of blood as other human beings but became legendary.

Thus the person deified as Kataragama Deviyo is a combination of two spiritual gods Kadira Deva and Skanda Kumar worshiped as one god.

Since the decline of the ancient Sinhala Kingdom of Ruhuna on account of the incessant intrigues among royalty and the vast destruction and ruin brought about by frequent incursions especially by the ruthless Cholian invader Magha, both the kingdoms of Ruhuna and Anuradhapura ceased to exist rendering the once great kingdoms to ruin. Roads and byways disappeared within a short time. The country was swallowed up by the jungle striving to blot out everything on its path rendering it to be the abode of wild animals.

After the defeat of the Damilas, Sinhalese kings confined themselves to rule at Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Kurunegala, Gampola, Kotte and Kandy. The remains of the ruined cities of Anuradhapura and Ruhuna were gradually devoured by the cruel jungle which crept on every acre of land hiding them from human view for over four centuries until the last foreign conquerors, the British after bringing the whole island under their sovereignty by deceitfully adding the Kingdom of Kandy directed their interest in taking action to preserve the remaining traces of Sinhalese civilisation.

The wild jungles of Ruhuna had almost approached the precincts of Tissa Dagoba built by King Kavantissa.

During this dark era the existence of the ancient Shrine was known only to the scattered few villagers who lived at Kataragama undergoing great privation. They worshiped at the Shrine adhering to the faith of their ancestors on god Kataragama. According to the Census of Ceylon II 464 - the village of Kataragama had only 103 inhabitants in 1921 where there was a much visited shrine. All pilgrims to this shrine had to go on foot as there were no proper roads at that time. Robert Knox in 1681 had noted that the roads were so narrow that two people could not walk abreast. At the time the Portuguese conquered the coastal belt of Sri Lanka the mode of transport available were palanquins, pack horses, elephants and most people walked on foot. The road from Colombo to Galle was a crude sandy track. As for bridges Sri Lanka had none till the end of the 15th Century.

The ancient network of roads of the Sinhalese had been obliterated by disuse. It was the British who were the pioneers in road construction undertaken by Major Skinners 1818 - 1887 who built over 3000 miles of roads. At the beginning the roads were grovelled or dressed with metal. Macamadising came later. During early nineteen nineties the journey to Kataragama was a hazardous one. People mostly travelled on foot or by bullock cart.

The writer could recollect what he saw during his Kindergarten days in school at Dodanduwa back in 1920. He saw strings of carts gaily decorated with white flags and ever sounding bells hung on the hoods of the carts passing his village followed by white clad men and women on foot while the old and feeble sat with out-stretched legs inside the carts. With the improvement of road transport large numbers of people both Buddhists and Hindus began to throng on Kataragama.

The Catholics and Christians are attracted to Kataragama for they had faith in the pooja performed at the Shrine. The Christian sacrament called the eucharist in which bread and wine are consecrated and consumed just as milk rice and holy water are taken by the Buddhist and Hindu devotees in their cupped hands and drink with bowed head in utmost respect very much like Catholic mass which is the same in substance and form.

The Muslims have their own shrine at Kataragama where they perform their religious rites at the grave of a Muslim dignitary Saul Palkudi Bawa. These rituals and practices in the world of religion were celebrated long before Christianity was introduced to Sri Lanka. Millions worship at this shrine irrespective of the religion they profess. This is a multi-religious shrine.

At this Devale there are no arches, figures of gods and idols seen in Hindu Temples elsewhere. The Holy of Holies is hidden by a Curtain with the portait of Sri Subramaniam or god Kataragama with his two consorts Vally Amma and Thevani Amma. The road from Tissamaharama to Kataragama is a cart track and no motor vehicles were allowed on this road until late fifties. The wheels of the carts and the hoofs of the cart bulls had turned the rich red soil into soft brown powder that when a line of carts traverse the road clouds of disturbed dust fill the atmosphere that no pedestrian could venture to take the road until the dust subsided.

The surrounding foliage of the jungle on both sides appeared brown daubed in the red dust. Of the teeming crowds that flock to Kataragama to invoke blessings or pay off vows many deem it an act of merit to go the whole way on foot, walking in the cool of the night and sleeping off the exhaustion by day. They traverse the perilous path confident in the safety of their own faith.

Starting from Tissa for Kataragama one enters the forest wilderness within half a mile. From the start the forest smells the scent of the jungle atmosphere and birds fly from tree to tree joining in carols and chirps. Wild animals are not uncommon in these parts.

You may hear the elephant trumpeting closeby or confront them crossing the pathway. The air is heavy with the heat beating upon the earth as the sun looks down from the cloudless sky. The forest has always had an inexpressible attraction to the human mind of whatever degree of culture. To the sage it envisages a place for retirement from the conflicts of the world and obtain peace. The moment you advance a few miles from Tissa the forest on either side make you feel the divine life creeping into your nerves.

Kataragama is an attraction for all time. The sylvan simplicity is disturbed by modern traffic. The shade of secluded serenity lasted not for long with the march of time and advancing modern road construction. The holy place is now urbanised. Hotels, guest houses, pilgrims’ rests and commercial buildings have encroached upon the boundary of the Menik Ganga in close proximity to the Devale on the other side of the river. The Menik Ganga flows placidly shaded by giant kumbuk trees as old as time on either banks. The Menik Ganga is venerated by the Hindus as well as Buddhists as a sacred river. During early days there was only a suspension bridge to cross it now replaced by a narrow concrete bridge not meant for vehicular traffic. It is believed that god Kataragama can change his form at will that at one time he is Subramaniam, the Creator, at one moment he is the fearful god of war or child Muruga in tender beauty always and all times everywhere at the service of the devotees. Offerings are made bordering on fear. Kataragama god is known for his revengeful disposition.

Seldom does a person who believes in him ever utter anything that is likely to offend the deity. Those who have ventured to invade Kataragama in a spirit of adventure or fun have strange tales to relate. Once a camera failed to record a picture taken and guns inexplicably failed to fire. Those who scoffed at god Kataragama have been known to lose their way in the jungle to die of hunger or be torn by wild animals.

Novices visiting Kataragama are advised to guard their tongue and behaviour. Loose talk and slighting of objects held sacred are the surest means of courting sudden disaster and woe when in or on the way to Kataragama. The religious rites so solemnly performed at Kataragama by devotees yet so grotesque carry some enchantment in the air stirring in the heart homage and reverence towards the unseen god bordering a vestige of primitive superstition.

Devotees clad in frugal attire of only a tucked up veti with their foreheads, chest and arms daubed in holy ash hang on scaffolds pinned on steel hooks fixed to their skin to expiate their sins and wrong doings. The men we see dangling from a scaffold or dragging a cart dedicated to the god with offerings they are all ordinary people, simple folk.

The other most breath taking event performed at Kataragama which amasses and baffles foreigners as well as locals is the fire walking. In preparation of the fire walk a long trench of about two fathoms long and a fathom broad is packed with hard wood logs like Milla and when the logs are fired and burnt to cinders they are collected by means of long poles and formed into a layer of about a foot thick.

From Kailasa to Kataragama:Sacred Geography in the cult of Skanda-Murukan

The renowned fifteenth century Tamil psalmist Arunakirinatar, composed at least one Tiruppukal hymn at Kirimalai (near Kankesanturai on the far norther coast of the Jaffna peninsula), another at Tirukkonamalai (modern Trincomalee, a major sacred site on the traditional Kataragama Pada Yatra route) and fourteen at Katir-Kamam, '(the place of) brilliance and passion', i.e. Kataragama.

The Kataragama Pada Yatra was Swami Gauribala's practical introduction to cosmography or sacred geography as he called it, the systematic study of what Eliade termed hierophanies, those rare, divine spots at which divinity reveals itself on earth.⁸


In the ancient traditional view, just as the human body has subtle centers of sacred power, so also the earth itself has centers of sacred power.

Island Lanka preserves a wealth of folklore said to originate from remote prehistory and puranic sources, including notably the Ramayana, which still survives in the form of local place legends. Swami Gauribala's approach involved analyzing the relationship between sacred places and their associated legends. Having re-searched and dis-covered the principles of traditional oriental cosmography, he concluded that they should remain sacred and secret, i.e. evident but unarticulated. His contention was that anyone qualified to study a sacred science who studies that science in depth would arrive at the same principles and, hence, similar conclusions. Decades later, his contention appears at least partly confirmed.

The cult of Murukan (Tamil: 'tender or fragrant one') or Skanda (Sanskrit: 'leaper or attacker' from skand 'to leap or spurt'), like the god himself, has a complex, composite history. Western-trained scholars are quick to point out the composite nature of the god as an amalgam of two distinct yet structurally analogous deities, Dravidian and Sanskritic respectively. But among indigenous religious specialists and millions of devotees at large, there is no question that the diverse body of lore in Tamil, Sanskrit, Sinhala and other languages describes a single vigorous and complex deity familiar to both northern and southern traditions since antiquity.

Qualitative Space and Chronological Time

Whereas Semitic and other nomadic peoples tend to think historically in terms of time and genealogy, people of long sedentary heritage and markedly cultic outlook think in terms of space, typically postulating a 'center of the world' in their own midst.⁹ In South Asia, the geographical environment has played a major role in shaping Indian thought. India thinks in terms of qualitative or mythical space in which each place has not only its own outward characteristics but also its own significance for those beings who inhabit that space. Hence, in the traditional worldview of India, spatial differences are also qualitative differences. In qualitative space, not all places are equal and the directions of space also have non-spatial qualities, in contrast to purely mathematical Euclidean space in which all points and all directions are content-less, quality-less and equal. Of course, South Asia is no stranger to the concept of sacred time, either, since most of the calendar is sacralized; even the modern Gregorian calendar remains sacralized to a certain extent. Yet nowhere else in the world has the tradition of pilgrimage and sacred geography remained as pervasive and vibrant as in the Indian subcontinent.

Aaru Patai Veetukal: The Six 'War Camps' of Skanda-Murukan

 

In the context of Tamil Nadu, sacred geography is invariably associated with the Aaru Patai Veetukal, Murukan 's six 'camps' or sacred sites associated with particular episodes in His divine career that are scattered across the length and breadth of Tamil Nadu, effectively homologizing the landscape of Tamil Nadu with the career of Murukan . In fact, there are only five patai veetukal; the number six should be understood not as a statistical tally but rather a significant number in numerology and sacred geometry, a sister science of sacred geography.

The number six signifies, among other things, the six 'rays' of the three-dimensional cross, i.e. the six cardinal directions of space. This structural relation of the number six to three-dimensional space (and hence to the exploration and mapping of sacred space) is directly related to the genesis of Skanda from six rays of light that coalesce and integrate in the Sanatkumara or Perpetual Youth personified.

In this aspect as Shanmukha 'the Six-Faced,' Skanda-Murukan is the Lord of Space, the Unmoved Mover abiding as a conscious presence at the source and center of the matrix of infinite possibilities -- our own three-dimensional world of embodied existence. It is precisely this aspect of Skanda-Murukan that is celebrated at Kataragama, where no icon is worshipped but only a small casket containing (or said to contain, for it is never displayed) the shadkona yantra or six-pointed magical diagram etched upon a metal plate. Indeed, in contradistinction to the tradition of Tamil Nadu, in Sri Lanka the entire career of Skanda-Murukan is said to take place at Kataragama, such that the God's six stations or directions of space collapse, or rather return, back into their source -- undifferentiated singularity.

At Kataragama this principle also finds embodiment in the ezhumalai or Seven Hills, where the highest (417 m.) and 'best' peak, Katira Malai ('Mountain of Light') or Vedahitikanda ('The Peak Where He Was'), is homologized to the number seven signifying reversal, return, integration and completion or perfection in childlike innocence and simplicity (Tamil: cumma iruttal), which is the specific objective of kaumara sadhana or praxis for aspirants in the tradition of Skanda-Murukan . This holographic quality of Kataragama, where the whole may be seen within any given part, permeates Kataragama not only on the levels of myth and ritual but even on the physical level of geography. Mention may be made here that in ancient times when sacred geography played an important role in the identification of powerful sites, a configuration of seven hills was considered to be the ideal location for the capital of a kingdom. Notable examples include Athens, Rome, Constantinople and Jerusalem as well as Kataragama, the capital of a virtual kingdom.

In the puranic accounts considered authoritative among Hindus today, Karttikeya's childhood is spent upon on Mount Kailasa, a real geographical place in the trans-Himalaya which in the pan-Indian cosographical conception is regarded as the stambha or axis mundi, the center and axis of the cosmos.

elephant-god Ganapati. With his parents' connivance, Ganapati falls back on his natural rat-like cunning to cheat Karttikeya and claim the prize. His sense of justice inflamed, Karttikeya leaves home never to return. He discards his divine raiments and, with only a kaupina-loincloth and a staff, storms down from the Himalayas to the Gangetic plain of India and continues southward to South India.

In the South Indian recension, the god's greatest exploits occur in Tamil Nadu. But in the Sri Lankan recension, he crosses by boat to island Lanka and proceeds on foot to Katir-kamam or Kataragama where he leads the army of the devas to victory over the asura-titans before the crowning event of his career -- his secretive courtship and marriage with Valli Amma, daughter of the local chieftain of the Veddas or Wanniyala-aeto, the indigenous forest inhabitants.

From the conventional standpoint, this union of high god and low-born earthly maiden is a gross mis-match. And yet, representing as it does the 'illicit union' of Spirit with the earth-bound soul, the legend of Kataragama has long served as a creative framework for the most diverse forms of mysticism imaginable -- the very hallmark of Kataragama down the ages and the wellspring of its well-deserved reputation for mystery and sanctity.

From Kailasa to Kataragama: Mystical Passage via the Axis Mundi

 

Like his 'father' Rudra or Siva, Skanda-Murukan is a god associated with mountains and hilltops; his Wanniyala-aeto worshippers even today know him as Kande Yaka, the hunter Spirit of the Mountain. Vedahitikanda, 'The Peak Where He Was' in Kataragama, to Tamils is Katira Malai, the 'Mountain of Light' and even to this day the Kataragama Pada Yatra is also known in Tamil as Katira Malai Kar ai Yattirai, the 'coastal pilgrimage to the Shining Peak.' In view of its strong associations with the god's origin on Mount Kailasa, it is also well known as Daksina Kailasa, the 'Southern Kailasa.'

This long-standing postulation of a North-South axis anchored at Uttara Kailasa in Tibet and Daksina Kailasa in Sri Lanka takes on profound significance in the tradition of pilgrimage and mystical practice at Kataragama. For it is a remarkable fact that Mt. Kailasa in the trans-Himalaya and Kataragama in the far south constitute a North-South axis not merely in yogic lore, but also in modern geographical terms as well (see figure 1). Coincidence or not, this fact further highlights the role of geography in Kataragama's mystical traditions.

This striking feature of a virtual North-South axis or geographic alignment between Kailasa and Kataragama is well-known to Kataragama swamis and yogins, who regard it as a macrocosmic analog to the microcosmic susumna nadi or subtle central nerve channel envisaged in kundalini yoga. In their view, Kailasa is homologized or equated to the thousand-petalled sahasrara cakra, the goal of yogic practice, while Kataragama corresponds to the muladhara cakra, the point of entry for the vertical flight to higher cakras or lokas, subtle worlds superior to our world of physical sense perception. By process of transposition, the North-South axis geographically represented by Kailasa-Kataragama is also analogous to the vertical ray that 'shines upon the waters' in religious traditions worldwide. In this sense, the descent of Skanda-Murukan from Uttara Kailasa to Daksina Kailasa also represents the descent or visitation of the Spirit into matter, which expresses in metaphysical terms precisely the legend of Skanda-Murukan's disguised visitation to Kataragama to woo and wed the yearning human soul represented by Valli. In this context, the Kailasa-Kataragama axis is also homologized to the shrine's very name Katir-Kamam, where lofty cold Mt. Kailasa symbolizes katir (effulgence, light or brilliance, i.e. logos) while kamam (Sanskrit: kama or Greek eros) pertains to the passion of Valli and Murukan in the romantic jungle setting of Kataragama which, although undoubtedly a very human love story, is also a subtle and profound religious parable at the same time and it is on this level that scholars and devotees interpret it.

Scholars of religon, too, are familiar with this process -- in their own scholarly way, of course, if not directly and immediately as a result of actually undertaking the journey or passage as the traditions under their study may practice it. Mircea Eliade was perhaps the first modern scholar to articulate this process.¹⁰ In the context of Indian tantricism, anthropologist Agehananda Bharati describes the process as a characteristic phenomenon of tantric pilgrimage, both as a concept and as a set of observances, is the hypostasization of pilgrim-sites and shrines: the geographical site is homologized with some entity in the esoteric discipline, usually with a region or an 'organ' in the mystical body of the tantric devotee."¹¹

These structural features of Kataragama and its legends -- which have not passed unnoticed by generations of practising kaumara sadhakas or aspirants -- are also related to Kataragama's hoary tradition of passage to and from other lokas or worlds as well as the appearance in Kataragama of diverse spirits and godlings from other lokas. The Kataragama festival, for example, is essentially a wedding or fertility celebration which, in theory, is widely attended not only by humans but also by spirits of every hue and variety from many lokas and not just from our familiar sense world alone. Senior swamis and yogins allege that strange beings used to visit Kataragama in human or animal guise quite commonly until only a few decades ago. Such visitations have become less common, they say, due to the increasing secularization of Kataragama. As outlandish as such claims might sound at first, they should not be discarded but should be considered in the light of traditional sciences which best explain these alleged occurrences on their own terms.

Intertwined realms or worlds

 

Certain places on earth are believed to exude mystical power or s'akti partly because they are felt to be in continuous contact with their subtle counterparts in other worlds. That is, their connection with myth is sustained not so much because of a presumed historical relationship ('so-and-so came here and did such-and-such') but because the very place itself remains connected through living myths or legends that happen in principio, i.e. not at a unique unrepeatable moment in past history, but always in the eternal here-and-now (Tamil: ippo-inge).

An example of this concept concerns the Kataragama Mahadevale on the left bank of the Menik Ganga where the god is believed to reside and around which the mystery tradition revolves. The Mahadevale is a modest, single-story temple of indeterminate age said to have been originally built by the 2nd century BC Sinhala King Duttugemunu on the direct order of God Kataragama. But according to current lore, when practitioners visit the Mahadevale while in a state of yogic or lucid dreaming, they find that it has not one story but seven -- three stories above ground and three more below in addition to the ground floor. In this sense, the god's temple-palace encompasses multiple lokas and is a microcosm of the hierarchical cosmos described in pan-Indian tradition. In recent years lucid dreaming has become the object of recognised medical research worldwide, so perhaps dream researchers may some day be able to duplicate (or disprove) the findings of Kataragama's indigenous tradition of yogic dreaming.

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To Read a book-let on Katragama by a Hindu Saint 

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