bharatayatra: part 1 - Sri Lanka: Muneeswaram

Muneeswaram temple is in a better condition than the Tondeswaram Pancha-Ishwaram temple. The location is in a small hamlet beyond the Negombo creeks, north of Colombo, east of Chilaw. Most webpages, references, and maps seem to indicate the Muneeswaram temple at Puttalam. This is not correct. Chilaw is almost mid-distance between Negombo and Puttalam. The temple is only about 10 kms east of Chilaw on a very easy approachable road. There are other temples around the Muneeswaram temple. There seems to be mention of four Ganesha temples in a quadrant as four vertices to the Muneeswaram temple.

The sthala-purana (= ancient story of the location) refers to the times of the Ramayana, of Ravana establishing the pre-ancient Shiva lingam, and of Rama, Lakshmana, Hanuman, Sugreeva and Vibheeshana conducting prayers at the location and offering abhishekham (= dedicated prayers with offerings to be poured on the Shiva lingam).

The Shiva lingam within the temple sanctum is ancient but was established by rulers in Sri Lanka or from Tamil Nadu during the anno domini years before colonisation by European rulers. There are many fascinating stories about the temple and its struggle for survival during the colonial years of the Portuguese. The local community managed to protect the temple through several years of passive and persistent resistance. many devotees lost their lives in the repeated attacks by the Portuguese.

Today, the temple is venerated and worshipped by hindus, buddhists and muslims. Prayers are mostly offered by buddhist devotees and the temple is a paramount example of the convergence of religions. 

bharatayatra: part 1 - Sri Lanka: Tondeswaram

Tondeswaram is one of the Pancha-Ishwaram temples of Sri Lanka. It is said that the Shiva Lingam at each of the Pancha Ishwaram temples were established by Ravana himself. A devotee of Shiva, beyond parallel in his times, Ravana was said to have sought protection to the island-nation with the blessings of Shiva, and thus, the five temples are found on the coast at various locations.

The Shiva Lingams that are said to have been established by Ravana are unique and different in form and shape. They are columnar and tall, almost in human size. The lingams at Tondeswaram and Muneeswaram are different in form from each other. Unfortunately, at both the locations, the lingams thought to be established by Ravana are not the sthala-lingams for prayers and ceremonies.

Tondeswaram has many unfortunate turns in its history. The Shiva temple, known to be a symbol of pride of the local community and seafaring traders from India and South East Asia, was destroyed repeatedly by the Portuguese rulers during their years of colonial presence in Sri Lanka. The plinth and the pre-ancient columns of the Shiva temple and Kartikeya temple at Tondeswaram are visible and exist in the premises. Today, there is a Vishnu temple on the earlier plinth of the Shiva temple. The Shiva Lingam, a pre-ancient one, thought and accepted by the local community as the sthala-lingam that could have been in the earlier Shiva temple is now located in the lawns of a Buddhist museum and temple complex and maintained decently and venerated and worshipped. 

bharatayatra: part 1 - Sri Lanka: Kataragama, Tondeswaram, Muneeswaram

There are so many countless layers of events, stories and places within this bharatayatra. I cease to be amazed now. I am no longer surprised by the miracles. They happen, all the time. I do not question them anymore, and I have stopped speaking about them. One has to just desire an aspect of the journey to occur, and it begins to happen.

In June 2011, on Facebook, came a sudden request for friendship from 'Masterwalkers Travels', a Travel Agency in Sri Lanka. Without much thought or query, but only with acceptance, I agreed to the 'invite'. Instantly came the message from Lasanthi Gunasekara of Masterwalkers Travels, inviting me to visit Sri Lanka and travel on any itinerary, either their pre-set tour, or one that I would design. This was what I was waiting for. I needed a good contact group in Sri Lanka, who would be ready to improvise, and agree with me about the itinerary that I would like to develop.

I asked them if they could design an itinerary that would focus entirely on Kataragama without any visit to Colombo, Kandy or Anuradhapura as most tourists would like to do. I must say, in appreciation of Masterwalkers Travels, and Lasanthi Gunasekara, that they never hesitated or questioned or hassled me with options to visit other locations. The agreement was immediate, and there was no ridicule. They did not question as to why an Indian would travel within Sri Lanka, and would not want to be a tourist or shopper or beach-hound, but would just like to go to visit one temple at Kataragama. But, I guess, it was the magic of Kataragama, and the spiritual strength of that place that made it all happen.

Lasanthi Gunasekara and the team at Masterwalkers Travels maintained a hectic routine of communication, working with me on the itinerary. I kept changing details, adding requirements, asking for information and troubling them enormously. They did not know me, and I did not know them. Nobody introduced us to each other. The e-handshake just happened, with the blessings of Facebook, on one fine day in June 2011.

Another development happened during this communication. I was reading up on Kataragama, the temples, the deity, the pilgrimage and the knowledge systems that abound. There are fantastic websites, with hundreds or thousands of pages, and hundreds of links about Skanda-Murugan-Kartikeya and Kataragama at http://murugan.org/research and at http://www.kataragama.org These websites provide splendid guidance and are doing tremendous service.

I had wanted to search for information of locations mentioned in the Ramayana, and especially of locations that would refer to Shiva, Ravana and Rama. Similar to the Jyotirlinga Shiva temples or the Vaishnava Divya Desams in India, the "Pancha-Ishwara" (= five Shiva) temples in Sri Lanka are the oldest, most pre-eminent locations of spiritual thought and aspects of worship to Shiva.

Two locations were crucial to the journey to Kataragama. Tondeswaram, near Matara, which was the southernmost, and Muneeswaram, at Chilaw, south of Puttalam, on the western coast, north of Colombo, seemed like locations that I would be able to visit and add value to the bharatayatra.

The call of the ancients - the reason for the yatra.

It was the awesome geographical span of the story that captured me. That, and the amazing precision of locations, events and places in the numerous stories that seemed never ending. One story went into another. One religion wove into another. Historical and pre-ancient time-spans seemed to enter mythology and mythical individuals, deities and demons were in and out of real events. How could one not be captivated by it all?

There was Valmiki, the sage, whose childhood had not been in an ashram, had never been taught the vedas, and had never led a saintly life. He had never travelled out of his forest, and he had never written a textual line, leave alone poetry. Yet, he is the fountainhead of the Ramayana, and he describes Rama's journey throughout the Indian Subcontinent and to battle with Ravana in Lanka. Not forgetting Rama's wedding in Mithila, how did Valmiki come up with so many people, events and places, in perfect rhythmic poetic lines, in a language that he had not learnt? And, the magic of it all, so many thousands of years later, the story is the top bestseller of all times.

There was Shiva, the dancing destroyer. One of the trinity. Deadly and yet benevolent. He kills his son, and brings him back to life, but with the head of an elephant. How does one even imagine such a concept? So many thousands of years later, can we think of an India or an Indian who does not understand Vigneshwara? Nobody would ever argue against the very concept. Its simply not done. But, once you have accepted Ganapati and before you know it, you are  swept and drowned into the hundreds of stories that have numerous tales about the lovable deity.

There was Vyasa, the supreme. Definitely, to be recognised as the best writer of all times, for his books are being read, interpreted, established as spiritual, cultural or religious schools of thought, and rewritten by countless students-sages-scholars through thousands of years. Who can better his mastery over words, characters, events and thought? His teachings have become the established way of choosing right over wrong. The Bhagavad Gita is always the first choice of reference for any teacher to examine, if one is going to teach ethical behaviour. Millions of people through many centuries would have picked up the Bhagavad Gita to choose their path ahead when in  grief and distress.

The ultimate attraction was Kartikeya. Shiva's son, Shanmukhananda. In a moment of disagreement with Shiva, the young Kartikeya leaves Kailasa and travels throughout the Indian Subcontinent. His journey is known to us through hundreds of stories in excellent detail, from the early years, of how he came to be Shanmukhananda to the stories that we do not know. He is the major deity to be uncovered in the Indus scripts of ancient Meluha. He leaves the region, and the Saraswathy River goes underground. What was the story? Towns and cities recounted by Vidura during his travels while the Kurukshetra war was being fought, are no longer present. Later, the journey of Kartikeya through Maharashtra, Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and finally to Kataragama in Sri Lanka, is tremendous. The precision cosmogeography of Kailasa and Kataragama at 81 deg. E Longitude is the most amazing aspect of spiritual knowledge possible in the Indian Subcontinent.