By Shyamon Jayasinghe –
Shyamon Jayasinghe
In today’s Lankadeepa I read a story about the Kataragama Devale that made me wonder if I had travelled in time toward somewhere in the 10th century in Sri Lanka. This story is mentioned to be primarily based on an account provided by the chief Kapumahattaya of the Devale, Mr Somipala Ratnayake. Claimed as obtaining been written by the ‘editorial board,’ the story, as a result, is invested with some authority and official stamp from what goes as the most well-known Sinhala every day in Sri Lanka. It is an axiom that newspapers have a tendency to reflect the good quality of its readership. If that be so, oh what faith can we have about Sri Lanka making any headway with a sort of media like this and a type of 10th century gullible population?
The story begins by saying that the God Kataragama is a most strong deity. He is none other than the regional ruler, King Mahasena. The site of the Devale is in reality the web site where the king’s palace had after been. Now, there isn’t a shred of historical proof to help this statement but that doesn’t worry the ‘editorial board.’ Far more to come: The Buddha after visited this spot and gave a sermon to the king. No proof at all that the Buddha ever came to Sri Lanka. But no worries continue. Possessing listened to the sermon, the king quickly reached the state of ‘Sovan.’ What magic! Just a single sermon and hey presto the king shoots up into a sublime state. Was the Buddha so seductive?
When the king reached that state he had requested the Buddha for a ‘pooja wattiya.’ This indicates an providing. Height of cheek, I believed! The Buddha felt about his head pulled out a lock of hair and gave it to the king as his offering. Treasure hunters, right here is a winning aim for you: this lock of hair is buried under the present Kiri Vehera. Our political heavyweights can head toward this spot and hold digging beneath the base of the Vihara like termites. Now that they don’t seem in Parliament for critical company they could turn into treasure hunters.
King Mahasena eventually passed away in India and reappeared as the deity of Kataragama. Why did he go to India at all? The ‘editorial board’ is pleased accepting such bull. The deity when met King Dutugemunu and gave his blessing to fight King Elara. Why on earth did a deity show favour like this to one of the warring parties? In addition to, King Elara, according to historical records, had been a benevolent king who even did a lot for the Buddha Sasana. He would not have reigned for forty years had he not received well-liked assistance from the Sinhalese folks. The story gives a clue and that is that Dutugemunu had had a deal with the deity to build a palace with gold tiles and make arrangements for day-to-day poojas to the deity. If this wasn’t plain bribery then what was it? If this was his behaviour the deity could not have been the exact same particular person who had morphed into ‘Sovan’ soon after receiving Buddha’s one power-packed sermon.
The war won, King Dutugemunu returned to Kataragama Wedihitikande, met the deity and announced that he is about to fulfill his guarantee of the palace.
This complete crap of a story written by ‘the editorial board’ of the Lankadeepe mercifully ends with an outstanding prophetic statement alleged to have been produced by the deity who declined to accept the promised gift. The deity said: “Oh King! There is no point in creating luxury palaces even for me due to the fact very quickly the country will face a ‘kali yugaya’ (evil period) when men and women will no longer worship the Buddha or the deities. Consequently, Oh king, refrain from your great creating plans. Individuals will destroy them all. Create one thing quite modest.”
That Kali Yugaya has arrived nowadays. Praise be to the deity of Kataragama! The deity deserves a ‘malwattiya’ for that bit of prophetic warning.
Readers, if you take place to check out Kataragama you ought to follow the guidance of Mr. Ratnayake who in this fairy tale explains that the deity personally appears on Tuesdays. “As he arrives, a red light sweeps across the Devale,” says Mr Ratnayake.
If any of you have noticed this red light you are bloody fortunate. A word of caution: be sure it is not the chief Kapuwa himself who emanates the light.