After having a royal breakfast from the Traveller’s
Nest where we stayed yesternight, we
started for Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of Tooth Relic. Sri Dalada Maligawa
is a Buddhist Temple in the central part of Kandy. Kandy is the second largest
town in Sri Lanka and a World Heritage Site of the UNESCO.The Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Kandy Lake and the
Sigiriya Rock are the three sites which make Kandy a World Heritage Site. It is surrounded
by mountains and valleys and the climate is moderate . We walked along the shore of the manmade
Kandy lake, enjoying the gentle breeze and we from Kerala felt as if we are in
Munnaar. It was a working day. The road
was heavy with cars and dukkudukkus (autorikshaws)and also twowheelers. The footpath was also thick with pedastrians
including office goers and students, young couples and lovers … The autodrivers in the stand were very friendly: Shalin and
Dinesh were very talketive and posed for photographs.
At 9.30 we reached the premises of Sri Dalada Maligawa which is located in the royal
palace complex of the former kingdom of Kandy and also very near the Kandy
Lake. It is told that this shrine houses
the tooth of Lord Buddha. Our guide Sri
Njanaprakasam narrated a story ( which
he said it is recorded in Dathuvamsa), that a monk named Khema snatched the Buddha’s left upper canine
tooth as he was in the funeral pyre, without anybody noticing it and it is
believed that this is the tooth kept in
the holy shrine.
The
temple is approached through a rectangular garden stretching from centre of the
town right to the Temple itself. The
crowd was too heavy including tourists from India, China and Europe. We had to
wait for long in queu . After keeping the chappals in the counter we went
inside, there we can buy offerings , mainly white and blue lotus, one flower
for Rs.50 (SriLankan Rs) and two for Rs.100. The shrine consists of a two storied
rectangular building on an oblong platform faced with stone. There are three
entrances – the main one facing the Drumming Hall and one each on it’s north
and south sides . At the main entrance there is a Kandyan style moonstone and
stairs leading to the porch. On eitherside of the stairs are two stone lions
which are said to be gifted by Chinese Pilgrims in the 19th century.
The elaborately carved stone doorframe, has guardians on eitherside with their swords raised and a dragon arch above it, are brightly painted.
Four huge elephant tusks are kept on the porch.
Now we
have to turn left and walk around the shrine. 26 pillars with wooden capitals
supporting triple corbels , all painted with lions, birds, beasts and flowers.
At the far end of the shrine is the entrance to a museum housing Buddha images and other gifts offered to the temple
over the years. Upstairs is the Sri
Dalada Museum housing an excellent collection of photos and documents relating to the history
of the Tooth. Stepdown to the shrine,
walk around it , return to the Drumming Hall, turn left and climb the
stairs to the upper entrance to the shrine : it is here the devotees assemble
every evening to worship the Tooth.
Facing this holy shrine is a large table always piled high with
beautiful flower offerings and the air is filled with their fragrance. If you
wish to worship the Tooth nearby, you have to come here at 5 pm and stand in
line.
When the doors opened we passed quickly through two small rooms to the
third room. As the crowds are large and
the attendants keep everyone moving , we
could stand before the large golden
stupa which enshrines the Tooth, only for a minute and then we were pushed out to the side door. We couldn’t see the Tooth . Our guide told us
that the Tooth itself is very rearly displayed. He also told us that rituals are performed
thrice daily ; at dawn, at noon and at
the evening and on Wednesdays there is a symbolic bathing of the Relic with a
herbal preparation made from scented water and fragrant flowers called Nanumura
Mangallya and this water is considered holy and is believed to contain healing
powers and is distributed among the devotees present. Every morning at 5.30 and
evening at 6.30 drums and oboes are played as special offerings.
The story of the Tooth Relic is
scant, fragmentary and full of fantastic details. It goes on like this: the
Relic was passed on from one person to
another until it ended in a city that
later named after it ‘Danthapura’ or
Tooth City. This place is now identified with Dantavuram on the south
bank of the Vamsadhara river about 100 miles southwest of Puri in Orissa, where
there are extensive ruins as well as Buddhist antiquities in the area. For 800
years the Tooth was kept in Dantapura . At that time Orissa and Sri Lanka had close political and cultural ties and members of the Orissian royal family were sometimes invited even to become king of
the Island when a king died without a heir.
Safeguard of the Tooth was the
responsibility of the king and therefore over the years of custodianship the
relic became the symbol of the right to rule. And therefore the kings built
Tooth Relic Temple quite close to their royal residences. During the reign of
Dharmapala of Kotte , the relic was kept hidden in a grinding stone @ Delgamuwa
Vihara Ratnapura. When the capital was moved to Kandy, in 1545, the Tooth was
moved to Kandy by Hiripitiye Diyavadana Rala
and Devanagala Rathanarankara Thera and eversince it remains in Kandy
and the King Vimaladharma suriya 1 built a temple to enshrine the tooth. Though
the temple was originally built by the Kandyan Kings , later it was severely damaged
during the 18th century colonial wars against the Portuguese and the
Dutch. After the war, the original wooden structures were rebuilt in stone.
Almost all the original structures remained were since destroyed by the LTTE
attack of 1998 and what we see are
recently rebuilt ones.
Super .... Good reading experience....
ReplyDeleteThanq dear
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