Katirkamam (Hindu temple)

Katirkamam also Kathirgamam and Katirgamam (Tamil கதிர்காமம்) is the name of the Hindu temple dedicated to lord Murukan in Sri Lanka. Today it has become primarily a Buddhist place of worship.

Historic Roots

The temple dedicated by the Hindus in Kathirkamam has been a place of pilgrimage and religious sanctity since prehistoric times. At some point in history it came to be identified with Lord Murukan by devotees in Sri Lanka and South India. 1966 the German scholar Paul Wirz observed in his book "Kataragama, the Holiest Place in Ceylon", "One could say that all religions are represented in Kataragama and that all are getting on well with each other. All ritual differences seem to be resolved out here; all are reconciled with each other and even the feeling of caste is completely forgotten."

According to a "Hinduism Today " report that appeared in the magazine in 1986, twenty year later, rancor has replaced reconciliation at Sri Lanka's southernmost shrine. In recent years, however, religious, social, cultural and economic changes have left this lord Murukan sanctuary all but a Buddhist citadel. Anthropologist Gananath Obeyesekere had observed in 1978 that, "Though historically the god Skanda was a Hindu deity, he has been incorporated into Sinhala Buddhism through a myth that says that his mistress is an aboriginal Vedda woman and that he resides in Kataragama itself. Sinhala people view him as a future Buddha; he is therefore a Sinhala Buddhist, rather than a Hindu god. Yet, all through history, Hindu mendicants have come to Kataragama claiming a different pedigree for him; thus, it has been necessary for the Buddhists to constantly affirm Skanda's Sinhala Buddhist nature." Few traces of the Hindu past in Kataragama remain.

ee also

*Hinduism in Sri Lanka
* Kataragama

References

* Kataragama, the Holiest Place in Ceylon by Paul Wirz
* G.Obeyesekere: The fire-walkers of Kataragama - The rise of "Bhakti" religiosity in Buddhist Sri Lanka. Journal of Asian Studies, May 1978, vol.37, no.3, 457-476.
* [http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/1986/12/1986-12-09.shtml Hinduism Today 1986 December article on Kataragama]
* [http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-EPT/jp.htm Sorcery and Cursing Shrines in Sri Lanka]

External links

* [http://kataragama.org/ Kataragama Org]
* [http://www.xlweb.com/heritage/skanda/kailasa.htm The cult of Skanda Murukan]