Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Kadurugoda (Kantarodai) Buddhist Temple in Jaffna

Among the Buddhist places in Yapa Patuna (Jaffna) Kadurugoda Viharaya or Kantarodai holds an important place in Sri Lanka's history. This temple is located on the Hunugama (Chunnakam) - Minipe (Manipai) road about 02 KMs from Hunugama.

The first archaeological excavation on the site was reported to have been done by Paul. E. Pieris in 1917 and 1919. He found remains of a shrine room, several Buddha images, coins, about 60 small and large stupas (pagodas), pieces of pinnacles of stupas, pieces of stone with imprints of the Buddha's foot and tiles from the site. A head and a headless body of a Buddha image are also among the many artifacts found.

According to the historical chronicles Nagadeepa is the place where Buddha made his second visit to Sri Lanka. The famous sermon he preached to Chulodhara and Mahodhara over their dispute was made at this Kadurugoda area. The exact place where Buddha made his sermon is called Rajyathana Chithya (Stupa) located in Kadurugoda. The place became a venerated place among people after the Buddha's visit and subsequently a Bo-tree was planted. (Rajayathanan is the Pali word for Bo-tree)

H.W .Codrington in his book 'Coins and Currency in Ceylon' (1924) has mentioned that number of coins found in the vicinity of the Kadurogoda Viharaya while Mudliyar C. R. Rasanayagam in his book 'Ancient Jaffna' (1926) mentions that there were ruins of an ancient Buddhist temple in Kadhurogoda.

The archeological excavation site in Kadurugoda was known among the local people as "Kayangana". This is the Tamilinzed version of the Sinhala word Gayangana. This may be the old name used by Sinhalese as Buddha came to Sri Lanka from Gaya Rata.

A piece of a Black-Red pot with letters belonging to the pre-historic period was found in Kadurugoda area. Similar pieces of Black-Red pots with letters were found from Gedige area in Anuradhapura too.  Both pieces found in Kadurugoda and Gedige had old Sinhala Brhami letters with Sinhala names. References to this temple are also found in the Nam Potha written in Kandiyan Period.

Ven. S. Dhammika, an erudite Australian Buddhist monk who has written many books on Buddhist places in Asia mentions about Kadurugoda ruins in his book 'Sacred Island' as follows
" In the early 20th century there were still numerous Buddhist remains in the Jaffna Peninsular but these now have nearly all disappeared due to neglect, pilfering or deliberate destruction due to political reasons. One place where extensive Buddhist ruins can still be seen is at Kantarodai a little to north of Jaffna. On the side of a grove of lovely palm trees is a collection of stupas and mounds, the remains of ancient buildings. There are now 20 complete stupas but judging by the numerous pinnacles in the Jaffna Museum which were picked up in the area there were once many more. The largest stupa is about 23 feet in diameter and the smallest about 6 feet. The base of each stupa is made of coral stone molded into four bands and the domes are made of coral rubble coated with plaster fashioned to look like blocks of stone.
The hamakas and spires are made of stone, sometimes a single piece sometimes of two pieces with the pinnacle fitting into a hole in the hamika. Archeological investigations done at Kantarodai in 1966-7 found that the site was inhabited from about the 2nd century BCE to about the 13th century CE. When P.E. Pieris came here in 1917 he found several Buddha images. He also noted that locals were regularly removing stones from the site to use for building purposes".  

And also an existence of an institution that belonged to the Abhayagiri Sect in Anuradhapura era in Yapa Patuna (Jaffana) confirms with the finding of a part of an inscription found in Kadurugoda area. Prof. Sirimal Ranawella confirms that it belonged to King IV Dappula (10th Century) period.

More ruins of Buddhist temples from Yapa Patuna (Jaffna)
 
Ruins of Buddhist temples have been found in Hunugama (Chunnakam), Kodiyawatta (Koddiyathottam), Malalagama (Mallakam), Mahiyapiti (Mahiyappitti), Puralali (Palalai) and Uduwila (Uduwil) too. Ruins belonging to Dagabas (Pagodas) have been found in Delft Island (Develdoova) as well.

Ven. S. Dhammika says "At Chunnakam there was the extensive ruins of a stupa and monastery and several large Buddha images but these have all disappeared now".

Kytes (Urathota) Islands also give important evidences: the Sinhala word Urathota is referred in Tamil as Uratturai in Naiyantheeve inscription of Parakramabahu the Great. References are found about Urathota in ancient chronicles such as Pujawaliya, Rajawaliya and Nikaya Sangrahaya. Chulawamsa, a Pali chronicle refers this as Sookarathiththa.  

These evidences prove the existence of Sinhalese Buddhist civilization in the entire northern region and also that the people lived in Yapa Patuna (Jaffna) were not a group of immigrants but the descendents of the Sinhalese from the pre-historic era. 

Books referred: 
  1. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Ceylon Branch) 
  2. Paranavithana,Senerat Inscriptions of Ceylon. 
  3. Epigraphiya Zeylanica 
  4. Spolia-Zeylanica 
  5. Godakumbura, G.C-Kantarodai- Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Ceylon Branch) 
  6. Codrington, H.W-Colombo 1924-Coins and Currency in Ceylon. 
  7. Mudliyar C. R. Rasanayagam, Ancient Jaffna 
  8. Ancient Ceylon-The journal of the Archeological Dept.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

How LTTE’s plea to rescue them from total annihilation saved them in 1987

LTTE's and its leaders' cowardice was well exposed during the final phase of the recently concluded war. Not being able to face the military might of the SL armed forces, they exposed this to the world first by hiding behind the very people whom they were claiming to be protecting then by appealing help from all sundry of powerful tiger supportive sections of the world: anti-Sri Lanka western world, Tamil Diaspora and Tamil Nadu government etc.

Retired Gen. Cyril Ranathunga describes in his recently released biography : "From peace to war, insurgency to terrorism" how the cowardly terrorists appealed the help from the Tamil Nadu governemt when they were about to be decimated at the final days of the Vadamarachchi operation in 1987.  There had been no much difference in the modus operandi applied. It was again a sort of "genocide of innocent Tamil civilians" as quoted below. What we witnessed this time has merely been history repeating itself.

Gen. Ranatunga says "Our signals units monitoring tiger communications intercepted urgent pleas going to the carders in Tamil Nadu to take up the issue of saving them from annihilation with the Tamil Nadu chief minister. One common excused used was the killing of the innocent Tamil civilians".

Unlike this occasion Prabhakaran's effort was successful then. The book graphically describes the how India blatantly violated sovereignty of Sri Lanka and saved the LTTE leader and his cohorts from being decimated by the Sri Lankan armed forces.       

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Tamilinized Sinhala place names in Jaffna

The Tamilinzed Sinhala place names and the Buddhist archaeological sites in the North and East of Sri Lanka has always been an interesting aspect of study for anyone interested in learning the true history of this country. 

It is a well recognized fact that the bogus Tamil homeland theory in the North and East of  Sri Lanka is a just a creation of power hungry elite Vellala and Christian Tamil politicians of Jaffna as highlighted by Tamil scholars themselves. Blinded by this illusionary theory the Tamil community in Sri Lanka had to bear the brunt of the destruction for the last three decades.
The names of the places in Jaffna specially shed more light to unearth the true history of the country. Following example show that the most of the Sinhala names' latter part has been Tamilinzed while the first part remains in most of the cases in the original forms:
  
Sinhala                                    Tamil

goda                 -                       kotteai
gama                -                       cam
gala                  -                       kallu
puraya              -                       puram
maluwa             -                       malai
amuna              -                       munai
watta                -                       thottam
deepa               -                       theev
ganga               -                       aru
wava                -                       kulam

Following examples of places in Jaffna district show how those place names got the Tamil names for Tamil usage.

Sinhala                                    Tamil  

Yapa Patuna                             Yalpana Pattanam
Dambakola Patuna                    Sembilthurai
Hunugama                                Chunnakam
Gothamaluwawatta                   Kattupulam
Virala                                       Viralai
Vadumakaduwa                         Vaddumakaddu
Uduvila                                     Uduvil
Kodiyawatta                              Koddiyawattai
Malalagama                              Mallakam
Budugama                                Puttur
Mahiyapitiya                             Mahiyappitti
Nilawara                                  Nilawarai
Puleliya                                    Pulloli
Velipuraya                                Vallipuram
Develdoova                              Delape-Nenedatheev (Delft)
Uthirapura                                Uththipuram
Kilinike                                     Kilinochchi
Puvangudeepa                          Punkudutheev
Kadurugoda                             Kantharodai
Dunukava                                Nuthukkai

[More Tamilnized original Sinhala names in the NE Sri Lanka along with the Buddhist archaeological sites with their histories will follow with subsequent posts.]