Anthropos 92.1997
Hilde K. Link
96
History of Kataragama
The poem belongs to kurinci, from which it
follows that Vajli is the daughter of the mountains.
The other meaning of Valli is “creeper,” one Tamils do not sav Kat
belonging to the Dioscoreaceae family, of which Tamil katir * aiara § ama bu t Katirkamam.
’ * u "' ;1H nr| d cultivated varieties. The sunlight sun ” ,I-i ai f° n 8 st other things “light,
1Q kam am means “desire, hap-
~ - . 99
belonging to the Dioscoreaecak, __
there are both wild and cultivated varieties. The suntignt sun
latter is the sweet potato, mentioned in the glossary piness in love Kamam means "desire, na,
of 99 plant names typical of the kurinci (montane) As the hist' P leasure ’ object of desire,
region in the Old Tamil poem Kurincipattu, as- buildings of evidence shows, the different
cribed to Kapilar (ca. A.D. 140-200). 17 Valli as built at different t ^* 1 ^ art Kataragama were
plant is also mentioned in Nar. 269: 7 and 295: 1, (Wirz 1954- u i lmes and for different reasons
and Par. 21: 10. The roots of valli are mentioned in p a ii text ’ ausherr 19 ^8; Fernando 1973).
Kal. 39: 12 (Zvelebil 1977: 232). The valli creeper oldest settlement ^ Katara § ama is one of the
winds itself around trees and so becomes a symbol first shrine ; v m the cou ntry. However the
Of lovers. built in the is said t0 have been
Up to the present day, marriages take place Nevertheless no tUry BC - b Y Dutthagamani.
under the venkai tree. In classical Tamil poetry, i ng Was a sh ’ ri ™ eatl0n is made that this build-
the blossoms of the venkai tree are compared with a bout Katarag °T kanda ’ whom many legends
the flames of fire or, when they are lying on a black Buddhists who U d ° n0t even menti on. For the
rock, with a tiger, as many examples in Caiikam is a bodhisattvan 0 ™ 6 l ° Katara § a ma today, Skanda
literature demonstrate. 18 ation betw ° r gaardlan of Buddha. The associ-
In many parts of Sri Lanka and Tamilnadu, only a f ew cent, Katara § a ma dates back
a venkai tree, one of the so-called sacred trees, is of the urea For Budd Wsts, the bo tree
is situated near a temple and marks a sacred Sangamitta hm, n P ° rtance: A s°ka's daughter
place. Three kinds of holy trees are mentioned in the sacred tree fm a“" 6 ° f the eight shoots of
Cankarn literature, venkai, banyan, and katampu after which Ka Anuradh apura to Kataragama,
(anthocephalus cadamba). Since they are all linked (Fernando I q 7 o g " ama beca me a Buddhist centre
somehow with Murukan or Skanda, they are inter- if we i ,
changeable on the symbolic level. There are even first to have bee "h’ S , hrine which is said to be the
references showing that the god has turned himself it i s now a temnt , ‘ ,n Kata ragama, we see that
into one of these trees or that he lives in one of statue or im» J ( u Skanda ' although there is no
them: “... the place protected by the God who lives the temple is fJ * the ,8 od - " is said that inside
in the venkai tree, which blooms like fire ... (Nar. except the priests 71^ a dia S ra m. but no one
216: 6-7); or ... at the foot of the banyan tree, P ts of Kataragama have ever seen
in which the God lives ...” (Nar. 346: 4); or ...
like Murukan, who lives in the katampu tree ...”
(Pattuppattu-Perumpanurruppatai 75).
What I have tried to classify here in a presumed
pattern of order cannot really be separated in ei
ther the inexhaustible treasure of myths concerning
Murukan and Skanda (cf. Shulman 1980: 243 ff.)
nor in ritual. The transitions are fluid and always
form a whole influenced by different elements or
parts and in which different emphases are main
tained.
Following the methodical attempt to link Kata
ragama or a special part of Kataragama with the
“timeless” Caiikam literature, as Zvelebil calls it,
and to prove the continuity of symbolic grammar
and metaphor into the present, it is worth consid
ering the pilgrimage site of Kataragama afresh.
. 11 i
J
\
V
17 Zvelebil 1977: 230; see also Zvelebil 1981/?: 40.
18 Thani Nayagam (1966: 56) has worked on this theme.
Fig. 1: Yantra showing the “Kataragama deity” (Wirz 1954:
cover).
