{"id":92735,"date":"2019-08-31T21:17:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T03:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=92735"},"modified":"2019-08-31T14:10:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T21:10:48","slug":"reestablish-sinhala-ownership-against-hindu-invasion-of-okanda-dewalaya-and-okanda-kataragama-dewalaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/08\/31\/reestablish-sinhala-ownership-against-hindu-invasion-of-okanda-dewalaya-and-okanda-kataragama-dewalaya\/","title":{"rendered":"Reestablish Sinhala Ownership Against Hindu Invasion of Okanda Dewalaya and Okanda Kataragama Dewalaya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\nAttention is paid to Muhudu Maha Viharaya \nthanks to untiring efforts of Buddhists. However, close by are other Sinhala \nheritage sites that have been invaded and converted to South Indian shrines by \nHindus. There was no Murugan or Valli Amman kovils in this area until very \nrecently. Their construction is extremely recent as these lands have been \npurchased by Tamils. These were Sinhala shrines dedicated to Sinhala god \nKataragama (King Mahasena immortalized as God Kataragama). There is also \nevidence of Sinhala Buddhist shrines in the area. Nearby Kottadamuhela Buddhist \nshrine remnants are evidence of Buddhist heritage. A large number of Buddhist \nmonks lived there in ancient times. There are 20 cave inscriptions in \nKottadamuhela caves and none mentions a Hindu shrine. They all attest to the \npresence of a Buddhist shrine. The Buddhist shrine was in operation in a small \nway until 1978. Thereafter Tamil terrorists attacked Sinhalese in this area \nhacking some to death while others fled. Tamils invaded this area subsequently \nand captured it. Valli Amma Dewalaya belongs to Veddhas, not Hindus.

\n\nAll these must be taken over by the main \nKataragama Dewalaya and rebuilt into Sinhala heritage. God Kataragama is one of \nfour guardian gods of the Sinhala nation. Therefore, Kataragama shrines in the \nsouth cannot be distanced from Sinhala heritage and ownership. Until April 27, \n2002 the place was officially known as Okanda Dewalaya. Since then it has been \nreplaced by Murugan Kovil\u201d.\n
\nSadly, the European Union has financed the \nconstruction of the Hindu temple replacing Sinhala heritage. This is malicious \nand is a direct interference in domestic affairs. It also proves the extreme \nrecent development of Hindu shrines here.\n
\nHindus are free to call Sinhala shrines by \nwhatever names but they must not convert them into South Indian shrines. There \ncannot be any Murugan shrines in southern Sri Lanka in place of ancient \nKataragama shrines. The two are different gods. Murugan is a god of African \norigin worshipped by South Indians. God Kataragama was a Sinhala man by the name \nKing Mahasena who was immortalized as a god. Tamils may find similarities \nbetween the two gods but converging them into one is unacceptable.

\nHopefully authorities will look into this \ndespicable act by Hindus and correct the situation.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinhala heritage is not just Buddhist. Introduced \nonly in 265BC, Buddhism has a history of 2283 years in Sri Lanka. Ancestral \nworship has a longer history in Sri Lanka. Kataragama Shrine was built by King \nDutugemunu circa 161BC before he built any Buddhist shrine. It was dedicated to \nhis ancestral forefather for helping him eliminate Tamil invaders. Mahavamsa \nidentifies the place of the shrine as Kajjra Grama\u201d which translates to desert \nvillage\u201d. The word Kataragama also means desert village\u201d. Not just Buddhist \nshrines but also other ancient Sinhala shrines must be protected. They cannot be \ngiven away to Hindus.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara Attention is paid to Muhudu Maha Viharaya thanks to untiring efforts of Buddhists. However, close by are other Sinhala heritage sites that have been invaded and converted to South Indian shrines by Hindus. There was no Murugan or Valli Amman kovils in this area until very recently. Their construction is extremely recent as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}