Sri Lanka Ramayana Trail - Part 5 / Day 5

23 September 2015  ( Wednesday )

                                          

( Nagapooshani Amman, Nainativu )

As day 5 of our Sri Lanka tour dawned, the sky was clear and we had a song in our heart as we could foresee the long journey planned for the day would go smooth. We would be travelling 240 KM. to Jaffna to visit Indrakshi Amman temple and return to Heritage Hotel (240KM) at Anuradhapura for night stay. We had free time before breakfast as there was no need to pack our bags as we used to do in the days that went past.

Heritage hotel is located on the banks of Tissa Wewa lake which is visible from the room balcony. We strolled up to the shore as  morning walk. We could view three Buddhist stupas across the water on the opposite side. The garden around was a feast to the eyes as we saw greenery all around and well grown plants. The swimming pool was quite large with clear

water reflecting the quietude of the surrounding.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

After a short walk around the garden we marched towards the dining hall to have breakfast.

The dining hall opened  by 7.30 a.m. A buffet b/f  was waiting for us. We quickly took an overview of the items kept on the long table. We started with bread, butter and marmalade jam along with watermelon / lemon juice. Next we filled our bowls with cereal, milk, and chocolate sauce. Rice noodles with coconut milk, baked rajma beans, dosas we had with variety of chutneys, hot sambar. Then we chose cut fruits and bananas.  We finished the b/f with hot Nescafe / refreshing Ceylon Tea.

 At 8.15 a.m. we were seated in our chartered vehicle and took the road towards Jaffna. Jaffna  located north of Sri lanka is almost on the opposite end of Dondra, the southern tip.  Mr.Dasa greeted us with ‘Jai SriRam’ and chanted Narasimha Stotra and Stuthi. We recited in chorus after him. He explained that we would be travelling 240 K.M. one way to visit Bhuvaneswari Amman Temple, one of the two Shakti Peetha Temples at Sri Lanka.

Mr.Dasa narrated in a lucid and interacting manner the legends connected with Shakti Peethas and informed that Nainativu and Trincomalee are the two locations of Shakti Peetha Temples in Sri Lanka.  He brought home in a vivid manner that the Shakti Peetha

is a place of worship consecrated to the Goddess Shakti or Sati and the Goddess worshiped at each location is a manifestation of Dakshayani (Sati), Parvati and Durga. The Puranas mention as many as 108 Shakti Peethas though the number is disputed and confined to 51, 56 or 64 which are sprinkled throughout the Indian subcontinent. The Goddess Shakti is accompanied by Lord Bhairava ( a manifestation of Lord Shiva) in all the Peethas. Shiva Purana and Devi Bhagavatam recognises the 4 major Shakti Peethas as ’Adi Shakti Peethas’  two of them are in Orissa and one each in Kolkata and Assam. There is a mention in ‘Ashta Dasa Shakthi Peetha’ Stotram composed by Adi Shankara about 18 Maha Shakti Peethas.

Legend 1

Sri Madhavananda Dasa next narrated the Daksha Yagna story. Sati, the consort of Shiva was the daughter of Daksha Prajapati, a descendant of Brahma. Sati had married Shiva against the wishes of her father. The vain Daksha performed a great sacrifice (yagna) with the sole aim of insulting Shiva, to which he invited all of the Gods and Goddesses except his son in law Shiva. Against Shiva's wishes, Sati attended the yagna  and found herself insulted by her father. Unable to bear the insult, Sati immolated herself.

Enraged by the insult and the injury, Shiva through Veerabhadra, destroyed Daksha's sacrifice ( yagna ), cut off Daksha's head and replaced it with that of a goat, as he restored him to life. Still crazed with grief, he picked up the remains of Sati's body, and danced the dance of destruction throughout the Universe. The other Gods intervened to stop this dance, and the Sudarshana Chakra of Maha Vishnu cut through the corpse of Sati, whose different parts of the body and ornaments fell at several spots all through the Indian subcontinent and formed the sites of Shakti Peetha

Bhuvaneswari Amman Temple is located at Nainativu in the Nallur district, Jaffna. The Silambu of Goddess Sati fell on this spot transferring it as a Shakti Peetha.

Nainativu Bhuvaneswari temple is also better known as Nainativu Nagapooshani Amman Temple. The temple is dedicated to Parvati who is called as Bhuvaneswari or Nagapooshani and her consort Shiva is called as Nayanar.

The temple’s fame is accredited to Adi Shankara who identified it as one of the 64 prominent Shakti Peethas. The temple is a significant symbol of worship for Tamil people. It also finds a place in Tamil literatures like Manimekalai and Kundalakesi. The present temple was built during 1720 to 1790 after the  Portuguese destroyed it in 1620.

Nearly 1000 devotees visit this temple in a day and  more than 5000 visit during festivals. 100000 people visit during annual mahotsav ( Thiruvizha in Tamil) in the Tamil month Aani (June/July).

Legend 2

The Nagapooshani Temple is believed to be originally built by Lord Indra while seeking alleviations from the curse of Gautama Maharshi who cursed Indra to have 1000 marks

resembling  the yoni all over his body for desiring Maharshi’s wife Ahalya. Indra went in exile unable to bear the humiliation caused by his misdeed. He created, consecrated and worshiped Bhuvaneswari  Amman here and prayed for atoning his sins. Bhuvaneshwari Amman satisfied with Indra’s utmost devotion, appeared before him and transformed the yonis in his body into eyes.  Thus she got the name Indrakshi. (giver of eyes to Indra).

                                                

                                                 Front View of Bhuvaneswari Amman Temple          

Legend-3

Another legend states that, many centuries later, a cobra (Nagam) was swimming across the sea towards Nainativu from the nearby island of Puliyantivu with a lotus flower in its mouth, for the worship of Bhuvaneswari Amman (who had already been consecrated by Indra). An eagle (Garuda) spotted the cobra and attempted to attack and kill it. Fearing harm from the eagle, the cobra wound itself around a rock (referred to in Tamil as; Paambu Sutriya Kal ‘the Rock around which the Snake wound itself’), and the eagle stood on another rock (‘ Garudan Kal’ the Rock of the Eagle) in the sea about half a kilometer distance from the Nainativu coast. A merchant by the name of Manikan from the Chola kingdom who was himself a devotee of Sri Bhuvaneswari Amman, was sailing across the Palk Strait to trade with the ancient Naka Nadu noticed the eagle and the cobra perched upon the said rocks. He pleaded with the eagle to let the cobra go on it's way without any harm. The eagle agreed on one condition that the merchant should construct a beautiful temple for Sri Bhuvaneswari Amman

on the island of Nainativu and that he shall propagate her worship in the form of Sri Nagapooshani Amman for universal peace, prosperity and for the good of humanity. He agreed and built a beautiful temple accordingly. The eagle took three dips into the ocean to atone for its sins against the Nagas in the Mahabharata, and thus Garuda and Naga resolved their longstanding feuds.

It is also stated that Rama and Ravana both had paid their obeisance to Goddess Bhuvaneswari in this temple.

Mr. Dasa finished his narration by chanting the Indrakshi kavacham which we too recited faithfully.

 

 ( Deserted area of Vavuniya)

By this time we were passing through Vavuniya District one of the 25 districts of SL which is in the northern province.  The population of the district is mostly Sri Lankan Tamil which like the rest of the north and east of SL, has been heavily affected by the civil war.Several  hundred Sri Lankan Tamils who emigrated to west or to the capital city Colombo have returned to their native place at the end of the civil war.

War Memorial (A damaged Tank)

Next we crossed Kilinochchi one of the places which bore the brunt of the civil war. A water tank which had been destroyed  stands as a proof of the ravages of war.

A sign board with the message for peace was really overwhelming.  We could only pray for continued peace in those areas.

        

                           

We halted at Iranamadu for refreshment. We could see cannons used in the war and a few soldiers patrolling the area. Elephant Pass which forms the Gateway to Jaffna  is the place we came across further. It is the spot where the civil war came to an end after the third battle at Elephant Pass. It gets the name as this is a narrow strip of land with just enough space for an elephant to pass and also because goods were carried to Jaffna and other places on elephants.

We saw a Victory Memorial Structure on our right (from the bus) heavily guarded by the army.

By 12:30 pm we entered Jaffna City  which is the ( Tamil: யாழ்ப்பாணம் Yalpanam ) capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name with a population of 88,138. Jaffna is  SL’s 12th largest city. In Jaffna city Dutch Fort is an imposing structure followed by many Dutch era homes, churches, civil buildings most of which were spoiled during the civil war. There are a number of British colonial era buildings.  Almost all Hindu temples in Jaffna including the socially important  Nallur Kandaswamy temple were reconstructed during the Dutch and British period.

                                            

                                                                                      

We reached the busy market area by 12:30pm and went to a vegetarian hotel for lunch. We had boiled rice with curds/buttermilk with fried mor milagai. Other members chose dosa, vada and thali meals. This was the simplest meal we had so far yet was satiating.

Diagonally opposite to the hotel  there is a Siva temple with a beautiful Gopuram.

Immediately after lunch we left for Bhuvaneswari Amman temple.

We crossed the Dutch fort once again.

To reach Nainativu which is on Bay of Bengal  we had to cross three islands, Mannaiyatamativu, Puliantivu and Pungudutivu. The first two islands are connected by road over the sea and to reach the third one we had to take a boat.

 

   

Our bus moved slowly over the island road and a narrow strip of land stood between us and the sea.  Widening of road is undertaken enroute. The sea showed different ranges of color from pale to dark green because of the algae underneath. Some birds were seen perched on the fishing net poles ready to dive for the fish that surfaced above. We saw many tiny islands, a church and so on.  After half an hour or so we got down from the bus to walk up to the Kurikka Duva Pier at 100m. distance. We had to show our passports as we were foreigners in that place. We picked up the yellow life jackets only to find that they were either undersized or otherwise with no belts to tie around. It was a mockery as we were looking like clowns clutching the so called life jackets by one hand lest they should slip from our body. It is a rule enforced as we were to cross the sea by boat and since we are law abiding citizens we obliged. We climbed into the boat with some help as the boat was wobbling in the waves.

After 20 minutes of sailing in the Bay of Bengal  we reached the shore on the other side, (sometimes the boat might take a detour up to  Nagadeepa Maha Vihara if there are passengers to go to the Buddhist Monastery there), walked a small distance and reached the Bhuvaneswari Shakti Peetha temple (also called as Indrakshi Amman / Nagapoosani Amman Temple). The Temple has 4 main gopurams.  

Raja Raja Gopuram

We entered through the Raja Raja Gopuram, 108 feet high which seems to scrape the sky stands as one of the tallest  gopurams in SL. It has 2000 intricately sculpted and painted figures on all four sides. It has nine passages and nine golden kalashas. This was constructed (2010-2012)  with the help of artists from Tamil Nadu. It is a sight to behold !!

Inside the temple there is a huge statue of Nandi facing the main deities. On the left side naga idols are installed around the Sthala Vriksha (??). On the right, we saw  other deities.

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The temple was closed  when we reached. On special request from our tour organiser it was opened for darshan. First we went round the huge prakaram viewing the paintings depicting stories from puranas.

In 16th Century Indrakshi Amman temple was destroyed in Portuguese attack. At that time the main idol was hidden by the temple priest in a well. Many years later the Goddess

appeared as a snake from the tree hole.  The idol which is seen in the sanctum sanctorum has the form of a hooded snake with the small worn out  idol of the Goddess embedded in the chest portion  (vakshasthala) of the serpent. It is said the idol feels soft and leathery to touch like the snake skin. The Goddess is also called Nagapoosani since all the snakes  in Nagadeepa have become her ornaments, interesting information. A unique feature of this temple is that Nayanar Swami and Nagapooshani Amman are installed together as if they are one, granting darshan to devotees as Shiva-Shakti  (the primeval energies of the cosmos).

In 1985 the temple was once again destroyed, this time by the Sri Lankan army. In 2012 the temple was renovated and consecrated.  The Maha Kumbabhishekam was held in January 2012 which was attended  by over 200000 devotees as far from India, Europe, N. America and Australia. We did complete pradakshina before entering the main prakara. There we performed archana, received kumkum, vibhuti and lemons as prasad and also sweet pongal. After depositing our offerings in the hundi we left the temple  immensely happy having fulfilled our long cherished desire of visiting this famous temple in SL.

 

At 4:30pm we took the boat  back and reached the bus and proceeded towards Nallur. We planned to have darshan at Nallur Kandaswamy Temple but to our great disappointment the temple was closed by 5:30pm itself and we realized that we were late by 1/2 an hour. We stood in front of the  Northern Gopura and had darshan of the Gopura and took photos as mementos

“Gopura Darshan sarva papa vimochanam “

Nallur Kandaswamy or Murugan Kovil founded in 948 AD is the most significant Hindu temple in Jaffna District. The presiding deity is Lord Muruga in the form of Vel. The temple was constructed three times and the third temple was destroyed by the Portuguese in the 16th Century. The fourth and current temple was constructed in 1749 AD during the Dutch colonial era by Krishna Subba Iyer and Raghunatha  Maapanna mudaliar in ‘Kurukkal Valavu’ the  original temple premises.

A new gopuram was unveiled on 4-9-2015  facing north.It is known as ’ Kubera Vasal Gopuram’. Local people believe that the newly constructed Kubera Gopuram would bring wealth to the people of Jaffna peninsula.

We then went to a nearby popular vegetarian restaurant by name Mangos for dinner though the time was only 6.30p.m. Mr.Dasa suggested an early dinner as we had to travel 240 k.m. which means it would be past midnight by the time we reach our place of stay at Anuradhapura. The menu was simple and consisted of vegetable pulao, raita and salad; the items were spicy, hot and tasty. We finished the dinner with a glass of lemon juice.

We left Mangos by 7.15 p.m. and slept throughout our return journey. Our sarathy Chamith drove the vehicle with full control. It was 2.00 a.m. when we reached Heritage Hotel. We wished good day to everyone and moved to our rooms to catch a few hours of sleep.

We noted in our diary that Day 5 proved to be fruitful by the grace of the great Divine Mother and we felt ‘empowered’ by having darshan of Adi Parasakthi at Shakti Peetha in Sri Lanka. It was certainly a day to remember for long time to come.

ॐ का॒त्या॒य॒नाय॑ वि॒द्महे॑ कन्यकु॒मारि॑ धीमहि । तन्नो॑ दुर्गिः प्रचो॒दया॓त् ॥ ॐ शान्तिः॒ शान्तिः॒ शान्तिः॑ ॥

• Natarajans  ( end of part 5 and to be continued with  the concluding part 6 )

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