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by SUMANA SAPARAMADU

Adi is the Tamil/Hindu name of the fourth month of the year. It is festive time in these south suburbs of the city when men, women and children of all faiths and ethnic groups mingle as one crowd in the fair ground.

This is the season of peraheras and of feasts and festivals. There are annual peraheras at other times of the year - the Duruthu perahera at Kelaniya in January, Colombo's Navam perahera (February) a Dalada perahera in Anuradhapura (April or May) and another in Talpitiya, Wadduwa after the Kandy perahera, and numerous Mihindu peraheras at Poson. All these are not more than a 100 years old. Hendala Buddha Jayanthi perahera was started, as the name indicates in the year of the Buddha Jayanthi 1956.

The traditional peraheras, those that have been held from the days when Lanka was an independent kingdom, are all held at this time of the year between the full-moons of July-September. Hence a Sinhala saying when translated reads "like asking is there drumming at Esala". The Kotte perahera (1901) and the Bellanvila perahera (1950) though of recent origin are also considered part of the cycle of Esala peraheras because they were started in the month of Esala and continue to be held around the full-moon days of July-August-September.

The Esala peraheras in the old Kingdom of Kandy came in a cycle or followed a time-table and still do, beginning with the Kataragama and Aluthnuwara (Kegalla dist) peraheras and ending with the unique Mahiyangana perahera, in which the Veddah community takes part. Barely has the sound of drums subsided in Althnuwara, when it begins to reverberate in Kandy. As the drumming stops in Kandy it is taken up in Ratnapura, Embekke Dodanwala, Hanguranketa, following a particular order.

Sometimes the Ratnapura perahera, which is second in importance and grandeur only to the Kandy perahera, may coincide with the Kandy Dalada perahera.

All the Esala peraheras are associated with a god whose shrine (devalaya) is located in that particular town or village, a god worshipped and adored islandwide, or a local god like "Taniwelle Deviyo', a deified provincial ruler whose shrine is in Madampe, by the Negombo-Chilaw highway.

By a strange coincidence this is also the season of feasts of Christian Saints.

The perahera is in fact the culmination of the annual festival in honour of a particular god, and the venue of the festival and perahera is the centre of worship of that particular god - Vishnu at Devinuwara, Pattini at Nawagamuwa, Saman at Ratnapura, Deraniyagala and Mahiyangana.

It is well-known that the Kandy Esala perahera was originally a 'devala' perahera, the 'Satara devala' perahera, when the insigma of the four gods Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama and Pattini were taken in procession along the streets of the capital Maha Nuwara. It was on the advice of Upali thera who had come from Siam (modern Thailand) to confer Upasampada on Weliwita Saranankara and other monks, that King Kirti Sri Rajasinha added the Dalada perahera to the annual pageant which hitherto had been in honour of the gods only.

The festivals at Esala (July-Aug) are not confined to shrines in Sinhala areas. There is the Adi-Vel festival in Colombo, when the insignia of the god, the Vel or spear is taken in the special car - 'ther' - drawn by majestic white bulls from the temple in Pettah to the Kovils in Bambalapitiya and Wellawatta in alternate years. Adi is the Tamil/Hindu name of the fourth month of the year. It is festive time in these south suburbs of the city when men, women and children of all faiths and ethnic groups mingle as one crowd in the fair ground.

The Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil festival is the grandest festival in the peninsula. The area surrounding the temple is one cultural feast of 'nadaswaram' music, 'kavadi' dancing and the beat of the gigantic drum. What is special about Esala that all these festivals are held at this time of the year? One explanation is that the Sura-Asura war (in heaven) ended on the new moon day of the month of Esala and that the perahera marks the victory of the Sura over the Asura. The final ritual of the perahera or 'ther' is the symbolic washing of the swords stained with the blood of the Asura.

Could it not be a ritual to invoke rain? Esala in the Gangetic plain whence our ancestors came marked the advent of rain, and all the feasting and merry-making on Esala full moon day as described in Buddhist literature, was the last fling before the rain. The north-east monsoon breaks in mid October bringing rain to the north central plain where the early migrants from India settle down.

And the "Esala Keli' the Esala festival in Polonnaruwa which is mentioned in the Culavamsa, have been a continuation of a festival from earlier times and may well have included ceremonies and rituals to invoke rain.

By a strange coincidence this is also the season of feasts of Christian Saints. The feast of St Anne, the feast of Our Lady of Madu, the feast of St. Anthony are in July-August. Anyone travelling on the Colombo-Chilaw Road or driving a few miles inland to Pamunugama, Bopitiya, Kandawala, Katana will be struck by the fluttering flags, the wayside strings of tender coconut leaves, the pandals and the mounds of clay pots, an inevitable item in the fair that is the side-show of the feast.

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