Nallur Kovil festival and its spiritual significance

by Ananth PALAKIDNAR

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Month of July which is known as `Adi’ in Tamil is spiritually significant in the Hindu calendar as the festival season in most of the Hindu shrines in South India and Sri Lanka begins this month.

The most significant of them all is the Nallur Kanthaswamy kovil festival in Jaffna which takes place nearly for a period of one month simultaneously with the `Esala’ Perahera festival season in the hill capital Kandy annually.

Nallur Kanthaswamy kovil is historically as well as spiritually a significant shrine for Kataragama deity which is believed to be first built in 948 A.D.

According to historians the temple also remains a land mark depicting socio-political and the historical aspects of the Jaffna Peninsula as well as the links the region had with other parts of the island in the bygone era.

It was in 1450 AD King Sri Sangabothi Buvanegabahu who ruled the Jaffna kingdom for a period of seventeen years till 1467 remained the custodian of the Nallur Kanthaswamy temple and he played an enormous role in building the temple extensively with giving it a new facelift.

Therefore as a mark of respect the name of king Sri Sangabothi Buvanegabahu is mentioned even today prior to the beginning of the procession of the deities by the priests who perform the rituals at the Nallur shrine.

So the temple had witnessed several important eras in the history of Sri Lanka and it was also destroyed during the Portuguese and the Dutch perods in the island. The Dutch even went to the extend of removing the stones from the Nallur temple to build their fortress in Jaffna.

However the temple was reconstructed to its old glory during the British period and since then the shrine remains inseparable in the day to day life of the Hindus in Jaffna with its highly significant festival season for nearly a month in July annually.

Apart from its historical background, the vicinity of the Nallur shrine has also been described as a land of holy men where highly spiritual personalities such as Sadhu Sellappa and his deciple Sadhu Yogar who lived in Jaffna four decades ago were found most of the time in meditation in the shrine premises.

Sadhu Yogar who had a large number of devotees in the southern part of the island as well had even predicted in one of his devotional songs in the fifties on the deaths and destructions that the Peninsula was going to face and mentioned the grace of the `Lord of Nallur ‘God Skanda would protect all true devotees who believe in him.