Kandy Esala Perahera:

The oldest pageant in Kandy

Kandy is now set and ready for the Perahera which commences on July 23. The kap planting ceremony took place on July 19.The Perahera is the grandest pageant in all Asia. There isn't another annual pageant in any Asian country that can be compared with the Kandy Perahera in its long history or its grandeur. In popular parlance (everyday conversation) we call this pageant the Kandy Perahera. However, it is the Esala Perahera which is also known as the Dalada Perahera, because the Dalada Karanduwa or the Sacred Tooth Relic Casket is taken in procession along the streets - the only occasion when the sacred relic is taken out of the shrine - the Dalada Maligawa.

The Dalada Perahera has a long history going back to the 4th century. It was in the reign of Keerthi Sri Megha Varna or Kitsiri Mevan (310-328 AD) that the Sacred Tooth Relic was brought to Sri Lanka. On the king's orders, a list of offerings to be made to the Sacred Tooth Relic, and the rites and rituals to be performed was compiled. The holding of an annual Perahera was one such rite.

Days ahead, the townsfolk got ready for this annual festival. After a 7-day pooja in the shrine, in the afternoon of the seventh day, the golden casket containing the Sacred Tooth Relic was ceremonially brought out of the shrine which was next to the king's palace. Then it was placed on a pedestal in a gaily decorated chariot.

Two officers of the shrine sat guard on either side of the casket and it was brought in a grand procession to the Abhayagiri Vihara. En route townsfolk made offerings to the Dalada - the Sacred Tooth Relic.

For 90 days the Sacred Relic was kept in the Abhayagiri Vihara and on full-moon days the doors of the vihara were kept open for the people to worship it. At the end of 90 days, it was brought back, again in a colourful procession, to the Dalada Ge. (Relic House).

Kings who came after Kitsiri Mevan continued to hold the festival. The Chinese pilgrim, Fa Hsien who came to Sri Lanka about 100 years later has left a glowing account of the perahera. Fa Hsien says that every year in the third month, the Sacred Tooth Relic was taken out of the shrine for public exhibition. In those far off times, the year was reckoned from the Buddha's Parinirvana (passing away), which was in the month of Vesak.

Hence the third month of the year is Esala. Says Fa Hsien, "about 10 days before, a man with a powerful voice dressed in regal robes mounted a gaily dressed elephant, and went round the city beating a drum and announcing,'10 days from now, the Tooth Relic will be taken to Abhayagiri. Monks and laymen are requested to clear and clean the route and decorate all roads and by-roads and get ready with flowers and incense to offer to the relic, en route to Abhayagiri.' That is an extract from Fa Hsien's account of the festival he witnessed in the 5th century. Over the years a belief had come about that the exposition of the Sacred Tooth Relic brings rain. See what happened one year in the reign of Parakramabahu I when the Dalada Perahera was winding its way along the streets of Polonnaruwa.

"The route from the Dalada Mandira, a distance about a yojana, was decorated with pandals. Dancers and drummers paid homage to the Dalada as it was taken in procession. Suddenly the sky was overcast; a large rain cloud had spread across the sky and soon there was a downpour."This incident seems to confirm the belief that the exposition of the Sacred Tooth Relic brings rain.

The capital shifted from Polonnaruwa to Dambadeniya (the present day Kurunegala District), and there too the kings held the perahera observing all the rituals and traditions.

It is on record that during the reign of Pandita Parakramabahu, the second king by that name, the perahera is said to have proceeded from the Dalada Ge (Relic House) to Siriwardanapura - wherever it was then as its exact location is not known today. In that perahera both the Tooth Relic (Danta Dhatu) and the Bowl Relic (Paatra Dhatu) had been carried in a decorated chariot with the king following the chariot.

At Siriwardanapura both relics had been exhibited for 90 days, during which time people made offerings, and worshipped the relics. We also know that the perahera was held in Kurunegala during the reign of Parakramabahu IV. The Dalada Sirita, a history of the Dalada in Sinhala, written on a request by the King, gives in great detail the procedure followed before and during the perahera.

According to it, a 7-day pooja preceded the perahera. On the seventh day the relic was taken out of the chamber and placed in a decorated chariot drawn by an elephant, also richly dressed. (Note that the Relic was placed in a chariot, not on the back of an elephant as is done today.)

Bhikkhus reciting 'pirith' led the way, and 'pirith pan' (holy water) was sprinkled along the route. Sesath bearers and yak tail fan (chamara) bearers walked on either side of the chariot. Drummers and then singers followed. Last came the King and ministers, followed by the four-fold army.

When the perahera, after making its way through the city, returned to the Dalada Ge, the Sacred Relic was handed to the king and it was he who placed it on a specially prepared pedestal for public exhibition.

We do not have accounts of a Dalada Perahera or the exposition of the Sacred Tooth Relic after that, when Gangasiripura (Gampola) and Jayawardanapura were the capital. However, it is believed that the old customs, rites and rituals would have been continued up to the end of the 15th century.

The arrival of the Portuguese in 1505 put an end to all the ceremonies and festivals.The perahera was revived in the Kingdom of the Kanda Uda Rata - the hill country, but not as a Dalada Perahera. It was a Devala Perahera. The influence of Hinduism was very strong at that time. Some of the later Kings were Hindus from Malabar in South India.

The annual perahera in the month of Esala was the finale of the Esala Mangallaya celebrated throughout the Sinhala Kingdom. It is a festival in honour of a particular god and the devale is the venue of the festival.

This perahera was the culmination or finale of the festivals in the four main devala in the capital, viz Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama and Pattini. It was in 1752/53 that the Maligawa perahera was added to this Esala Perahera, Ven .Upali Thera, who had come from Siam (now Thailand) to confer the Upasampada (Higher Ordination) on the Sinhala bhikkhus, watching this annual pageant was sad that the Buddha had no place in this grand pageant.

He suggested to the Sangharaja Saranankara that Dalada should also be taken in procession just as the insignia of the Gods were taken. The Sangharaja, conveyed this to the King Keerthi Sri Rajasingha, who readily agreed and the very next year, the Dalada Maligawa organized its own perahera.From then on, the Maligawa Perahera leads this composite pageant of five peraheras which is popularly known today as the Esala Perahera of Kandy.Now there are women only in the Pattini Devala perahera.

The king's place is taken by the Diyawadana Nilame. Today many new rituals have been added. Rows and rows of young men dressed in white, carrying Buddhist flags are also a part of the procession. Some folk dances have also been introduced making it more spectacular.No matter what changes or additions have been made, the Kandy Esala Perahera has no rival in all Asia. It is the oldest and grandest pageant one must see at least once in his or her lifetime.

Sumana SAPARAMADU