Kandy Esala perahera, the pageant of pageants

By Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa

“In the ninth year of this King (Sirimeghavanna), a Brahman woman brought hither (to Anuradhapura) from Kalinga country, the Tooth Relic of the Great Sage Buddha.

The ruler received it with reverence, paid it highest honours, laid it in an urn of pure crystal.... and brought it... to the Temple of the Tooth Relic. The King spent 900,000 (Kahapanas) and arranged a great festival for the Tooth Relic and decreed it should be brought every year...
- Culavamsa Part I (CH. 37:92-97).

Some years ago, a German Professor said: “Children need not only food, drinks and clothes, but ‘Songs and rose’ as well.” This is true of the masses too.

Over and above, severe, austere and harsh religious practices, people yearn for pageants and spectacles.

In many spiritual traditions of man, celebrations and festivities play a centrally important role. That explains why all faiths and creeds of the world introduce, whenever and wherever feasible touch an aesthetic touch.

Sri Lanka has a far-plung fame, for its dazzling and resplendent religious pageantry. In this season, Esala - Sri Lanka celebrates a whole series of pageants and parades, going along with a traditionally set down religious agenda.

Many temples and devales have their annual pageants mostly at this time of the year. Some of these are Buddhist in their spiritual essence. Others are associated with the cult of various deities.

Greatest pageant

Of all these annual pageants of Sri Lanka, the widest renowned and the grandest is of course the Esala procession of the Hill Kingdom - popularly known as “Nuwara perahera”. It is Sri Lanka’s pageant of pageants.”

Its well-documented origin can be traced back to a royal decree, issued by a Sri Lankan monarch, about 1,600 years ago, promulgating that an annual pageant be held in reverence to the Sacred Tooth Relic.

According to Sri Lanka’s national chronicle Culawamsa, this ruler, King Srimeghavanna - spent 900,000 kabhapanas (gold coins) for the original pageant, celebrating the Sacred Tooth Relic. Even from a current view-point this is a vast and exorbitant sum of money.

Grandeur

One can very well imagine the scale of grandeur on which that original Sacred Tooth Relic pageant was conducted.

In subsequent eras when the pageant of the Sacred Tooth Relic was celebrated, the rulers of those times, would undoubtedly have attempted to surpass the original glory of the Sacred Tooth Relic pageant.

With the exception of those dark days, when the continuity of the indigenous rule eclipsed temporarily, interrupted by foreign invaders, celebrating the Sacred Tooth Relic was a priority aspect of the Royal rule.

The original Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy was built under the patronage of King Wimaladhammasuriya I. This was about 415 years ago. It has undergone a whole series of changes and innovations. The present Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is in reality the outcome of age-old traditions which still illuminate the rites, rituals and the main pageant.

The Nuwara perahera that the moderns view, has evolved over long centuries enriched by continuing traditions. Some rites and rituals have of course totally faded, yielding place to the new. In the early days, for instance, the king himself took the first portion of the royal meal to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, to offer it as he mid-day alms of the Buddha. The King took the royal food to the temple in a Golden container (Hema kada). The practice is not longer continued, but the “Golden container” is among the items on display at the Sacred Tooth Relic Museum.

When the annual pageant is held today - enhanced and modernised through the utilisation of state-of-the-art technologies - the light shed by the historical past is still present.

Casket

The gaily caparisoned elephants, sacred casket, torches of traditional design, are all part of the light that illuminated the pageant for thousands of years. Most of the rituals held daily at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, still adhere to the traditional practices, to the minutest detail.

Given this background, you can assure yourself that when you witness the Nuwara Perahera, making its way along the streets of Kandy, you are getting a glimpse into the distant past.

The majestic gait of the elephants that seem quite conscious of the sacred duty they perform impresses you as much as it did, the citizens of ancient Anuradhapura who stood in awe, watching the first Perahera, held about 1,600 years ago.

The Diyawadana Nilame who walks along in dignified steps, symbolising the spiritual loftiness of the occasion is the contemporary symbol of the ancient King Sirimeghavanna and Prince Danta and Princess Hemamala, who too would have invariably marched along in the original Perahera.

The local and foreign visitors, through the streets, as the perahera wends its way gloriously. The eager tourist adds an exotic feel to the sacred pageant.

The traditional dancers whose ancestors too must have participated in the pageant make it quite clear that this is an age-old cult that achieves miraculous renewal each year. The glorious past lights up the present.

The elaborate and complex hierarchy of officials who ensure the proper performance of the rites and rituals echoes the past by continuing practices that have traversed centuries.

Tradition

Some of them provide evidence of the persistence of the material aspect of this great pageant. But there is a continuing spiritual tradition as well. Millions of people in this land cherish a limitless deference towards the Sacred Tooth Relic. A feeling of awe, generated by their belief in the miraculous efficacy of the Sacred Tooth Relic resonates within the rhythm of folk life.

When you are absorbed in the glorious and sublime pageant that is passing in front of you, it is not at all likely that you will become fully aware of the colourful history which moves before your eyes establishing its power to renew itself year after year.

The throbbing of the drum tattoos the alluring steps of the dance troupes, the swaying of the heads of the Perahera elephants, the dignitaries clad in traditional costumes are sights and sounds that enthral you in a hypnotic trance.

But when you recall the experience in your quieter moments, you will be startled by the thought that all this has been lit up by a history that spans long centuries. It will be then that the total meaning of the pageant will register in your mind with a transforming impact.