Surge of devotion reverberates the North

By Dhaneshi Yatawara

Street festival in the night time prior to the main festival

Inside the temple

The temple of God Skanda, the ancient Maviddapuram Kovil in Kankesanthurai, today gleams with vibrant colours.

Kankesanthurai, which was once blanketed and unreachable under the ‘high security’ condition, has changed drastically. People have moved back to their homes in the high security zone (HSZ) and life goes on while a gloomy past is vanishing in the sea of time.

Ancient Hindu stories say that the arrival of a historic statue of God Skanda changed the name of this land from Gayathurai to Kankesanthurai.

Kankesan is another name for God Skanda, or in other words God Kataragama. Kankesanthurai is just like another Kataragama - packed with thousands of people from across the country who gather at the most ancient kovil built for Lord Skanda the Maviddapuram Kanthaswamy temple. According to legend Maviddapuram Kanthaswamy Kovil is around 2,300 years old.

After performing special poojas for 25 days the Maviddapuram Kanthaswamy temple held the main festival (combined chariot festival) and the water cutting ceremony in August in the newly released part of the High Security Zone in Kankesanthurai. People of the villages in the vicinity have returned to their homes - at least those who remained in the country.

When there was a High Security Zone, still people came in for their devotion for God Skanda was second to nothing. Yet, there were special permissions needed. There were a lot of assistance from the security forces during these hard times.

A massive assistance has been extended through the Security Forces Headquarters in Jaffna when people visited the then HSZ to carry out kovil rituals. Meals, water, medical assistance and help was extended as and when necessity arose.

Ratnasabapathy Kurukkal	Gnaskandan Sharma

Today people live in a free land to conduct and organise their own programs, yet for the newly arrived communities the most reliable help within easy reach in these areas are the security forces.

Temple

“When this area was the HSZ, people had to leave the area and it was the Army who helped us at all times.

They treated this temple like their own,” said Ratnasabapathy Kurukkal, Governing Authority and the Chief high Priest.

This ancient temple had been a source of inspiration and guidance to the people of Jaffna in their religious, social, educational and cultural activities. Today, situated in a land approximately of 12 acres, this holy place is where Hindu devotees come for every moment in their lives - be it studies of children, first feeding of infants, weddings because of the spiritual background.

All these special events demand proper facilities by the temple authorities, but owing to the increasing numbers of devotees and activities, such facilities are in short supply.

To meet the immediate demand, the construction of the hall named ‘Wasantha Mandapam’ is planned and construction work commenced with initial contributions of well wishers. The ‘Wasantha Mandapam’ is 200 feet in length, forty feet in breadth and 20 feet high.

People gathered at the Water-cutting ceremony

“Last year there were 8,000 - 10,000 devotees for the chariot festival.

And for the next pooja the water cutting ceremony there were 15,000 - 20,000 devotees - people from the locality as well as other parts of the country,” said the Chief High Priest.

“According to our history since 789 AD we are serving the kovil. We are the 39th and the 40th generations - father and the son. We have the names of all those who served in those generations,” he said.

Years and years ago people started this festival. We cannot accurately say for how long our ancestors were carrying out this festival. Everything is written in ola scripts. We calculate the timing for the festivals according to the Tamil Calendar.

All passed from one generation to the other, said R. Gnaskandan Sharma, the 23 year old son of the chief priest who is now training to become the chief priest. Having studied to become a software engineer, today he is fully devoted to the temple to carry out his family traditions. “Those who are working in the temple have been working for generations,” he said.

How is the temple managed? Governing authority and the chief priest is the main administrator in this system. All the villages around this temple are devotees of this temple. There are nearly 20 villages devoted to this temple and some are Kankesanthurai, Mawadipuram, Kailati, Palali, Mailapai, Kadduwan, Wasawilan, Kirimalai, Thellippalai and Chunnakam.

History

During the water-cutting ceremony

As the two priests said, in ancient history, this had been a kingdom of Cholas. This has been their temple. “Once they invaded Sri Lanka, as the written history says, they conquered all these places and when they were leaving they left people to do the service to the temple. Since that day people of the temple and those devotees living in these villages are doing service to the temple,” they said.

Today the Kovil conducts Karnatak music classes. Sunday schools inculcate Hindu culture in children, and around 40 children study.

“We are getting more and more students with time and professionals living around this area come and teach. Earlier when the people were not around we could not carry out any of these cultural activities. Now since they are back we have started what we were missing all these years,” Sharma said.

“During the 1990s the temple got damaged. The Government helped rebuild, and we are making renovation work even now,” he said.

“We lived here even during LTTE time, when the IPKF came and with the Army as well. LTTE time was very rough.

Their thoughts were only with terrorism. Nobody could talk to them. We could not oppose to speak for justice,” he said.

In Sri Lanka the number one temple of God Skanda is in Kadirgamar (Kataragama). This is the second and devotees call this the Kataragama in North,” said chief Kurukkal.