At the crack of dawn, dozens of men – young and old – roll on the ground outside this famous Hindu temple in northern Sri Lanka, reciting verses or just praying to the deities. Cries of ‘Haro Hara” or “Muruga” rend the air as the womenfolk go through the ritual of bowing, kneeling, before walking a few spaces to bow/kneel again outside the temple wall.
The 25-day annual Nallur festival is on and drawing crowds not only from all over Sri Lanka but the rest of the world, mainly Tamil expatriates and their families.
According to V.T. Sivalingam, a well-known lawyer and resident of Jaffna, the festival is – in significance and popularity – similar to the annual Kandy Perahera or pageant of the Temple of the Tooth.
Apart from the religious significance, the festival is also a social event, held during the August summer vacation of expatriate children living in the west who come home during the break, their families using the occasion for match-making.
“It’s a great meeting place for relatives and friends,” according to Mr. Sivalingam. Long-time residents here say when people want to find a partner for their son or daughter, the parents of both parties agree to bring their offspring to the temple premises – but without informing the young people of the arrangement. “The girl is then able to see the boy and vice versa – from a distance. Thus if the girl or boy is not satisfied it doesn’t matter because neither party was aware their parents had made such an arrangement,” one resident said.
Come sun or rain, war or no war, the Nallur festival has been held over the years without a break. It has had its ups and downs especially during the period of prolonged fighting when the numbers attending the event were low but has picked up when there was intermittent peace.
The end of the war in May, however, didn’t see large crowds attending the first few days of the festival earlier this month. “Sometimes the crowds are such that there is no breathing space and the streets are filled with people. But maybe the crowds will come in the last few days when the excitement gathers here,” a retired district judge said, chatting with two other friends – all bare-bodied like other devotees.
On Friday, August 7, bare-bodied males carried the statues of three Hindu deities around the temple followed by devotees chanting poems or verses from Hindu texts. Some women followed– vigorously shaking their heads. “They are in a trance but can snap out of this in a jiffy. It’s all about strong mind control, religious fervour and absolute devotion to the Gods,” a man standing nearby commented as the crowd passed.
The high point of the festival during the last few days (the festival ends on August 17), for many observers is when hundreds of devotees dangle on hooks pierced through their skin at the back of their bodies (along their hands, body and legs) in a ritual aimed at fulfilling vows. They hang from carts and swing with the movement of the carts. People hooked up like this are a common sight at many temple festivals in Sri Lanka including the famed Kataragama festival. The Kavadi dance that also sees many getting into a trance, is another feature of these festivals.
Last Saturday morning (August 8 – the day of the Jaffna Municipal Council Election) – at around 4 a.m.– we saw scores of young and older men wearing just a sarong rolling on the wet sand, reciting verses from Hindu texts over a distance of about half a kilometre before rolling into the sanctity of the temple. Having queued (on the ground) at the entrance, they get up, sarongs clinging to their wet bodies soaked with a mix of sand and water and then shower at a nearby tap. Municipal trucks spray water on the sand early in the morning to make sure it is not too hot.
Residents say these devotees perform this ritual sometimes daily during the festival or for a number of days, to fulfil a vow.
“It could be after recovering from a serious illness, undergoing an operation, before sitting an examination, seeking a job or after getting one, surviving the war, looking for a partner or getting one; it could be anything,” said lawyer Sivalingam, who has written articles in newspapers on this festival, in the past.
With the end of fighting, tourism authorities are also promoting the event on websites and other fronts. Special flights to Jaffna arranged by Sri Lanka Tourism which began on August 12 will continue till 22. On my flight to Jaffna on August 6 on a reporting trip to the peninsula there were quite a few Tamil expatriate families (carrying Ministry of Defence approval letters) who were visiting relatives and also planning to attend the Nallur festival.
This annual event called the Temple Car Festival is said to have Lord Muruga as its presiding deity. “ Hindus celebrate this “Thaipusam festival to commemorate the victory of Lord Muruga over the demon, Tarakasuran.
Devotees and penitents bear kavadis, and pierce their bodies with hooks and spears which don’t seem to cause any pain or harm as an act of faith and atonement,” another onlooker said.
The Nallur Temple was believed to have been originally built in 948 A.D at the land called ‘Kurukkal Valavu’ but due to foreign invasion was re-constructed a number of times in different places. The current temple, which is the fourth, was constructed in 1749 A.D. during the Dutch era.
The temple has the shrines of Lords Ganesh, Vairavar, Sun and Sandana Gopala and is a socially important institution for Sri Lankan Tamils’ Hindu identity of northern Sri Lanka. In the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, many temples have been built in Europe and North America using the same name as a cultural link. |
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