⦁ Forgotten ‘ pada yathra’ rekindled in 1988
⦁ North to south walk through devotion
⦁ Enlightened state of Sri Lankan village culture
One of the oldest traditions in Sri Lanka is the ‘pada yatra’ ‘pada vandana’ from Jaffna along the east coast to Kataragama. The origins of the craft are shrouded in many myths. It started with the seed of several versions of stories which state that God Kataragama landed on our shores and walked to Kataragama.
The pilgrimage to Kataragama on this multi-faith 45-day foot pilgrimage has been a popular feature among Sri Lankans for centuries. The belief of many is that these devotees engaged in ‘pada yatra’ are the messengers of God. Therefore, the help of the villages along the way is not forgotten to treat the pilgrims wonderfully by providing them with delicious food, hospitality and accommodation.
In 1988, this old tradition was revived in a background where the devotion and cultural existence of Kataragama devotees had died out since 1983.
Reviewal of past tradition
In the first year, only 60 pilgrims dared to join this historic journey, which has now exceeded 10,000 pilgrims annually. These pilgrims, who emphasize that the only way to know the tradition is to live in the tradition, have not added any innovation to these pilgrimage methods.
Lords, Swami Ammas, Buddhist monks, Muslim Sufis, Christian priests, lay people and even Lady Gladstone, wife of the one-time British High Commissioner, have humbly joined this pada yatra in the past, not forgetting to be part of a united chant for human unity.
‘Peace and harmony’ is the basic teaching of all religions and the pada yatra is a living proof of the enlightened state of Sri Lankan village culture. I feel that in a society that is politicized and corrupted by various ideologies, this kind of culture should be expanded.
Among the ancient traditions of life in Sri Lanka, the Kataragama Foot Yatra is as famous, but its value is recognized by very few even today. Starting from the far north of the island, this journey ends at the Kataragama sacred site in the far south-eastern jungle after up to two months.
Since the 1950s, when a motor road was extended from Tissamaharama to Kataragama, the only way pilgrims could reach Kataragama was by foot or bullock cart. All that has changed since then and now Kataragama is easily accessible by regular bus service from Colombo and other districts including Eastern Province where the tradition of pada yatra is still flourishing.
For untold centuries, however, pilgrims have come on foot not only from places all over the island, but also from India and occasionally even from Central Asia. Due to the length of the Kataragama Pada Yatra, those who walked from ancient times tended to be swamis and bavas, dedicated religious specialists. Most of them are anonymous. But among them there were several great saints and sages, and according to tradition Skanda-Murukan was the first among the pilgrims of Pada Yatra.
Travel by foot.
Among the greats who traveled on foot is, notably, the celebrated fifteenth-century Tamil lyricist Arunagirinathar. He composed at least one Tiruppukkal hymn at Kirimalai (near Kankasanthurai on the Jaffna Peninsula), another at Thirukkonamalai (modern Trincomalee) and fourteen at Kattir. Kamam, ‘place of brightness and desire’, i.e. Kataragama. More recent famous pilgrims include Palkudi Bhava and Yogaswami of Nallur.
Yogaswami of Nallur Thereafter, by the mid-1910s, the Swami went on a solitary tour walking eastward along the coast of the island, meeting many ascetics along the way. He traveled freely with some Muslim Sufi saints, Buddhist monks and religious leaders. Exchanged ideas. From 1910, he accompanied Murugan at Kathirkammam, the holy place of the Gem Ganga, on solitary pilgrimages to Thiruketeeswaram, Vattappalai and Koneswaram in Trincomalee, walking the footpaths along the eastern coast.
Having spent his time in seclusion in Sithankudi, Batticaloa and Thirukkovil, he often reached Murugan’s abode at Kathirkamam, crossing the Manik Ganga and the Seven Hills of Kathiramale via the Monaragala and Bibile Vedi routes.Although British government agents left detailed accounts of the colonial government’s brutal measures to discourage or curtail the process as merely unhealthy and unproductive, almost no written accounts of the pilgrims themselves survive.
However, the vision of dedicated foot worshipers differed radically from that of many scholars and outside observers.
Skanda-Murugan is a deity associated with mountain peaks. The aboriginal community of ‘Wannilatto’ still knows Skanda-Murugan as the devil of the mountain, the hunting spirit of the mountain. ‘Wedasiti Kanda’ is ‘the peak of the hill where he stood’. Katiramalai means ‘Mountain of Light’ to the Tamil people and even today the Kataragama Pada Yatra is known in Tamil as Katira Malai Karai Yattirei. This is simply a pilgrimage along the coastal sea.
Starting from the far north of the island and ending at the Kataragama shrine in the far southeast jungle after two months and hundreds of kilometers, this destination is similar to Kailasa in Tibet and Kataragama in the far south. Mount Kailash in western Tibet and Kataragama in the far south of Sri Lanka form a perfect analogy for the Aksha Mundi or Susumna Nadia in Yoga Shastra.
Dakshina Kailasa
Hence, it is also known as Dakshina Kailasa, ‘Southern Kailasa’, considering its strong association with the origin of God on Mount Kailasa. This long-standing assumption of a north-south axis, anchored in the Uttara Kailasa of Tibet and the Dakshina Kailasa of Sri Lanka, holds deep significance in the Kataragama pilgrimage and mystical tradition. For the fact that Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas and Kataragama in the far south form a north-south axis is significant not only in terms of Yoga Shastra, but also in terms of modern geography.
The Power of Covenants and Statements of Truth Indeed, the idea of making a pact or covenant with an invisible deity is not unique to the Indian subcontinent, but is a venerable tradition even in Semitic religions. In fact, from remote times, people all over the world have made formal commitments or covenants, either individually or collectively, with invisible gods or spirits.
The practice is felt everywhere to affirm the connection between the human and spiritual realms and to give the power of truth to the statements and ritual actions associated with them. Vows play a fundamental role in the Kataragama Pada Yatra tradition.
The Kataragama Esala festival season officially begins forty-five days before the festival with the planting of cups in the Kataragama Maha Temple, with Kapurala priests going to the God’s Forest and cutting two trees and ritually planting them in the Maha Temple. After this ritual, the Kapuralas take an oath to celebrate the Esala festival after 45 days.
On the same day that the Kapuralas are enthroned, Pada Yatra pilgrims gather far north of the Maha Vattappalai Kannaki Amman festival near Mullaitivu. Here pilgrims make their personal vows, either to do something difficult or to abstain from certain customary activities for the pilgrimage in general.
This means for some going barefoot to Kataragama or for others abstaining from smoking for the duration of the pilgrimage. Both are instances of ‘self-purification’ that demonstrate the fundamentality of spiritual practice.
After the 1983 riots, it was not safe for Tamils to walk outdoors through Sinhalese areas for many years. They could not walk from places north of Trincomalee. But with the establishment of the Kataragama Devotees Bara in 1988 with the express aim of reviving the Pada Yatra and other Kataragama traditions, the number of pilgrims has gradually returned to the previous levels in the eastern districts.
Majority of the marchers come from Batticaloa and Ampara districts which are much closer to Kataragama than Trincomalee, Vavuniya or Jaffna districts which are ready to march for forty days or more.In the Kaumara tradition, the active but secret intervention of the Spirit is the essential or magical ingredient that transforms the padayatra from a mere stroll into an experience of spiritual travel through subtle dimensions that escape the attention of non-participating observers.
By the power of an underlying existence that no one can fathom, eager pilgrims pass through the shadowy world of outer appearance and penetrate deep into a bright inner realm of Kathir-Kamam or ‘Light and Joy’. For them the spiritual journey is not an empty metaphor but intensely alive and real.
In this sense, only experienced pilgrims can appreciate what it means to cross the invisible threshold and plunge into the strange realms of sacred time and sacred space. Hence, the intention of journeying to the inner sanctum is relevant in worldwide spiritual traditions, especially in the context of pilgrimage, in the dual sense of outward journey and entry into one’s metaphysical source or center.
The final result of this padayatra which starts from Vadamarachchi Selvachandi temple is that after the parade of Kataragama Mahadevala, the flag hoisting ceremony is done and the annual festival of Vadamarachchi Selvachandi temple starts using the flag brought from many miles away.
Viduni Basnayake