JAFFNA, SRI LANKA, August 19, 2007: The annual festival of Nallur Kantha Swamy temple here commenced yesterday with Kodi Etram – the ceremony of flag hoisting to mark the beginning of the festival in the temple. Nallur Kantha Swamy Temple is said to be one of the few temples in the Peninsula that all the festivals, rites and observances as found in the Tamil Saiva traditions are practiced and reflected with regularity, splendor and pageantry. The temple festival will be held for the next 25 days. Unlike earlier annual festivals, according to the temple authorities, this year the festival is to be held with subdued version of the pageantry. The day puja (adoration of Deities with rituals) is to be held with the temple Deity taken into procession within the inner court of the temple.
It is said to be one of the impressive temples dedicated to Lord Murugan.The annual festival of the famous Nallur Kandasamy Temple in the Jaffna peninsula is expected to draw tens of thousands of pilgrims from across Sri Lanka and also a few hundreds of Tamil expatriate from Western countries.
Normally fifty temple priests conduct different activities on each of the 25 days of the festival, beginning with the flag raising through a series of very elaborate chariot processions to the final theertham “water cutting” ceremony to immerse the Deities and mark the festival’s end.
Historians say that the history of the Nallur temple is closely intertwined with the history of Jaffna. Prof.Gunrarasa of Jaffna University in his book on the Temple says that the Temple was originally constructed in a place called Kurukal Valavu in A.D 948. The temple was destroyed in AD 1450 during the invasion of the Sinhalese King Shenpakaperumal (Sapumal Kumaraya). Sapumal Kumaraya defeated King Arya Chakkaravarthi, destroyed his palace and the original Nallur temple. But upon becoming Buvaneka Bahu the 6th, he sought to make amends by building a new temple in 1467 at a nearby location, says Shanmugapriya in Nallur Kanthaswamy: A Spiritual Experience. S. Pathmanathan in his Hindu Temples of Sri Lanka states the temple established by Buvaneka Bahu continued to flourish even after he had lost authority over Yalppanam (Jaffna) and the Tamil Kings who were restored to power around 1467 extended royal patronage until they were displaced from power around 1620 by the Portuguese. Philip de Oliveyra who took control of Yalppanam in 1619 ordered the large Nallur temple razed down in 1621.
Thereafter, according to C.S. Navaratnam in A Short History of Hinduism in Ceylon, for nearly 170 years there were no temples for worship for the Hindus in that locality. When the Dutch in their latter period became more liberal, some pious people applied for permission to build a temple and permission was granted in 1773. The temple was again reconstructed in 1734 during the time of Dutch rule by Irakunatha Mappanar Mudaliyar in the piece of land that belonged to the old Kantha Swamy Temple. Today Nallur Kantha Swamy Temple is the best administered temple in the Island and in its popularity it is only second to Kataragama.