15th December 2018 / Short Trip to Chilaw on the way to Kandy and visited Sri Munneswaram Devasthanam & Manavari Kovil temples.

My Walking Story :

Today I am going to describe my day three at Colombo in Sri Lanka. I had already planned everything in my mind that where I must visit, so that’s the reason I have made my post a bit city-wise. One place I had in my mind name Chilaw, as according to Hindu mythology book Ramayana, Lord Ram has visited this place after fighting a battle with Ravine.

I have observed one thing over here that people don’t know much about it nor even the cab driver was aware of it, people were interested in adopting Buddhist and Christian religions. I don’t know what major changes were there in their culture which made them adopting this culture, well that their preferences but they are not much interested in this  Ramayana anymore as much as we Hindu people value it and Sri Lanka is the place which is connected to it, that’s what catches my attention and curiosity to visit this place.

Finally, I visited Chilaw’s place and clicked a picture of mine sitting near the temple, one can see on my blog. While there were many temples located over there, one famous temple name Sri Munneswaram Devasthanam Temple. But I didn’t go inside the temple and prayed from outside only. observed surrounding markets and everything.

The temple was beautifully built and I find peace over there, spend nice quality time near the temple, while among the renowned Siva kovils which emerged in various parts of Ilankai, Munnicuvaram Kovil at Cilapam in the western part of Ilankai was prominent and extolled as a Kovil of great antiquity. The presiding deity is called Śrī Munnainathar (‘Lord of antiquity’) and the goddess is Sri Vativampika Devi (‘goddess of beautiful form’). Munnicuvaram being a great Saiva shrine became a center of highest devotion where people of various categories paid homage to the presiding deity.

Further, I went to another temple name Manavari Kovil temple. The post on my blog shows about a lingam and Manavari Kovil is one of Only Two Ramalingam’s in the World. One is in the south in India and another one is here in Sri Lanka, moreover, Manavari Kovil is a Hindu temple 9 km north of Chilaw. It’s a typical Tamil temple but of significance for Hindu pilgrims from India who travel along the Ramayana trail to visit places connected to Lord Rama. Manavari was the first place where Rama installed a Lingam.

This was a remedy to Lord Shiva after committing the worst possible crime in Hinduism, Brahmincide, by killing King Ravana, who had abducted Rama’s consort, Shiva. Ravana was a Brahmin. The Shiva-Lingam in Manavari is called Ramalingam, as it was erected by Lord Rama. There are only two Lingams in the world named after Lord Rama, the other one being that of Rameswaram in India, the most sacred place in Tamil Nadu.

Interesting thing was that we were unable to find this temple and our driver also have not idea about it, we were lost somewhere in the path nor even google was showing the correct direction and local people were also not knowing, but finally, after some time we found Manavari Kovil temple, as a board was there guiding us based on its history like it is related to Rama and lingam. We entered inside the temple and panditji (priest) help us to do pray and did tilak on our forehead and gave prasad in our hand, nicely we had darshan of lord and feels so good, peaceful and soul-soothing atmosphere was there. My heart became happy after that.

After that we went for lunch at a normal restaurant name Café India, it was a small and typical Indian type of restaurant. He served idle-sambhar and we must eat it with our hands, no spoon or fork was given, well that was also good experience one can feel. At least to satisfy the hunger that was good enough. I was on my way to Kandy, but this story was till here only, in my next story I will describe further stuff. Thank you!

Chilaw

is a large town in Puttalam District, North Western Province, Sri Lanka. It’s governed by an urban council. The town is located, 80 km away from the capital Colombo via Negombo.

Sri Munneswaram Devasthanam

Among the renowned Siva kovils which emerged in various parts of Ilankai, Munnicuvaram kovil at Cilapam in the western part of Ilankai was prominent and extolled as a kovil of great antiquity. The presiding deity is called Śrī Munnainathar (‘Lord of antiquity’) and the goddess is Sri Vativampika Devi (‘goddess of beautiful form’). Munnicuvaram being a great Saiva shrine became a center of highest devotion where people of various categories paid homage to the presiding deity.

Manavari Kovil – One of Only Two Ramalingams in the World

Manavari Kovil is a Hindu temple 9 km north of Chilaw. It’s a typical Tamil temple but of significance for Hindu pilgrims from India who travel along the Ramayana trail to visit places connected to Lord Rama. Manavari was the first place where Rama installed a Lingam. This was a remedy to Lord Shiva after committing the worst possible crime in Hinduism, Brahmincide, by killing King Ravana, who had abducted Rama’s consort, Shiva. Ravana was a Brahmin. The Shiva-Lingam in Manavari is called Ramalingam, as it was erected by Lord Rama. There are only two Lingams in the world named after Lord Rama, the other one being that of Rameshwaram in India, the most sacred place in Tamil Nadu.

Lunch Time

We taken lunch at roadside restaurant, It was called Indian but it was not 🙂 and evening we reached Kandy