கதிர்காமம் முருகன் கோயில்Kataragama (Kathirkamam) Murugan Temple

Sthala Mahātmyam

Kataragama (Tamil Kathirkamam), deep in south-eastern Sri Lanka, is among the island's most revered and remarkably multi-religious shrines, venerated together by Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and the indigenous Vedda people. Murugan is worshipped here as Skanda-Kumara, the Kataragama deviyo, and uniquely the main shrine holds not an anthropomorphic idol but a sacred yantra, a mystic diagram of the deity's power. The Lord's presence at Kataragama is bound to his consort Valli, the local tribal maiden he wedded, with a separate shrine for Teyvanai; the nearby Kiri Vehera stupa and a mosque share the sacred precinct. Ancient in fame, the site is named in the Mahavamsa, and its cult fused the Tamil Murukan with the Skanda-Kumara long guarded as a protector deity of the island. Its great annual Esala festival in July or August features the yantra borne in procession upon an elephant, fire-walking, kavadi dancing and body-piercing by ecstatic devotees, making Kataragama one of the most powerful pilgrimage centres of the Murugan world.