Katirkamam (Hindu temple)
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Katirkamam also Kathirgamam and Katirgamam (Tamil கதிர்காமம்) is the name of the Hindu temple dedicated to lord Murukan in Sri Lanka. Today it has become primarily a Buddhist place of worship.
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[edit] Historic Roots
The temple dedicated by the Hindus in Kathirkamam has been a place of pilgrimage and religious sanctity since prehistoric times. At some point in history it came to be identified with Lord Murukan by devotees in Sri Lanka and South India. 1966 the German scholar Paul Wirz observed in his book Kataragama, the Holiest Place in Ceylon, "One could say that all religions are represented in Kataragama and that all are getting on well with each other. All ritual differences seem to be resolved out here; all are reconciled with each other and even the feeling of caste is completely forgotten."
According to a Hinduism Today report that appeared in the magazine in 1986, twenty year later, rancor has replaced reconciliation at Sri Lanka's southernmost shrine. In recent years, however, religious, social, cultural and economic changes have left this lord Murukan sanctuary all but a Buddhist citadel. Few traces of the Hindu past in Kataragama remain.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Kataragama, the Holiest Place in Ceylon by Paul Wirz
- Hinduism Today 1986 December article on Kataragama
- Sorcery and Cursing Shrines in Sri Lanka
