Sri Lanka

The Kandy Esala Perahera is held annually in July August on days fixed by the Diyawadana Nilame (Chief Lay Head or Trustee) of the Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic). Its origin, as one writer on Ceylon describes it, is "lost in the mists of centuries".

According to the Mahavamsa, from the time the Sacred Tooth Relic was brought to Ceylon in the reign of King Kirthisiri Meghawanna who ruled at Anuradhapura from 303 - 331 A.D., it was placed in a casket made of Phalika (Steatire or Soapstone) and lodged in an edifice called the Dharma-Chakra built by King Devanampiyatissa in the third century B.C. The Mahavamsa goes on to say that 900,000 Kahapanas (a great sum of money) were spent in celebrating the festival in honour of the Sacred Tooth Relic and the King Kirthisiri Meghawanna decreed that the Relic should be taken round the city of Anuradhapura once a year in spring. There is evidence to show that his decree was faithfully carried out by those Kings who followed him, and the famous Chinese traveler Fa Hien, in his book describing his travels in India and Ceylon in the 5th century A.D., confirms the view as follows :-



"They always bring out the tooth of Buddha in the middle of the third month. Ten days beforehand, the King magnificently caparisons a great elephant, and commissions a man of eloquence and ability to clothe himself in royal apparel, and riding on the elephant, to sound a drum and proclaim as follows : ' Bodhisattva during three Asankhyeya kalpas underwent every king of austerity ; he spared himself no personal sufferings ; he left his country, wife, and child; moreover he tore out his eyes to bestow them on another; he mangled his flesh to deliver a dove (from the hawk) ; he sacrificed his head in alms, he gave his body to a famishing tiger; he grudged not his marrow or brain. Thus he endured every sort of agony for the sake of all flesh. More over, when he became perfect Buddha, he lived in the world forty-nine years preaching the law and teaching and converting men. He gave rest to the wretched, he saved the lost. Having passed through countless births, he then entered Nirvana. Since that event it is 1467 years. The eyes of the world were then put out, and all flesh deeply grieved. After ten days the tooth of (this same) Buddha will be brought forth and taken to the Abhayagiri Vihara. Let all ecclesiastical and lay persons within the kingdom, who wish to lay up a store of merit, prepare and smooth the roads; adorn the street, and highways ; let them scatter every king of flower, and offer incense in religious reverence to the Relic'. This proclamation being finished, the kings next causes to be placed on both sides sides of the procession-road representations of the five hundred bodily forms which Bodhisattva assumed during his successive births. For instance, his birth as Sudana ; his appearance as Sama ; his birth as the king of the elephants, and as an antelope. These figures are beautifully painted in divers colours and have a very life-like appearance. At length the tooth of Buddha is brought forth and conducted along the principal road. As they proceed on the way, religious offerings are made to it. When they arrive at the Abhayagiri Vihara they place it in the Hall of Buddha, where the clergy and laity all assemble in vast crowds and burn incense, and light lamps, and perform every king of religious ceremony, both night and day,with out ceasing. After ninety complete days they again return it to the Vihara within the City".



It is doubtful whether the procession as described by Fa Hien continued to be held annually after Anuradhapura ceased to be the capital of Ceylon. It is clear, however, that the Dewale Peraheras that we have today in the Esala Perahera in Kandy did not form part of the Procession referred to by Fa Hein. From the information I have been able to gather, the Esala Perahera as we know it today, with the four Hindu Dewale Peraheras participating in it, had its origin in 1775 A.D. under the reign of King Kirthisri Rajasinghe.



The Perahera he inaugurated in his reign was confined at first to the four Hindu Dewales, because by then Hindu practices and rituals had crept into Theravada Buddhism owing to the influence of Mahayanism as well as that of the King's consorts who were Hindu Princesses from South India.



During this time a body of Siamese priests who came to Ceylon for the restoration of the Upasampadha ordination were surprised to find a purely Hindu ceremony in the capital of a pre-eminently Buddhist country.



To remove their scruples the King ordered a procession with the Sacred Tooth Relic to head the four Dewale Perahera, and that decree had been faithfully carried out ever since. Today, however, the Sacred Tooth Relic itself is not carried in the Perahera. Only a duplicate of the casket in which the Relic is kept together with a few Seevali relics is carried on the back of the gorgeously caparisoned Maligawa Tusker. This is because it is considered inauspicious to remove the Tooth Relic from its sacred precincts. Further more, taking it out would require special safeguards to protect its security as it became, in course of time, the palladium of Ceylon on the Preservation of which depended the security of the country.



While the Perahera referred to in the Mahawamsa was a purely religious one, it was customary, however, to hold peraheras to commemorate various events, mythical, traditional and historical, which were of special significance to the country or to propitiate and seek the help of the deities of the four Dewales for victory in war and success in secular undertakings. There are the following traditions connected with the origin of the origin of the Dewale Peraheras.



There was war among the Asuras (heathen deities) in which the God Kataragama was involved, and it came to an end on the day after the new moon in the month of July. To commemorate this event on the identical day in July every year an Esala tree (Ehala or Indian Laburnum Cassia Fistula), which is in full bloom in Ceylon at this time of the year, is cut , its trunk fixed as " Kap" (which means the token of a vow) and certain ceremonies performed. Although the Esala tree gives its name to the Perahera connected with the ceremony, it is usual in the present day to use a Jak tree (Artocarpus Integrifolia) or Rukkattana tree (Alstonia Scholaris) for the purpose. Both these trees exude a milky sap when cut, and this sap in supposed to be a sign of prosperity.



Another view is that during the reign of King Vankanasika Tissa, who ascended the throne in 109 A.D., the King of Chola (in India) invaded Ceylon and took back 12,000 prisoners. King Gajabahu (King Vankanasika's successor) avenged the insult by crossing over to India and bringing back 24,000 captives as well as the Sacred Bowl Relic (which had been taken away during the reign of King Walagambahu (103, and 89 - 77 B.C.) and the golden sacred rings of the Hindu goddess Pattinidevi.



The Perahera that was held to celebrate that victory is supposed to be the origin of the present-day one.



Still another theory is that it originated from an Indian Festival known as " the Asalhi Games" which was introduced in to Ceylon by Vijaya and his followers in the fifth century B.C.



The custodians of the Sacred Tooth Relic are the High Priests of Malwatte and Asgiriya. These two chapters are akin to the two Archbishoprics of Canterbury and York in the Church of England.



The lay custodian of the Sacred Tooth Relic is the Diyawadana Nilame.



According to tradition there were four Tooth Relics of the Buddha, one being in Possession of the Blessed Sakra (Lord of the Six Devas) who pays homage to it incessantly in devotion and godly splendor.



The second was given to the district of Gandhara (present day Afghanistan), the inhabitants of which worship it devoutly. The King of the Nagas (Cobras) is in possession of the third Tooth Relic, and is is worshipped with various religious rites. The Ascetic Khema, who came into possession of the Fourth Tooth Relic, handed it to King Brahmadatta of Dantapura in Kalinga (the present Orissa in India). Dantapura, according to Indian tradition, is the present seaside resort known as Puri in Orissa, the site of the famous Jagannath Temple. At Brahmadatta's death Prince Guhasiva became King, and when his enemies waged war against him to take the Kingdom, he called Prince Danta to him, and saying what a calamity it would be if the Sacred Relic were to fall into the hands of the enemy, directed him to take it to Lanka and hand it over to the great King Kirthisri Meghavanna who was ruling the country at that time. The Prince not only carried out these instructions but also offered to the Relic many priceless treasures.



Tradition too has it that a Princess who fled to Ceylon for safety brought the Relic hidden in the coils of her hair.



Since that time the Relic has been in various parts of the country. Ultimately King Vimaladharmasuriya the Second (1687 -1707 A.D.) brought the Relic from Labugama and deposited it in the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Dalada Maligawa) built by him in Kandy.



In later years King Sri Wickrema Rajasinha (1798 - 1815 A. D.) the last King of Kandy - who had a keen sense of artistic beauty, added the Octagon to the Dalada Maligawa. He was incidentally the builder of the Kandy Lake.