The Sacred Shrine of Kataragama in Colonial Records: A Study Focusing on the Period from 1658 to 1948

காலனித்துவ காலக் குறிப்புக்களில் கதிர்காமக் திருத்தலம்;: 1658 தொடக்கம் 1948 வரையான காலப்பகுதியை மையப்படுத்திய ஆய்வு

Abstract

The sacred shrine of Kataragama, a preeminent multicultural worship center in Sri Lanka, has maintained its political and spiritual prominence since the 3rd century BCE. The colonial European accounts, notably by Robert Knox, depicted Kataragama as a mysterious wilderness, highlighting a unique socio-spiritual defense where the fear of the deity deterred Portuguese and Dutch forces from invading the Kandyan Kingdom from the South. However, during the Dutch and British colonial rule (1658–1948), the shrine’s hereditary administrative structure and religious autonomy encountered severe subversions. Employing a historical methodology, this study demonstrates that the colonial state perceived Kataragama not merely as a religious site, but through the dual lenses of a ‘political security threat’ and a ‘public health hazard’. The research intensively analyzes how the British administration, under the pretext of preventing cholera outbreaks that threatened the lucrative plantation economy, enforced the Gazette notification of 1893. This regulation drastically restricted pilgrims to a mere 150, introduced a modern visa like permit system, and weaponized police surveillance, thereby converting the centuries-old traditional Pada Yatra (Foot Pilgrimage) into a heavily militarized state-controlled procession. Consequently, this study exposes how the colonial government violated Clause5 of the Kandyan Convention of 1815 by covertly dismantling the traditional rights of the Kapuralas and the autonomy of the Basnayake Nilame to serve fiscal and imperial interests. Concurrently, it notes that despite these interventions, European chroniclers documented with fascination the shrine’s resilient pluralistic identity, which harmoniously accommodated Veddas, Buddhists, Hindus and Sufi Muslims.