Thirukoneswaram

Also known as Koneswaram, this temple is considered to be the Dakshin Kailasa (or the Kailash of the South). Sitting atop Koneswar Malai (Koneswar Hill), a promontory that overlooks the Indian Ocean in Trincomalee district, it was one of the grandest structures of its times with a thousand-pillared hall, elaborate bas-relief ornamentation in black granite and multiple gold-plated gopurams that were visible from a long way into the ocean.

This temple, dating back to 400 BCE, is described in the Vayu Purana, and is the birthplace of Patanjali, the compiler of the Yoga Sutras. The Dakshina Kailasa Puranam and Manmiam works note it as Dakshin Kailasa (Mount Kailash of the South) for its longitudinal position (it is exactly on the same longitude as Mount Kailash) and pre-eminence. It also finds mention in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Konesar Malai may have been the site where Yoga originated and some scholars have suggested that the worship of the almighty god Iswara on the promontory is the most ancient form of worship existing.

The Portuguese destroyed the temple in the seventeenth century and with the debris, built a fort at Trincomalee. This fort was dismantled by the Dutch in 1665 and named Fort Frederick. The loot of the temple by the Portuguese was described as one of the biggest loots in medieval times.

Though the site of the ruined temple remained sacred to the Hindus, no worship of any kind was permitted by the Portuguese, and the Dutch after them. Since 1950, the discovery and recovery of the remains of the temple from the seabed, and the subsequent construction of the temple, started. Worship resumed at the restored temple in March 1963. However, since the new temple was located inside the fort now occupied by the Lankan army, devotees found it inconvenient to visit the shrine. In 1968, the Tamil Federal Party demanded that the temple complex be declared a “sacred zone”. Many Buddhist shrines were being declared sacred zones at that time. But this was not allowed and this crisis permanently damaged ties between the Tamils and the Sinhalese. The Lankan army that was in occupation of Frederick Fort banned entry of devotees into the temple complex and forbade any pujas.

Then began the systematic vandalisation of the temple by Lankan soldiers and Buddhist monks and mobs. In early 1993, the temple was partially destroyed by Sinhala Buddhists with the front doors of the garbha griha being burnt down and temple utensils destroyed. The priests’ quarters were damaged. The desecration of the temple triggered intense anger among Tamil Hindus and after many petitions, then president Ranasinghe Premadasa allowed access to the temple only to the head priest, the custodian of the temple keys, a cleaner and four devotees on a daily basis, subject to permission from the army authorities at the fort. The priests and the devotees could not perform any pujas and could only light lamps. Only on festivals were a large number of people allowed inside the temple, but were forbidden from performing any pujas. But in May 1996, the army authorities arbitrarily put a cap on the number of people who could enter the temple during Hindu festivals at 50. On 21 September 2008, the chief priest of the temple, Sivashri Kugarajakurrukal, was assassinated in a campaign that has targeted Hindu priests in the region.

The army continues to occupy the fort within which the temple complex is located and repeated pleas by Tamil Hindus to move the army out have been turned down. Massive restoration work on the temple commenced in 2015 only after President Maithripala Sirisena, who is reportedly not as rabidly anti-Tamil as some of his predecessors, came to power in January 2015. Once complete, Thirukoneswaram will become one of the most magnificent temples of the Indian sub-continent.

Munneswaram

This temple, the fourth of the Pancha Ishwarams, could escape destruction during the war only because the temple complex includes a Kali temple that is revered by Sinhala Buddhists. Located in the Puttalam district of Sri Lanka’s northwestern province, the complex is made up of temples dedicated to Shiva, Ganesha, Ayyanayake (a Sinhala deity) and Devi Kali.

Munneswaram was destroyed twice by the Portuguese zealots, but first Rajasinghe 1 (1581-1593) of the Sitawaka kingdom rebuilt the temple, and then Rajasinha (1747-1782) of the Kandyan Kingdom had the superstructure rebuilt in the 1750s.

Since then, Munneswaram has attracted Tamil Hindus and Sinhala Buddhists, the latter outnumbering the Tamil Hindus on most days.