any way there is very little chance we can make the sea trip from kodikarai to mathottam( via bhootha thivu where we have to drop one passenger) on a boat that moves onthe powers of present day poongkuzhalis.
the route is however well frequented by nefarious activities still.and the distace sems to be little.
I dont think tourists can go north of anurathapura safely. so lets plan the rest. venketesh
Tourists are advised not to venture into Northern Srilanka.
In other parts, you would be so captivated with the "present / current" Srilanka than to think of the past with cholas, Pandyas etc.
Anyway, all the Buddhist pilgrim centres remind you of Rajaraja's feeling that he should come back and make huge temple for his favourite deity. Other than that not much related to Ponniyin Selvan. The Dambulla Buddha is so huge, one would understand why Kalki wrote that RR wanted a huge temple and a very huge Peruvudaiyar.
Srilanka has a lot of paintings and proof to say that a Pandya Princess travelled to Srilanka with the Buddha Tooth hidden in her hair-do and entered Srilanka.
Srilanka is a place to visit if we want to learn and see how our tourist guides should treat the tourists coming to our country.
You would be pleasantly surprised to see all hoardings / announcements in Sinhala, English and Tamil.. that too very chaste Tamil.
Those who are strict vegetarians wont have much to relish in their cuisine.. but I believe, non-veg is something to relish there, with their prawns, fish of different varieties !!
Chinmaya Mission has a Huge Hanuman Statue put up on a hillock there... but no visitors..
Tea, gems, spices... extension of our own Kerala, but much more greener.
They dont like to be reminded of Ramayana, Ravana and Sita. They say there is a place which is supposed to be Asokavanam.. but you wont get much info on this. We also did not insist, as we could enjoy all other parts in the 10 days we spent there.
One would come back with the feeling that you should go again there... lovely country!!
i have been there many times on my own and moved much with the locals.
> > Srilanka has a lot of paintings
yes many of them are in the style of the big temple's upper reaches and much better preserved too
and proof to say that > a Pandya Princess travelled to Srilanka with the > Buddha Tooth hidden in her hair-do and entered > Srilanka.
was it a pandya princess?????????? she was called hema mali( not malini) and i think she came from the north
actually the pandyans hijacked the tooth and held it for ransom in kulasekharas period.
> > Srilanka is a place to visit if we want to learn and > see how our tourist guides should treat the tourists > coming to our country.
the people are extremely friendly too
> > Those who are strict vegetarians wont have much to > relish in their cuisine..
those guys add a fish called maldive fish even in vegetarian dishes. but there are plenty of chennai resturants there.mathura etc but anywhere you will get idiyappam( string hoppers) and thengkai thuvaiyal.
> > They dont like to be reminded of Ramayana, Ravana and > Sita.
no no. i have even talked to them about ltte and present day problems.
really nice guys . not like the sterotyped sihalese we expect.
They say there is a place which is supposed to > be Asokavanam.. but you wont get much info on this.
ashokavanam is in nuwera eliya( all duet songs in recent movie parthiban kanavu were shot there) like our ooty but much better.
> a Pandya Princess travelled to Srilanka with the > Buddha Tooth hidden in her hair-do and entered > Srilanka. >
Hi Uma
actually buddhas tooth was from kalinga
According to Mahavansa, the Great Chronicle, the Tooth Relic was brought to Sri Lanka when King Kirti Sri Meghavarna (301-328 AD) was the ruler in Anuradhapura, by a princess from Kalinga named Hemamali, securely wrapped in her tresses.
By the 12th century the Tooth Relic had become the palladium of Sinhala royalty, conferring on its custodian the right to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka. Hence the kings took every precaution to guard it.
in 1294 ad or so it was hijacked to madurai in 1560 ad was hijacked to goa
one was that it grew wings and flew back( no joking- its the buddhist view) the second was the original tooth is safe and a decoy was what was stolen. the third was dom gaspar the archbishop of goa ground it in a petle and mortar and threw the powder into a burning stove.
knowing the portugese charecter well its the third thats possible.
though i have been to kandy often, i havent gone into the temple of the tooth. but I think its not open for public viewing and only the box that holds it can be viewd.
hmmm I think i agree with you that the third option might be the realistic ones. I somehow don't think that the tooth, if it had really been stolen, could have made its way back from the Portuguese, given the way those chaps behaved in Goa.
true , very true. but a very colourful period in history if you view it without a bias the king of pegu( burma) offered a ransom for the tooth but the zealous archbishop had it destroyed. incidentally the viceroy of goa that time was a braganza.a turning point in his family.his great grand children became the kings of portugal. later. also the time when camoens the great one eyed portugese poet lived in goa and wrote his Lusidas.
the portugese continued the inquisition long after it was termed over in europe. they burnt many people on the stakes in goa.
but the greatest damage they did were to hindu temples in lanka. both kedeshwaram and trincomalee ( both devara sthalangal) were razed to the ground.
and even in chennai they forced the mudaliars of mylapore to painstakingly shift kapali temple to the present location. they built the santhome church in the place of the original temple.
those who visit kapali temple must see a floor stone in the southwest of the muruga temple.an inscription in some european language is there- the handiwork of some portugese sailor.
the oldest surviving portugese monument is luz church in mylapore( 1516). the other settlement the portugese held was porto novo( parangipettai)near chidambaram which is often stated as the death place of rrc in some sectors)
The box is worshipped with lotus flowers. Once in 12 years ( something like Mahamaham concept) they take it on procession, open and do some pooja. I think the last time it was opened was in 2003.. sometime in august, sept., though I am not very sure.
Your source must be correct.. but in Kandy temple they have written and also they call the princess as "Pandya" princess. The dress is also very much southern style. The features and ornaments, all point to southern princess.