WEL COME TO JAFFNA TAMILAR BLOG: ABOUT NALLUR TEMPLE

ABOUT JAFFNA

Jaffna is located in the nothern part of the Sri lanka.This is the Home city of Sri Lankan Tamil.Most of the Jaffna Tamils are well educated .They have their traditional culture,Decency.This is an ancient port city.I am also from Jaffna.My village call "Ilavalai"which is located 5 km north of Jaffna Town.This city is fillup with traditional Hindu kovils, catholicChurches.The local citizens are Hindu ,Catholics & Muslims and Christians. The Jaffna Peninsula and the rest of Sri Lanka's vast Northern Province comprise the country's driest region.Jaffna, the center of Sri Lanka's Tamil culture, was the capital of an independent medieval kingdom and later a key colonial outpost for the Portuguese and Dutch.About a million people today make their homes on the Jaffna Peninsula. Some 999 square miles (2,587 square kilometers) in size, the peninsula is saved from being an island only by a halfmile-wide strip of sand at its far southeastern end.Its flat, dry land is interspersed with shallow lagoons,and a number of interesting offshore islands extend the geographical pattern. The yal is today the symbol of Jaffna,which sometimes is also called "Yalpanam," "city of the lyre."Just as with the eastern coast, so has much of northern Sri Lankafallen to disruption and destruction due to fighting betweenthe Sri Lankan armed forces and the Tamil Militants(Liberation Tigers Of Tamil Eelam) led By Mr.V. Prabaharan.Jaffna, the strong hold of the militant groups has taken a heavy toll. Access to the north is heavily restricted .But,when better times comes, Jaffna and the north will offer the discerning traveler a glimpse into a land of stark beauty, that is rich in culture and history.

Historians have found evidence that the original temple was built in 1248 in Kurukkal Valavu in Nallur at the same location of the present temple. Nallur was then the capital of the Jaffna Kingdom. But in 1450, Parakramabahu the 6th of the Kotte Kingdom, in response to the Arya Chakkaravarthi of Jaffna's to extend his rule to the South, sent his son Sapumal Kumara to bring the Jaffna Kingdom down to his rule. Sapumal Kumara defeated King Arya Chakkaravarthi, destroyed his palace and the original Nallur temple. But upon becoming Buvaneka Bahu the 6th , he sought to make amends by building a new temple in 1467 at a nearby location, says Shanmugapriya in Nallur Kanthaswamy: A Spiritual Experience.And centuries later the Portuguese, after fighting witht the kings of the Jaffna Kingdom for more than hundred years, with the death of King Sangilian, captured it in 1620. The Portuguese General Phillip Oliviera used the Nallur temple as a fort.During Dutch rule, the new temple was built in the same place in Kurukkal Valavu,as the original place.The main shrine has deity Vel, but later a statue of Lord Murugan was installed.Further the Nallur festival of old days took place in the nights,with the procession carrying the deity preceded by women clad in shimmering outfits dancing to the beat of gigantic drums. The streets of Nallur were illuminated with flame of torches and lamps.

Hindu priests in White attire for the evening event on Theerththam.