Temples in Sri Lanka – Ramanisblog

Ravana Worshiped Shiva here,

Patanjali wrote The Yoga Sutra was born in this place.

The Town is referred to in Ramayana and The Mahabharata.

This is where Ravana Dropped his sword.

Ravana Cleft, Trincomalee — Lovers’ Leap or Ravana’s Cleft at Swami Rock (Konamalai).. It is 350 feet above the sea level and looks straight down into the ocean below

This temple is in the same Longitude as that of Mount of Kailash;hence called the Dakshina Kailash.

This city is one of the oldest in Asia.

All the ancient tamil Kings visited and improved the temple .

This is Koneswaram Shiva temple, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.

The Shiva Temple Koneswaram — Koneswaram Shiva Temple

“Heralded as “Dakshina Kailasam”/”Then Kailasam” (Kailash of the South) because it lies on exactly the same longitude as the Tibetan mountain Mount Kailash (the primary abode of Shiva), Trincomalee’s traditional history and legends were compiled into the Sanskrit treatises Dakshina Kailasa Puranam — Sthala Puranam of Koneswaram, written in 1380 by Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan, and the Dakshina Kailasa Manmiam — three chapters of the Skanda Puranam of unknown antiquity — manuscripts of which have been discovered and dated from the 5th — 7th century.^[13]^[14] It was in the Puranas that the shrine first found reference as Koneiswara Parwatia, motivating Kullakottan Chola who learnt of its sanctity to sail to Trincomalee and develop the three Hindu temples of the Koneswaram compound.^[15]^[16]^[17] The compiler of the Yoga Sutras, Patañjali‘s place of birth at the temple corroborates Tirumular‘s Tirumandhiram, which describes him as hailing from Then Kailasam and his self description as a “Gonardiya” from Gonarda, “a country in the southern and eastern division” of the Indian continent.^[18]^[19] Both men were ardent disciples of Nandi.^[20] The Konesar Kalvettu uses the term Tiri Kayilai, meaning “three Kailasams”, Tiri Kutam and Tiri Konam for Trincomalee, in a number of places, referring to the three pagodas on the promontory of Trincomalee..

Rava's Palace,Trincomalee — Ravana’s Palcae

Trincomalee which is a natural deep-water harbour has attracted seafarers, trader and pilgrims from Europe, Middle East, Africa, China, East Asia and Australasia since ancient times. Trinco, as it is commonly called, has been a seaport and Hindu pilgrimage centre since 400 BCE. The earliest epigraphical inscriptions found in Trincomalee city are in the Tamil language. The Tamil settlement at the port of Trincomalee was one of the oldest settlements on the island.^[22] One inscription from 900-1000 CE belonging to the Chola Dynasty excavated near where the promontory’s first temple stood is from a sluice and also concerns Koneswaram, as do the 10th century Nilaveli inscriptions.^[23]^[24]^[25] The Siva-worshipping Siddhar Patanjali’s birth at the city in 180 BCE and its connections to another Siddhar Agastya from the 5th-4th century BCE suggests that Yoga Sun Salutation originated on the promontory of Trincomalee.^[13]^[14]^[26]^[27]

The earliest known literary reference to the Siva temple of Gokarna bay is found in the Mahabharata, the Hindu epic written between 400—100 BCE, noting that Koneswaram is at Gokarna bay, in the middle of the ocean and is the island shrine of Uma’s consort Shiva, known in the three worlds and worshiped by all peoples from the subcontinent, the rivers, ocean and mountains..

The Trincomalee Harbour, a circular natural harbour which the temple crowns towards the north, is referred to as Ko-Kannam or “Lord’s Cheek”, alluding to the cheek shape of Shiva’s bull Nandi. The Sanskrit equivalent of the port town’s harbour bay is Go-Karna, meaning “Cow’s Ear” or Gokarna Pattana and the deity’s name Gokarneswara or Go—Natha in Sanskrit. Pathmanathan offers the etymological link Thiru-Gokarna-Malai or Thiru-Gona-Malai based on this connection.^[9] The ethnographer Megasthenes writing in his Indica from 350 — 290 BCE, describes the island as being divided by a long river, productive of a large number of gold and pearls in one half and that the inhabitants of this country are called Paleogoni, meaning Old Goni in Tamil and Greek, who Pliny adds worshipped Hercules and Dionysus (Bacchus) like the Pandyans of Tamilakam. The Vayu Purana, written in 300 CE specifically mentions the tallest mountain peak of the great gold and silver rich mountain range Malaya on the island, and that “to the east of this island at the shore of the sea lies a great Siva temple in a holy place called Gokarna.”^[10] The bay is also referred to as Gokaranna according to a Sanskrit inscription in Grantha script excavated on a door jamb at the Hindu temple dated to Tamil New Years Day 1223 CE.^[11] Gokarna is also a place name in Karnartaka, India, Kalinga, Tamil Nadu and Nepal all associated with ancient Shiva temples. The associated Bhadrakali Amman Temple of Trincomalee, significantly expanded by Rajendra Chola I, stands on Konesar Road before the entrance to Swami Rock”