| by Premakumara De Silva
( October 3, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) For the anthropologist, a
sacrifice is a special kind of offering. A mere offering to the gods by the
average religious adherent deprives the worshiper of little. But a true
sacrifice creates a significant cost to the worshiper. In antiquity, we see
evidence in both written and material record of sacrifices that truly put the
worshiper in a situation where piety becomes more important that personal gain,
wealth or even well-being. The sacrifice demonstrates that the level of piety
is directly proportional to the level of sacrifice. Anthropologists take the
term sacrifice in a wide sense as it is common to all the religions. It is not
essential that it involves giving up something valuable but only that a
symbolic gesture is made. This can be a gesture recognizing the presence of a
spirit or ancestor. Extreme cases of human sacrifices are very rare. Most
common animal sacrifice such as goat or a cow is slaughtered for the ancestors
or god but actually eaten by the living people who perform the sacrifice. This
paper aims to explain briefly about one such place: Munnesvaram temple near the
coastal town of Chilaw.
Munnesvaram is a religious
complex that draws people for a variety of reasons. For some, it draws them
because it is regarded as the most powerful Kali temple in all Sri Lanka, for
others it is because Munnesvaram is one the most important Siva temples in the
country, and for still others, it is because the temple is their regional
temple. They all share the sense that Munnesvaram is a temple complex of great
importance for Tamil Hindus and Sinhala Buddhists. The annual Munneswaram
festival is an important part of the temple calendar and it attracts Hindus,
Buddhists, Catholics and even Muslims. Until the 1830s the festival lasted up
to 18 days but since the 1960s it lasts for 28 days in the months of August and
September. The two principle temples, the Munnesvaram temple and Bhadrakali
temple, are the largest, best known, and most popular temples in the complex. Each
temple is owned and run by a distinct group of Tamil Hindu priests. The
worshippers are drawn from all over the country and predominantly Sinhalese and
Tamil. Hence, Munnesvaram provides us a classic example of how religious
pluralism works in the contemporary religious landscape of the country. It is
so important to see how Buddhists worship alongside Tamil Saivites in Tamil
Saivite temples. It is not my intention to write about the pluralistic aspects
of Munnesvaram temple rather I’m interested in writing about one of the
controversial ritual practices, animal sacrifice, that has been taking place at
the Munnesvaram Kali Temple.
This temple is regarded by many
Buddhists as the entry-site for Kali when she first arrived by stone ship from
India. According to Kali’s myth when she arrived she could not get to the
Munnesvaram goddess, Pattini, so she set about wreaking havoc among the local
human inhabitants, destroying their homes and consuming the occupants. Pattini
acted quickly and caught Kali, then subdued her and made her into a servant.
The subdued, but still ferocious Kali dwells in her temple adjacent to the
temple of Pattini. She gives up human sacrifice but remains addicted to the
consumption of blood in the form of animal sacrifice. Pattini allows her this
habit but insists that any violence she might direct against human beings be a
righteous violence that rights wrongs and stops injustice. Kali has her
righteous form as Bhadra (Skt. ‘Auspicious’) Kali, and several demonic forms
particularly the most terrible Sohon (Skt. ‘Cemetery’) Kali who will dance on
the corpse of her dead husband Siva at the end of the current age, the Kali
Yuga. At the Munnesvaram temple she is represented with a large black basalt
statue of Bhadrakali.
Bhadrakali Temple Festival
The festival is celebrated at the
Bhadrakali temple over the last ten days of the month of August up to and
including the day of the flag lowering. The first day of the festival consists
of an elaborate bathing rite to all the statues done in the early morning,
followed by a lengthy morning puja of a kind usually reserved for Kali’s
special days, Tuesday and Friday. Saffron-coloured protective threads are tied
around the statues and the wrist of the officiating priest who then takes a
kumbha pot on procession to each shrine where coconuts are broken. The kumbha
is returned to the temple inner sanctum and when it is brought back the priests
and helpers shower it with flowers. The movement between shrines corresponds to
the temple’s daily rites, so, if anything, the festival is merely the
enlargement of the daily puja. The key element here is the kumbha as an
aniconic representation of Bhadrakali. She dose come out of from the sanctum
but only in this aniconic form. With current use of a kumbha, there is an
advantage for most devotees not knowing that Bhadrakali is coming out and no
large processions occur. As the festival progresses the goddess increasingly
becomes present in the world. Each day of festival resembles a busy Friday
morning during the rest of the year. At some point devotees offer basket
containing fruits, flowers, incense, vibhuthiash and vermilion kunkuma powder,
betel leaf and money. During the festival time, thousands of coconuts are
broken, dozens of limes are cut to draw out sorcery (huniyam), the organized
cursing with cow dung against enemies is performed, and above all, hundreds of
cocks and several goats are given.
While the Munnesvaram temple is
calming down following the flag lowering on the final day of the festival, the
morning puja at the Bhadrakali temple is the busiest of the year. This is the
main festival day for Bhadrakali, the day of velvi or animal sacrifice. The
donation of animals as offerings is a common feature of Tamil Saivite temple
festival, but the sacrifice of some or all of these animals depends directly on
the nature of the deity. The Bhadrakali temple priests insist on the necessity
of blood sacrifices for Kali. Sacrificial offerings of chickens and goats can
be sorcery offerings to Kali, enlisting her support to harm an enemy. A chicken
sacrifices simply requests that the enemy be injured, a goat that the enemy be
killed. However, not all such offerings are sorcery offerings. Goats were also
slaughtered, but less frequently, and only if the donor specifically requested
it. Such offerings are sacrificial offerings, but sacrificial offerings can
also be live offerings that the temple can then sell at an auction on the final
day to devotees who take the animals home. At the Bhadrakali temple, the
practice of live offerings and auction extends to small children who are given
by their parents to the goddess kali. The rite is designed to turn the child
into Bhadrakali’s child and thus under the goddess’ protection.
In 1977 the government of J.R.
Jayewardene banned animal sacrifice. But recently it has recommenced. Tamil
Saivites were the principal focus of the legislation as animal sacrifice is
most extensive in their religion. Moreover, the element of sacrifice of Saivism
relates to the Vedic Brahmanism against which the Buddha reacted. Hence, the
ban on sacrifice celebrated key Buddhist principles of nonviolence and was
promoted especially by government ministers and Buddhist monks. Some of these
same ministers would remain active, albeit secret, patrons of the Kali Temple
was a point not lost on many devotees.
This is what the Bhadrakali
temple is about, what Kali is all about. She accepts blood sacrifice, indeed
demands it, and notwithstanding Buddhist-inspired bans, the recognition of the
sacrificial element by Buddhists, their insistence on its performance, remains
a key feature of Kali worship.
PS: I would like to acknowledge
the materials that I used to develop this article from work of Rohan Bastian.
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