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Munneswaram Kovil Sri Lanka

Munneswaram Hindu kovil is one of the important Pancha Ishwara Hindu kovil in Sri Lanka located in Chilaw of Puttalam District, North Western province of Sri Lanka. These five temples are dedicated to Ishwara in the form of god Shiva. Name of these five Iswara Temples are Naguleswaram Temple Jaffna, Koneswaram Temple Trincomalee, Tondeswaram Temple Matara ( Tenavaram), Munneswaram Temple Chilaw and Ketheeswaram Temple Mannar Sri Lanka. There is a direct link between Munneswaram Hindu Kovil and The Ramayana trails in Srilanka
This regional Hindu temple complex has been in existence at least since 1000 CE as myths surrounded with the temple associate with the Indian epic Ramayana. In Tamil, “Mun” means long time ago and “Eswaram” means Shiva temple. So this also can be considered as one of the ancient and popular Hindu temple in Sri Lanka Puttalam district. This temple is located in Munneswaram which is a village with mixed Sinhala and Tamil population situated in the Tamil division region ( Demala Pattuva).

Munneswaram Temple, Sri Lanka - A beautiful view of the temple's exterior, showcasing its intricate architecture and vibrant colors.
A close-up of the intricate carvings on the Munneshwaram Temple in Sri Lanka.

Historical Background of Manavari Hindu Temple

At present this lingam at Manavari temple is named as Ramalingam as this lingam was erected by Rama. The epic of Ramayana depicts that Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu and a Lingam is a representation of Shiva. Ramalingam is considered as an extraordinary object -of worship of -Hinduism. There are only two lingams in the whole world named after Lord – Rama while one is the Ramalingam at Manavari Temple and other one is in Rameswaram in India, the most sacred place in Tamil Nadu.

This temple complex is a collection of five temples. The central temple has been dedicated to Shiva as he is the most popular, biggest and prestigious among the Hindus. The other temples has been dedicated to Ganesha, Ayyanayake and Kali while other on is a Buddhist temple. In both months of February and August there are two annual festivals taken place.

Navarathri and Sivarathri are the main festivals celebrated at this temple. One is a nine – day long festival in honor of the presiding goodness, while the other is a overnight observation as a honor of Load Shiva. I addition to these they are conducting their own festival, Munneswaram festival which is celebrated over four weeks by both Buddhists and Hindus.

Relationship to Ramayana Sri Lanka

According to the Ramayana Trails Srilanka, this temple is located at the place where the King Rama prayed to Shiva after committing the worst crime named as Brahmahasti according to Hindu dharma because Ravana who was a Brahmin casted person had to be killed by Rama to liberate Sitha. Also there is a belief that Rama stopped his Vimana vehicle at Munneswaram as he felt that Brahmahasthi Dosham was not following him at this place. So he ascended from vimana and prayed to god Shiva asking for a remedy to get rid from his dosham. It is also states that Rama was advices to install and pray four lingams at Munneswaram, Manavari, trinco and Mannar by god Shiva after his blessings. Considering above, Munneswaram Kovil is one of the important sites of Ramayana tour Sri Lanka.
This temple had been built under the Dravidian architecture. This is considered to be destroyed in Portuguese time period and then reconstructed in 1753 completely. Then later again Kumaraswami Kurukal renovated this temple in 1875.

Open

365 Days from 6.00 am to 8.00 pm

Munneswaram Temple contact number

Swami S. Srikari Saram; Srri Muneswaram Thevasthanam;
+94 322 22 3916 or +94 713 21 0339