Kataragama Esala Festival over a century ago as recorded by Leonard Woolf, AGA, Hambantota-by S.D. Saparamadu 1852-1939

JULY 08th

Rode to Kataragama in early morning. Saw the RM. DMO and priests.

The heat during the day makes life intolerable : one cannot exist in the bungalow after 10 a.m. without wearing a hat or some sort while the glare is enough to warrant smoked specta-cles. In this condition one sits in a perpetual sandstorm waiting for the sun to go down and for the mosquitoes to come out and take the place of the eyeflies. I hope that the Kataragama god sees to it that the supervisor ofthe pilgrims acquires some little merit from this pilgrimage.

In the evening a distant thunderstorm and slight rain. Went round the place with the sergeant, RM etc. Very few Pilgrims have arrived yet.
JULY 09th
At Kataragama.

Government has been calling for explanations of the large number of imprisonments for default in paying the road tax in this district last year. This district has always been a notoriers. ously bad one for shirking the road tax. If the Ordinance is really enforced the result is at any rate for a time a large number of fines and imprisonments : if it is not, the result is a large number of ineffectives. Mr. Boake many years ago complained bitterly when Government informed him that the large number of ineffectives was most unsatisfactory. The enforcing of the Ordinance last year had a considerable effect as the percentage of those who discharged their liability to the number liable rose from 89.52 to 92.71. In many places the provisions of the Ordinance are, I believe, never adhered to; certainly it was the rarest event in Jaffna to fine a defaulter Rs. 10. But if one has a bad law I believe it is almost always better to enforce it than to leave it unenforced. However there is no doubt that the road tax is a bad tax. It is a tax which is no tax at all to the well-to-do man who uses the roads a great deal and sometimes goes to a resthouse. It is often a serious consideration to the villager who never goes to a resthouse and uses the roads very little. If I paid direct taxes in proportion to my income as the ordinary man who draws Rs. 10 a month I should pay Rs. 150 a year instead of Rs. 1.50.

JULY 10th Ditto.

JULY 11th

Ditto.

One of the game watchers came to see me. Punchirala, one of the other watchers, has been lost since June 27th. He is said to have left Katagomuwa on his usual rounds towards the sanctuary. He has not been heard of since. I have had many men searching for him. I am afraid he must have been killed or injured by some animals.

JULY 12th

Climbed the Kataragama hill, 4 hours most strenuous walking and climbing but a fine view of miles upon miles of jungle and the Uva and Batticaloa hills. They say that the Kataragama deviyo used to have his temple here and was Kandaswami. One day lie thought he would like to cross the river and I ive in Kataragama. He asked some Tamils who were passing to carry him across. They however said that they were going to Palatupana to collect salt but would carry him across on their way back. A little while afterwards came by some Sinhalese and the god asked them to move him. They did so at once and so to this day the Kapuralas of this temple are Sinhalese. The mixture of Sinhalese and Hinduism is most curious here. The man (a Sinhalese) who climbed the hill with me explained that the God used to be Tamil but he married into a Sinhalese family at Kataragama and became a Sinhalese God. My servant who is a Jaffna Tamil says that all these are mere tales. He is Kandaswamy and no one else. He cannot however explain how the dhobies and pariahs are allowed into the temple if it really is a Kandaswamy Kovil.

JULY 13th to 22nd

The pilgrimage passed off without incident. There has been most heavy rain the last week and everything is more or less under water. I am writing to the G. A. suggesting that the Devale authorities should be made to provide accommodation for pilgrims. There is no cover for 1000 people here and the amount of fever and pneumonia which must have resulted to the 3000 to 4000 pilgrims this year – unless the God protect them – should be extraordinary. The authorities should at least make temporary cadjan buildings and cut drains round them. There were only two deaths both of children at this pilgrimage.

JULY 23rd

Rode with Mr. Tyler ASP Tangalla who arrived last night to Katagomuwa. We only just got across the river in time. It had risen many feet in the night and was already in flood : I doubted whether my second cart would get across and when I arrived at Tissa I found that it had been unable to do so.
I went to Katagomuwa to hold an enquiry into the disappearance of the game watcher. A rumour has spread that he was murdered by some Tissa people who about the time of his disappearance went from Tissa to the Uva jungles north of Katagomuwa to shoot and collect horns. These people appear to have come across an Uva gang in the Uva jungles bent on the same business and to have robbed the Uva gang of a gun and their horns. I have been making enquiries quietly during the pilgrimage and have had the gun seized in the house of a man at Tissa : it is a gun licensed in Badulla. The Tissa gang is to be brought up before me tomorrow at Tissa.

Mr. Engelbrecht met me at Katagomuwa today. I had sent him up through the jungle to a chena in the Uva province, which the Tissa gang is said to have shot at, to try and trace their path and possibly to find the missing man’s body. He tracked the course taken by the gang but found nothing. I held an enquiry into the matter at Katagomuwa but there is no evidence that this gang met the missing watcher.

In afternoon rode on in rain to Tissa (21 miles in all).

JULY 24th

Census work in early morning. Very badly done by headmen. Had the Tissa ‘gang’ up before me. I charged and tried them (as a preliminary) for being in possession of an unlicensed gun. They made a long statement confirming the story related in the previous paragraph except that they stated that they had found the Uva gang collecting horns without permits. They threatened to take them to and report them at Kataragama but let them go when they gave them (as a present!) the gun.

OCTOBER 14th

Started from Kataragama walking and sent the car back via Wellawaya to meet me at Buttala on Monday. To get to Kataragama and back in any reasonable time I am obliged to go out of my Province the distance from the nearest cart road within the Province being 20 miles via Tanamalwila and Sittarama or 27 miles via Buttala & Galge whereas Kataragama is only some I I miles from Tissa six miles or so being within the Province.

A rough road and very little good jungle. Saw no game.

At Kataragama inspected the town temples and madams thoroughly, also Kirivehera.
A very miserable place on the whole. ‘file Government Agent has not been here for several years.

Inspected the latrine trenches used for the last pilgrimage. This is the first time they have been tried. They were altogether much too elaborate. Got up a man with a memory and had a simple trench cut in presence of the Basnayake Nilame a memoty’s width and mamoty and a half deep with the earth piled up on one side and instructed him in its use.

The Medical Officer who was here in 1909 recommended wells being dug for the pilgrims. This is impracticable. There is already one well in the place some 30 feet deep dug by chetties as a work of merit and it is absolutely dry so that I cannot see the use of wasting more money in digging wells.

If wells are sunk well below the bed of the river say some 40 feet they might get some water in them if they were close enough to the river but the amount of water available is likely to be problematical and ordinarily the river water is quite good.

Was shown some gold chains and presents at the Kataragama Devale which were said to have been presented by King Dutta Gamini. If this is true they are among the most interesting relics in the world. Anyhow they are very beautiful work.

There was also a palanquin now disused and falling to pieces presented by King Raja Singha. I must try and get it sent to the Kandy Museum. It is useless here and the remains of the carving on it are quite good. Heard elephants prowling about at night

OCTOBER 16th

Started in the dark at 5 a.m. to get as near Buttala as I could. The whole country seems a sea of chena and is included in the temple claim which still remains unsettled.
Stopped at Galge where there are three good caves and one good waterhole, for breakfast. There is another waterhole which is spoilt by bat droppings. Had intended sleeping here and looking for a bear but the weather was so threatening, that we decided to push on.
It came on to rain pretty hard about 4 p.m. Got to Talkotanwela just before dark and slept in a reeking wet leaf- but some 19 miles from Kataragama. A good march considering the nature of the country. Saw neither bears, elephants nor leopards through the country is supposed to be full of them and I had come with a battery of weapons.