LEGENDS OF SKANDA – MURUKAN

 “It is not down on any map; true places never are.” – Melville

Long before history came to be reecorded, people the world over have recognized th close association between food nd life. Human society may be said to have its roots in the systematic sharing of food.

In Orierntal culture, the sharing of food has long been considered s a sacred duty. We offer cooked food to our ancestors, to the devas, to the Buddha and to monk, elders, pilgrims, as well as to family, friends, visitors and to anyone who feels hunger, including animals and unseen beings should be offered food to ensure their happiness and good will.

The Sanskrit word annadānam literally means the offering or sharing (dāmma) of food (annam). In every ethnic and religious community across the Indian subcontinent, no festival or ceremony is complete without annadānam, or at least with the distribution of prāsadam, the edible items offered during  puūā.

‘Suriya Kanda Vinsathiya’

The continuous violence, present in almost every decade since the 1950s or no sooner Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain, has left a dark stain in the history of the country, that is popularly known as a “Just Society” or the “Pearl or tear drop of the Indian Ocean”.

Ethnic violence against the minority Tamils, violence against the Sinhalese by Tamil terror groups and two major youth uprisings in the South have unleashed enormous violence and caused loss of lives, unbearable pains for parents and denied wives their husbands and children their parents in almost every part of the island.

The worst horrors had to be borne by families whose members have gone missing. Most of these lost ones have been buried in the soil of this nation. Tragedy in the late 1980s that took place in ‘Sooriya Kanda’ in Embilipitiya is considered as one of the most terrible acts violence against humanity. Though more than 35 years have passed, the name Embilipitiya resonates with the ‘Sooriya Kanda’ tragedy.

At a time when Chemmani mass grave is being unearthed in the North, how many more thousands are lying dead and buried in Sri Lankan soil stretching from the North to the South passing a trail from Matale to Sooriyakanda? Ravi Prasad Herath has tried to do justice to those thousands who were buried and whose voices were silenced.
He is on a mission to bring out the truth that many political powers that were active then do not wish to hear.

Susitha R. Fernando
Associate Editor/Features Editor
Daily Mirror