Seetha Amman Temple (Tamil: சீதா அம்மன் கோயில், Sinhala: සීතා අම්මාන් කෝවිල) is a Hindu temple (Kovil) in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka. The Kovil is situated along the Nuwara Eliya - Welimada road about 8 km far from the Nuwara Eliya bus station. The site is popular among visitors as a place related to the Hindu epic Ramayanaya.
History
The temple was built by Tamil estate labourers who came to the country in the 19th century and is believed to be the earliest Hindu shrine in the Nuwara Eliya area (Abeywardana, 2004; Goonatilake, 2010).
Although it bears no historical or archaeological value, the temple is promoted by the locals and tourist agencies as a shrine related to Ravana and Seetha (Sita), two mythical figures that appear in the Indian epic Ramayanaya. According to them, this temple site is the place where Seetha was held captive by Ravana. However, Ramayanaya is presently dismissed as a myth by Sri Lankan academics (JRASSL, 2014).
Attribution
1) Seetha Amman Temple Seetha Eliya by Buddhika.jm is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
References
1) Abeywardana, H.A.P., 2004. Heritage of Kandurata: Major natural, cultural and historic sites. Colombo: The Central Bank of Sri Lanka. p. 221.
2) Goonatilake, S., 2010. Introduction: Inventing Archaeology: The Tourist Board's "Ramayana Trail"
3) JRASSL, 2014.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka New Series, Vol. 59,
No. 2, Special Issue on the Ramayana (2014).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40203619. pp.1-112.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 9 January 2023
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