Pararajasekara Pillayar Temple (Inuvil)

Pararajasekara Pillayar Temple (Photo credit: Jaffna Biz, Google Street View)

Pararajasekara Pillayar Kovil, (Tamil: இணுவில் பரராஜசேகரப்பிள்ளையார் கோவில்; Sinhala: ඉනුවිල් පරරාජසේකර පුල්ලෙයාර් කෝවිල) is a Hindu temple situated in Inuvil in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka. Located adjoining the Kandaswamy Kovil, it is dedicated to God Pillayar (or Ganesha, Ganapati, Vinayakar), one of the popular deities in the Hindu pantheon.

This is believed to be a 600 years old temple belonging to the period of the Jaffna Kingdom (Kandiah, 2014; Pushparatnam, 2014). It is said that this temple was erected by the king who ruled with the title Pararajasekara in the 15th or 16th century A.D. (Pushparatnam, 2014). A ruler named Singhai Pararajasekaran, the elder son of Kanagassoriyan is said to have ruled Jaffna from Nallur between 1478 and 1519 (Kandiah, 2014).

It is believed that this temple faced the threat of destruction by the Portuguese who invaded the northern part of the country in 1560 (Kandiah, 2014). Afraid of this, the Inuvil devotees turned the temple into a Madam, which was later known as the Madathuvaasal Pillayar Temple (Kandiah, 2014). The Portuguese were later expelled by the Dutch and the Dutch were expelled by the British in 1796. Unlike others, the British allowed Hindus to practice their religion without much obstruction. During this period, the Madathuvaasal Pillayar Temple again had its original name Pararajasekara Pillayar Temple (Kandiah, 2014).

The temple's bell tower was completed in 1962 and the Rajagopuram was constructed in 1972 (Kandiah, 2014). The Maha Kumba Abishegam was held on the temple premises in 1939, 1961, 1984, 1997 and 2009 (Kandiah, 2014).

References

1) Kandiah, T, 2014. Ancient Hindu temples of Sri Lanka. pp.9-11.

2) Pushparatnam, P., 2014. Tourism and monuments of archaeological heritage in Northern Sri Lanka. Author Publication. ISBN: 978-955-0811-08-3. pp.111-112.

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