3RD LEAD (Adds songs)

SL military bans devotional song at ancient Saiva temple in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 August 2013, 23:44 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Army in the East has banned Saiva devotional songs authored by popular poet Puthuvai Ratnathurai, whose whereabouts are still not known after the occupying Sri Lankan military had him into custody during the final hours of the Vanni war in May 2009. The SL military personnel have warned the temple administration of the historic Siva temple Thaan-thoan'ri-eesvarar at Kokkaddichchoalai not to play the popular devotional song "Piddukku ma'n chumantha perumaanaar” on the temple loud-speakers or on at any occasion. Together with the popular song on Kokkaddich-choalai, TamilNet also releases a few other songs for the wider Tamil audience throughout the world.



The song has been regularly relayed in the loudspeaker till the SL military recently instructed the temple administration not to play it any more.

The song, which is a poem of Ratnathurai that has been rendered into voice by prominent Eezham Tamil singer SG Shanthan, is purely a devotional.

The temple authorities have been recently instructed by the SL military not to play the devotional songs of the “LTTE era”.

Several devotional songs were written by Poet Puthuvai Ratnathurai under the title ‘Koapura vaasal’ praising the glory of Thaanthaamalai Murukan Koayil, Ukanthai Murukan Koayil, Ea'raavoor Kaa'li Koayil, Maamaangkap-pi'l'laiyaar Koayil, Kokkaddich-choalai, Chiththaa'ndi Murukan Koayil, Ma'ndoor Murukan Koayil and Thiruk-koa'neasvaram temple.

The ban and restrictions being placed on Saiva temples by the occupying Colombo and its military remind the people of Batticaloa of the colonial Portuguese and Dutch periods, Saiva devotees in Batticaloa say.

During the Portuguese and Dutch periods, Saiva Koyils were destroyed and the colonial masters banned routine poojas and rituals. Today, more than five hundred Saiva temples have been destroyed in the East giving way to the construction of new Buddhist Viharas. Some Buddhist monks have removed the Pi'l'laiyaar statue from the Pillaiyar Koyil located at Punaanai where Sri Lanka Army has a cantonment.

The occupying military, constructing Buddha temples, is also allegedly behind the robberies in the temples after the Saiva devotees protested against the hostile act by the SL military in grabbing the lands belonging to Saiva temples in the East.

The Saiva devotees protesting against the ‘robberies’ taking place at Saiva temples have been threatened by the SL military.

If the Saiva devotees attend the protests organised by Tamil parliamentarians from Batticaloa, they would face the same fate of the Sinhala residents of Welweriya in the Gampaha district where a student was shot dead by the SL military when the protestors ignored the ‘instructions’ of the ‘security forces’, the Sinhala military has warned the villagers in Batticaloa.

The genocidal realities in the island have to get into the conscience of the people in India misled by the BJP-RSS-Shiv Sena lot and by the Indian media empires operated from Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai, said representatives of Saiva associations in the East.







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