Koneswaram Temple


Koneswaram Temple of Trincomalee or Thirukonamalai Konesar Temple – The Temple of the Thousand Pillars and Dakshina-Then Kailasam is a classical-medieval Hindu temple complex in Trincomalee, a Hindu religious pilgrimage centre in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. The most sacred of the Pancha Ishwarams of Sri Lanka, it was built significantly during the ancient period on top of Konesar Malai, a promontory overlooking Trincomalee District, Gokarna bay and the Indian Ocean. The monument contains its main shrine to Shiva in the form Kona-Ishvara, shortened to Konesar.
The original kovil combined key features to form its basic Dravidian temple plan, such as its thousand pillared hall – "Aayiram Kaal Mandapam" – and the Jagati. Regarded as the greatest building of its age for its architecture, elaborate sculptural bas-relief ornamentation adorned a black granite megalith while its multiple gold plated gopuram towers were expanded in the medieval period. One of three major Hindu shrines on the promontory with a colossal gopuram tower, it stood distinctly on the cape's highest eminence.
The journey for pilgrims in the town begins at the opening of Konesar Road and follows a path through courtyard shrines of the compound to the deities Bhadrakali, Ganesha, Vishnu Thirumal, Surya, Raavana, Ambal-Shakti, Murukan and Shiva who presides at the promontory's height. The annual Koneswaram Temple Ther Thiruvilah festival involves the Bhadrakali temple of Trincomalee, the Pavanasam Theertham at the preserved Papanasuchunai holy well and the proximal Back Bay Sea surrounding Konesar Malai.
The Sinhalese king Gajabahu II who ruled Polonnaruwa from 1131 to 1153 CE is described in the Konesar Kalvettu as a devout worshipper of Shiva and a benefactor of the temple of Konamalai. He spent his last days in the associated Brahmin settlement of Kantalai.
The complex was destroyed in colonial religious attacks between 1622 and 1624 and a fort was built at the site from its debris. A 1632-built temple located away from the city houses some of its original idols. Worldwide interest was renewed following the discovery of its underwater and land ruins, sculptures and Chola bronzes by archaeologists and Arthur C. Clarke. It has been preserved through restorations, most recently in the 1950s. Granted ownership of villages in its floruit to form the Trincomalee District, Trincomalee village is located on the cape isthmus within the compounds. Revenue from the temple provides services and food to local residents.
Koneswaram has many strong historical associations. The shrine is described in the Vayu Purana, the Konesar Kalvettu and Tevaram hymns by Sambandhar and Sundarar as a Paadal Petra Sthalam along with its west coast Ishwaram counterpart Ketheeswaram temple, Mannar, and was praised for its tradition by Arunagirinathar upon his visit. The Dakshina Kailasa Puranam and Manmiam works note it as Dakshina/Then Kailasam for its longitudinal position and pre-eminence, it lies directly east of Kudiramalai west coast Hindu port town, while it is the easternmost shrine of the five ancient Ishwarams of Shiva on the island.
Mentioned as a widely popular bay temple of the island in the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Yalpana Vaipava Malai, the Mattakallappu Manmiam confirms its sacred status for all Hindus. Kachiyappa Sivachariar's Kanda Puranam compares the temple to Thillai Chidambaram Temple and Mount Kailash in Saivite esteem.

Etymology

According to Professor S. Pathmanathan, "the name Kōnesvaram is derived from the Sanskrit expression Gokarnesvara, which was applied as the name of the form of Shiva for whose worship the temple at Tirukōnamalai had been dedicated". In India there exists three other important Shaiva shrines named Gokarna. The Gokarna Shiva temple in Kalinga is also located on a mountain and the presiding deity is known as Gokarnasvamin. S. Pathmanathan states that both Shaiva shrines named Gokarna facing the eastern coastline and existing on mountains is not a coincidence, and that the Kōnesvaram temple was likely first established by settlers from Kalinga whose "favourite deity was Gokarnasvamin enshrined on the Mahendra mountain in Kalinga".

''Kona'', ''Ishvara'' and Trincomalee

In the Tamil language, temples are known as kovils,; thus the temple complex is known locally as Konecaram Kovil, the abode of Kona—''Ishvara. The presiding Shiva deity's names are Konesar , Koneswaran, Kona—Natha and the goddess consort is called Mathumai Amman. It later earned the title Thiru Koneswaram Kovil. Trincomalee, the coastal peninsula town where Koneswaram is located is an Anglicized form of the old Tamil word "Thiru-kona-malai", meaning "Lord of the Sacred Hill", its earliest reference in this form found in the Tevaram of the seventh century by Sampandar.
Thiru is a word generally used to denote a "sacred" temple site while Malai means mountain or hill; Middle Tamil manuscripts and inscriptions mention the monumental compound shrine as the Thirukonamalai Konesar Kovil.
Greek writer Strabo, quoting Eratosthenes and Onesicritus notes the island's proximity to the southernmost regions of India, next to the country of the "Koniakoi'' people," found south up to a coastal promontory on an eastern limit, and describes the island as extending towards Ethiopia and being home to elephants. The temple was constructed atop Swami Rock, also called Swami Malai or Kona-ma-malai, a cliff on the peninsula that drops 400 feet directly into the sea.

Gokarna bay and Bhadrakali Koneswaram temple, Trincomalee

The Trincomalee Harbour, a circular natural harbour which the temple crowns towards the north, is referred to in Sanskrit as Gokarna and the deity's name Gokarneswara or Go—Natha. Pathmanathan offers the etymological link Thiru-Gokarna-Malai or Thiru-Gona-Malai based on this connection.
The ethnographer Megasthenes writing in his Indica from 350 to 290 BCE, describes the island as being divided by a long river, productive of a large number of gold and pearls in one half and that the inhabitants of this country are called Paleogoni, meaning Old Goni in Tamil and Greek, who Pliny adds worshipped Hercules and Dionysus like the Pandyans of Tamilakam.
The Vayu Purana, written in 300 CE specifically mentions the tallest mountain peak of the great gold and silver rich mountain range Malaya on the island, and that "to the east of this island at the shore of the sea lies a great Siva temple in a holy place called Gokarna." Gokarna is also a place name in Karnartaka, India, Kalinga, Tamil Nadu and Nepal all associated with ancient Shiva temples and some with Ravana of the Ramayana, the former temple in Karnartaka – the Mahabaleshwar Temple – also earning praise in the Tevaram. A major shrine to the deity Bhadrakali exists within the Mahabaleshwar Temple complex, and similarly the Bhadrakali Amman Temple of Trincomalee, dedicated to the same deity and significantly expanded by Rajendra Chola I, stands on Konesar Road before the entrance to Swami Rock.

Kailash of the South

Heralded as "Dakshina Kailasam"/"Then Kailasam" because it lies on exactly the same longitude as the Tibetan mountain Mount Kailash, Koneswaram's early black granite rock-cut architectural style shared similarities to Kailasanathar Temples of the subcontinent. Its traditional history and legends were compiled into the Sanskrit treatises Dakshina Kailasa Puranam – Sthala Puranam of Koneswaram, written in 1380 by Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan, and the Dakshina Kailasa Manmiam – three chapters of the Skanda Puranam of unknown antiquity – manuscripts of which have been discovered and dated from the 5th – 7th century. It was in the Puranas that the shrine first found reference as Koneiswara Parwatia, motivating Kullakottan Chola who learnt of its sanctity to sail to Trincomalee and develop the temple.
The compiler of the Yoga Sutras, Patañjali's place of birth at the temple corroborates Tirumular's Tirumandhiram, which describes him as hailing from Then Kailasam and his self description as a "Gonardiya" from Gonarda, "a country in the southern and eastern division" of the Indian continent. Both men were ardent disciples of Nandhi. Patanjali famously visited the Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram, where he wrote the Charana Shrungarahita Stotram on Nataraja.

Matsya (Vishnu-Thirumal) and Shakti Koneswaram temples, Trincomalee

In Kanda Puranam, the epic authored by Kachiyappa Sivachariar, Koneswaram is venerated as one of the three foremost Shiva abodes in the world, alongside Thillai Chidambaram Temple and Mount Kailash. The Vishnu-Thirumal shrine of the Koneswaram complex repaired by Kullakottan Chola was referred to as the Thirukonamalai Macchakeswaram/Macceswaram Kovil in some Middle Tamil inscriptions such as the Nilaveli inscription of the 10th century, a Tamil rendering of the Sanskrit Matsyakesvara. In fact, Matsya is the fish incarnation of Vishnu, and this shrine's significance along with that of the third pagoda of the promontory to the goddess is expounded further in the Dakshina Kailasa Puranam and the Thirukonasala Puranam.
The temple's "Aayiram Kaal Mandapam" earned it the title Pagoda of Trincomalee – Temple of a Thousand Columns among Europeans. The rocky promontory is dedicated to Siva in his ancient form of Kona-Ishvara, and is a major centre of pilgrimage today. The worship of Ishvara is noted to have been the original worship of the island; Charles Pridham, Jonathan Forbes and George Turnour state that it is probable there is no more ancient form of worship existing than that of Ishvara upon his sacred promontory.