Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c7.90

c7.90

Christmas or Easter holidays, when nothing can be done, however great the hurry! The Perahera was an annual festival held in honour of the four divinities, Nātha, Viṣṇu, Kataragama and Pattini. It was observed in all the principal dēvāles, but most grandly in Kandy, where it is still an imposing spectacle. The festival was commenced by the felling of a young jak tree, which must have borne no fruit. The ground about the selected tree was cleaned, and censed with the smoke of burning dummala, the tree was anointed with a preparation of sandal wood, and offerings made of a lamp with nine wicks, and of nine betel leaves, and nine kinds of flowers.* The tree was then felled by the wood-cutter of the Maha Viṣṇu Dēvāle, wearing a clean cloth, and ceremonially purified. He divided the trunk in four, one part for each of the four dēvāles, to which it was carried in state with drums and attendance. On the day of the new moon, at an auspicious hour, the posts (kap) thus prepared were set up in the ground beneath a temporary roof, and decorated with leaves, flowers, and fruits. The posts so set up were called Ehala-gaha or July-tree. The actual perahera followed. During the first five days called Kumbal-perahera, the insignia were taken in procession round the ‘may-pole.’ During the next five, called Devāla-perahera, the procession went twice daily round the outer court of the dēvāle; in Kandy that is to say, round the great bō-maḷuva mentioned above on p. 12. The procession was very grand, and ordered as follows: