A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s6.38

c13.s6.38

Pattinī is one of the most popular deities in Ceylon, and her worship is still kept up on the mainland also, whence it was introduced into the island, most probably in the reign of Gajabāhu I at some time in the second century of the Christian era. The cult seems to have originated in the Chera territory (Coimbatore and Salem), but some of the legends connect its beginnings with a Pāṇḍya King of Madura. The goddess is considered to be the guardian of female chastity, and is also credited with power over epidemics, whether of man or beast. Two wooden images of her and her husband found in a cave at the Nikawaewa monastery are supposed to date from the eleventh century. The British Museum bronze may be quite as early.¹