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KALUTARA – THE BOUNDARY CITY OF RUHUNA

VELAPURA – CITY OF MURAGA

KALUTARA is a comparatively recent commercial town that grew up along the South-Western coast of Ceylon. It is situated at the mouth of the Kaluganga. The name of this town was written by early European writers as Culture. The spelling suggests that it was the corruption of the word Kala-Ture (Tamil). KALAM () or ‘KALU’ in Tamil means ‘black’, ‘dark’, ‘neck’; and ‘Turai’ ‘a port’. The town was not known to the authors of the Culavamsa.

In his Census Report of 1901, p. 7, Sir P. Arunachalam gives the following account:

‘The Southern bank of the Kalutara river near its mouth (Kalutara South Railway Station) is still locally called Velapura the city of the lance-god (the lance being his favourite weapon) and marks the limit of his territory, while the opposite bank of the river is assigned to his enemies and is called Desestra (the enemies of the gods).’

MURUKA (MURUGAN) is Kumara, the son of Siva, and the lance or ‘Vel’ is the weapon associated with him. He is also called in Tamil ‘Vela’ or ‘Velan’. That the worship of Siva and his son Velan or Murugan was of long antiquity in South Ceylon, especially in Ruhuna, is historically and by tradition confirmed. Many kings of the Sinhalese are said to have visited and worshipped at Murugan’s shrine at Kataragama. (vide, ‘KATARABAMA’, C.L.R., Vol. I, No. 7, July 1931). Samy Dappula of Ruhuna, for instance, in the seventh century, is said to have built the Kadiroli Vihara. ‘KADIROLI’ stands for Murugan the god of Kataragama (‘Kadir’ or ‘kathir’, ‘rays’ and ‘oli’, ‘light’ or ‘effulgence’).

Father S. G. Perera the Catholic historian of Ceylon in the C.L.R., Vol. I, p. 93, 1931, however, commenting on Sir P. Arunchalam’s explanation of the name of the city writes, “I submit that there is no trace of any connection between Kalutara and ‘Murugan’ to justify this conjecture, but that on the contrary the name Velapura is far better explained from ‘Vela’ ‘a boundary’ as Kalutara would mean the boundary city of Ruhuna, and ‘Destra’, hostile to the King”.

Father Perera admits the Velapura is in the boundary of Ruhuna, a district which had from early times held Murugan the

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god of KATARAGAM in veneraton, but at the same time he declares that ‘there is no trace of any connection between Kalutara and Murugan’. He has unaccountably ignored the many Hindu temples still found in Kalutara and the settlements of Tamils in the area.

Unless any reference to this city in Sinhalese literature before the arrival of the Portuguese could be produced to show that it was a Buddhist town it should be understood that it was the extreme limit of Ruhuna up to which Siva worship and that of His Son had extended at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese. The worshippers of Muruga had called it Velapura, the city dedicated to Murugan, and the town on the north DESESTRA or the territory in the possession of ‘ASURAS’, the enemies of Murugan. Siva’s son is said to have destroyed the mighty and wicked Suran or Padara of the Asuras. It is long anterior to the twelve year war of Rama with Ravana which according to the Rajavaliya took place circa B.C. 2387.

Father S. G. Perera gives the meaning of ‘Vela’ as ‘boundary’. This word ‘Vela’ is of course a corruption of the Tamil word ‘Veli’ () meaning ‘custody’, ‘watch’, ‘wall’, and ‘Puram’ again refers to ‘a city’ in Tamil (cf. KANCHIPURAM, THOLPURAM etc.). But it is more appropriate to infer that the city was called after VELAN or VELA (MURUGAN). At the time of the naming of the Southern part of the city the Portuguese seem to have extended their influence and religion up to the northern bank of the river KALUGANGA, and this was a symbol of the opposition to the extension of Catholicism beyond the river. The meaning Father S. G. Perera gives to ‘DESESTRA’ ‘hostile to the king’ is equally ingenious. ‘DESA’ would mean country and if ‘ESTRA’ is taken to be a corruption of ‘Sathuru’ (enemy) then the phrase would mean ‘enemies of the country’. On the other hand if ‘DE’ is taken to stand for ‘gods’ and ‘ESTRA’ for ‘enemies’, then it should mean ‘enemies of the gods’. It is in one of these two senses that the people of the South bank of the Kalutara river had looked upon the aggressive encroachment of an alien power and all alien religion.

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