Totagamuwa Vihara, Telwatte

Purana Totagamuwa Raja Maha Vihara

At modern Telwatte (pronounced th-el-what-the) on the south-west coast of Sri Lanka, lies an old Buddhist Monastery that was once one of the great universities of southern Asia. It is the Purana Totagamuwa Raja Maha Vihara (Ancient Totagamuwa Royal Great Monastery), and stands at the centre of the ancient village-complex of Totagamuwa (pronounced thot-a-gum-oo-were). On the premises are archaeological remains and early modern Buddhist art, including the only statue in Sri Lanka of Ananga, the South Asian Cupid. 

The vihara is the cult centre in lowland regions of the god Natha, for whom there is a shrine as well as a statue in the main image house.

God Natha

Natha is said to be the Bodhisatva Avalokiteshvara and his name means 'no form' and also 'Lord'. He was the guardian god of Sri Lanka and the State. His worship faltered after the collapse of the Kandyan kingdom in 1815.

In addition to its Dutch-period  and British period Buddhist art and architecture, the Totagamuwa Vihara has been a significant player in Sri Lanka's lively religious past and is well worth the visit. 

Getting there

The Totagamuwa Vihara is located a little  inland, off the 91st kilometre post on the Galle Road. It can be reached via the Kurundugahahetkme exit of the Southern Expressway, via Ambalangoda or via Batapola. It is within easy walking distance of the Telwatte Railway Station.

Map of Totagamuwa

The monastery is within easy reach of the many hotels in Hikkaduwa and is also accessible from the Bentota and Ahungalle resort areas.

Ancient roots

The monastery was said to have been founded by the Norman King William the Conqueror’s long-lived Sri Lankan contemporary King Vijayabahu I, who founded the Vijayaba Pirivena (Vijayabahu Buddhist University) on the site in c. 1055-1110. However, it is possible that a monastery had existed on this site much earlier. 

Stone inscription from ancient monastery

The ancient chronicle the Culavamsa (Part II) mentions a long pasada (palace) of 20 metres (created by King Vijaya Bahu III (1232-1236 A.D). It was renovated by King Parakrama Bahu VI (1410-1468), as related by the Culawamsa (Tr. Geiger):

In the vihara of Titthagama where the big, long pasada [palace] forty-five cubits in size, erected by the great Vijayabahu, had fallen into decay, King Parakkamabahu himself built a beautiful, long pasada of thirty cubits in size, two storeys high, provided with lofty spires, glorious with bright-hued painting, and assigned it then to the venerable Grand thera Kayasatti who dwelt in the Vijayabahu-parivena. He also granted him a village, called Salaggama, on the banks of the river forming the boundary (of the monastery), making it a possession of the parivena. In fair Titthagama he had a park laid down, provided with five thousand cocopalms.

By way of comparison, the Bible (I Kings 6.2) mentions that the Temple of Jerusalem built by Solomon was sixty cubits long.

The park with its cocopalms represents one of the earliest mentioned coconut plantations in the world - the earliest was possibly that laid out by King Aggabodhi I (5th-6th century AD) near Mannar.

Goddess Tara (British Museum)

In the Kotte era (1410-1597), the Vijayaba Pirivena was one of the most famous universities in the Orient, teaching Sinhala, Tamil, Pali and Sanskrit language and literature as well as Buddhist philosophy. At this time the Vijayaba Pirivena also taught Mahayanic and Tantric practices and dabbled in sorcery and astrology; it instituted the worship of Mahayana-derived deities, such as Natha, Tara, and Vibishana. Reference

Totagamuwe Sri Rahula

The celebrated poet-monk Totagamuwe Sri Rahula (1408-1491) was the chief incumbent during the rule of his paternal uncle King Parakramabahu VI. He was born Wickremasundara Kumara Jayabahu to Prince Jayamahaladana Kumara Wickremabahu (otherwise known as Demeta Kumara - Bushbeech Prince) and the Keerawella Princess Sunethra, in Demetenna in what is now the Kegalle District.

Ven Totagamuwe Sri Rahula, from a  stamp issued in 1977

He was the author of some of the most celebrated poetical work of mediæval Sinhala literature, including the Kavya Sekeraya, the Paravi Sandesaya and the Sælalihini Sandesaya. Learned in seven languages, he espoused unorthodox and Mahayanist beliefs, including 'white magic', contending that the central problem of Buddhism, the alleviation of human suffering, required any help it was possible to obtain, including that of deities. He appears to have believed that Natha was his personal deity (ishta devata).

Sri Rahula was involved in a controversy with a contemporary, more orthodox practitioner of Theravada Buddhism, the author of the poetical Buddhist work, the Loweda Sangarawa, Ven. Vidagama Maitreya, who argued that the aid of deities was unnecessary to liberation from suffering, and who hence condemned their cults. This controversy has come down in folk-lore as personal animosity between Sri Rahula and his guru, Maitreya.

In the third line of the first stanza of the Loweda Sangarawa, it says the Buddha is

 Thith ganandura duralana dinidanan

(The Lord of the day - the sun - who dispels the thick darkness of heresy)

The ancient Sinhala for 'heresy', thith, comes from the Jain Sanskrit word for a 'crossing over', thirtha (which in Sinhala has the same secondary meaning of  'a sacred place'),  for which the Pali is thith - having the same root as in thitthagama. Maitreya may have been indulging in a pun, as 'Thith gam andura' means 'the darkness of Tithagama/Totagamuwa'.

Incidentally, the phrase Thith ganandura has come down to modern Sinhala idiom as 'thittha kalu' (bitter black) congruent with the English 'pitch dark'.

Body of St Francis Xavier

There are many who believe that Sri Rahula gained his knowledge by drinking an overdose of 'Saraswathi' oil (Saraswathi is the goddess of music, arts,culture and knowledge). Hence his body did not decay after death. The Portuguese, it is said, took his body and, substituting it for the body of St Francis Xavier, laid it to rest at the Basilica of Bon Jesu in Goa. There are several variants of this legend, such as this example, including - interestingly - some Roman Catholic ones!

Modern era

In the 16th century, the superstitious Portuguese conquistadors destroyed the monastery and the university, killing many monks in the process. Apparently only several stone inscribed pillars have survived this destruction.

Inscribed stone pillars from the original Vihara

In 1765, the Ven. Wehella Dhammadinna Thera recognised some of the ruins and instructed his pupil Ven. Pallatara Punyasara remain there and resurrect the temple. In 1772 it was the scene of the first ceremony of higher ordination to take place outside the auspices of the Siam sect. 

Ven Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala (right) with US colonel Henry S Olcott

In 1840 the Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala, a star of the Buddhist-Christian Panadura debate, the first principal of the Vidyodaya Buddhist College in Colombo and a leading figure in the Buddhist revival, was accepted into the order here - the building at which this occurred still exists.

Buildings and Art

The modern monastery contains the following buildings: 

Purana Buduge (Old Image House)

Completed in 1799, this was the original image house built under Ven Punyasara. It lies between the new image house and the dagoba.

Purana Buduge (Old Image House)

The outer passageway surrounding the inner sanctum contains a fresco representation of the Mara Yuddhe (the Mara War, in which the Buddha is assailed by the armies of Death, the Buddhist equivalent of Satan). 

Mara Yuddhe (the Mara War)

The inner sanctum contains statues of the Buddha, representing him conventionally in the standing (educative), sitting or Samadhi (meditative) and recumbent or Nirvana (absolute perfection of the process of liberation). The Buddha statues appear to be newer than the older frescoes, probably replacing the originals. The recumbent Buddha is stylistically older (early modern) than the other two, and may merely be a restoration of the original.

Recumbent Buddha from Old Image House

Recently, several of the original Dutch-period frescos in this building, which had later been painted over with newer frescos) have come to light, notably one of the Buddha's two main disciples, the Arahant Moggallana, who is seen worshipping the standing Buddha.

The Arahant Moggallana

There are also several other frescos, notably of the Jataka story which explains the 'hare in the moon', the Oriental equivalent of the 'man in the moon'. Also notable are the fading fresco of god Vishnu and the exquisitely painted ceiling of the inner sanctum.

Aluth Buduge (New Image House)

This building was completed in 1805.

Aluth Buduge (New Image House)

In the outer passage surrounding the inner sanctum are statues of deities, notably the only representation in the island of the God of Love, Ananga.

Ananga, the South Asian Cupid

The deity is clearly identified by his bow his left hand and his arrows made of flowers (surely less harmful than the wood and metal ones apparently used by Cupid), which induce those struck to fall in love, in his right. Also notable is the statue of Natha, of which deity this monastery is a cult centre.

God Natha from the New Image House

Note the two lions rampant acting as supports for the torana (pandal or gateway) in which Natha stands. These are adapted from the lions rampant used by Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) and are symbolic of the God's role as guardian of the state. An excellent example of the VOC lions from Galle are here.

Poyage (Ordination House)

Poyage (ordination house)

Built in 1815, this was the building in which Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala was ordained as a monk. 

Natha Devale (Shrine of Natha)

Built in 1780.  Because of the decline of the Natha cult, the main deity now shares this with other deities of the modern Quaternity (Sathara Varam Deviyo - gods of the four warrants), Vishnu and Kataragama. A notable absentee is Pattini, who receives obeisance in the Seenigama Devol Shrine.

Natha shrine with newer Vishnu shrine in the background

Vishnu Devale (Shrine of Vishnu)

Completed in 1906. Vishnu is identical with the deity Upulvan, who is said by the ancient chronicle Mahavamsa to have been entrusted with the protection of Buddhism in Sri Lanka by the Buddha Gautama himself.

Dharmasalava (sermon hall)

Completed in 1905, the sermon hall is still used for preaching and the chanting of the scriptures.         

Dharmasalawa (Sermon Hall)

There is also a Bodhi (a sacred Bo-tree) planted in 1780.

There are also several more modern buildings, including a museum and a reading room, but mainly residential.  The vihara was slightly damaged in the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, only the surrounding parapet wall being affected seriously. Reference: ICOMOS report

As one of the first Buddhist monasteries in the low-country areas to be resurrected following the depredations of the Portuguese, and as a repository of the religious art and architecture of the early modern era, the Totagamuwa Vihara  should be a greater attraction than it is. 

However, hardly any of the guidebooks mention it, despite its proximity to the Hikkaduwa resort area. This is a pity, since its rich heritage should make a visit almost mandatory.