Temple..It is a house of worship in Hinduism.It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together.Not only the Hindus,for Christian they have Church and Mosque for the Muslims also.The symbolism and structure of a Hindu temple are rooted in Vedic traditions.A Hindu temple reflects a synthesis of arts,the ideals of dharma,beliefs,values,culture and a life style in Hinduism.Temple is a link between man,deities and the Universal Param Brahma in a sacred space.In Hinduism we have around 33crores of gods.It is our tradition or a strong cultural belief to visit temples and to worship our family deity or Kuladevata in holy days.But,today I am not going to write about all of them rather I want to go to the age of Ramayana,to the time of Treta yuga.I want to tell you about a special temple of Sri Lanka.A temple which portrayed the epitome of female purity and virtue.A temple of the daughter of Mother Earth i.e. Sita.
Nuwara Eliya is a city in the hill country of the Central Province,Sri Lanka.The city was founded by Samuel Baker the discoverer of Lake Albert and the explorer of the Nile in 1846.The name of the city means "city on the plain" or "city of light".But this city beyond the Indian seashore is somehow connected to the million hearts of the Indian people.All of us must have a basic and a thin knowledge about the Ramayana as I had come to know about it from my grandma.We know how Ravana appears in the disguise of an ascetic requesting Sita's hospitality and tricked her into leaving the Lakshmana Rekha and is then forcibly carried away by the evil Ravana.At Lanka,Sita was kept under the heavy guard of Rakshasis in "Ashok Batika".However with the help of Hanuman and Sugriva,Rama was able to find out Sita and by defeating Ravana they came back together to Ayodhya.That Ashok Batika is today's Seetha Amma temple.It is now in the district of Nuwara Eliya.It is located 1km away from Hakgala Botanical Garden in a small village called Seetha Eliya or Sita Eliya.According to he myth,this is the place where Sita,the another form of Godess Lakshmi was held captive and where she prayed daily for Rama to come and rescue her.This temple has grown in terms of the traffic of visitors as it is the "only temple of Sita in the world".It is constructed beside a clear stream of the countryside in a pattern of modern south Indian temple.Along with the temple there is a temple of Pavana Putra Hanuman who is considered as the Monkey God who played an important role in rescuing Sita and who destroyed entire Lanka of Ravana with his long tail.The south Indian style of entrance can be seen at the entrance of Seetha temple.Realising the tourism potential of the temple the Sri Lankan Ministry of Tourism makes a plan to grow it as a center of sacred site and pilgrim complex.A forest of Ashoka trees can be seen by the side of the temple.According to the workers of the temple these Ashoka trees are a indication of her coming to the site centuries back.G.T.Pravakaran the in-charge of the temple said,"There is a rock on the opposite bank where Sita sat and mediated.Also this Ashoka forest is a clear indication that she came here when she was brought to Lanka." There is a particular point in the stream where water has no taste,this point is believed to be the spot she cursed.About a century ago the discovery of three idols one of which was Sita is a strong belief among the devotees of occuring of those incidents of Ramayana.There are several strong evidences like the spot where Sita bathed,the stone she sat on and she prayed that can convince us as well as the devotees that the episodes of the Ramayana epic did indeed took place here.
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