subject: Koneswaram Temple, A Celebrated Place Of Worship With A Rich Legacy [print this page] Koneswaram Temple is an important Hindu centre of worship located on Swami Rock by the shores of Trincomalee, a town in the north of Sri Lanka. The temple dates back to 300 CE and at the pinnacle of its glory was recognized as one of the most magnificent temples in the whole of Asia. Koneswaram Temple has experienced a turbulent history, having been alternately destroyed, rebuilt and expanded by successive rulers and devotees. The Koneswaram Temple has the distinction of being one of the five age-old temples of Sri Lanka devoted to the Hindu god Shiva and accordingly is revered by Saivites of the area.
The temple is shrouded in legend, and has been associated with the Hindu epic Ramayana and its protagonist the heroic god-king Rama. Ancient records suggest that the temple was maintained by the Chola and Pandyan Tamil kings in the ancient period while in the 17th century the Tamil kings of the medieval era were also involved in the expansion of the temple.
The earliest record of a place of worship in the environs of the present temple comes from the Mahavamsa, the chronicle of Sri Lankas ancient history. It states that Mahasena, a Buddhist zealot ruler who ruled the kingdom of Anuradhapura demolished a temple devoted to a Hindu deity and constructed a Buddhist temple on the site. The early Hindu temple is recorded as having contained a lingam of Shiva.
Chronicles of the Tamil tradition suggests that an early ruler of the Chola dynasty known as Kankan comprehensively rebuilt and renovated the temple and expended vast sums of wealth on its construction.
In the 17th century the Portuguese colonizers destroyed the temple, after which Hindus placed its statues and idols in another temple nearby. In the year 1952 the Koneswaram Temple was recreated on its initial site by the Hindus of the area.
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