An-Keliya Upata, the Sinhalese ballad, relates Pattini's birth in a mango and her marriage with Palanga. Strolling in the orchard one day, they see a sapu flower (Micheliya Champaka). Palanga gets up a ladder, and tries to hook the flower for his wife. He fails to pluck it. His wife comes to his help with a sandal stick hook. The hooked sticks become entangled and they pull each other. Palanga's stick snaps. Pattini and her friends dance with joy.
It is this simple idea that was to develop in time into the ritual ceremonial of the An-Keliya, the pulling of hooked sambur horns -- the most popular of the several modes of the propitiation of the goddess at the present time. Otherwise called the Ang Aedeema, the ‘horn pulling’ ceremony, it is the most familiar of the several modes of the propitiation of the goddess today. Villagers form themselves into two sides: the Udupila and the Yatapila, the upper and lower sides.
Each contestant has a pair of horns-the forked horns of the sambur. Strength and capacity for resistance are the qualities looked for in selecting a well matched pair of horns. The preliminaries to a contest are most elaborate, with a technology and prescribed ceremonial ritual, closely observed. The entire proceedings last from early morning to late evening.
The party that wins reclaims the winning horn from its trappings, wrap it in silk, decorate it with garlands and carry it aloft in a procession under a canopy thrice, around the arena of the contest and over the whole village, to the resounding shouts of the accompanying crowds of villagers. It is nightfall as the events close. This ceremonial contest is held for seven days in succession.
Beginning as a simple co-operative effort, time has evolved it into an elaborate two party organization, of harmony as of conflict, with an abiding place of its own in rural social life.