Utsava murti, Vattapalai Kannaki Amman Kovil
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Utsava murti, Vattapalai Kannaki Amman Kovil |
Deification has brought in its wake a train of legends and a complexity of cults, in which Pattini figures as the dominant deity in a hierarchy of gods.
At this first installation of the goddess, kings of the neighboring kingdoms were present -- including Lanka -- represented by no less a person than King Gajabahu (174-196 AD).
Ceylon traditions agree that Gajabahu, returning from South India, brought the insignia of the goddess: the sacred anklets, and the text used in her worship. Thus was the cult of Pattini inaugurated in Ceylon.
Pattini found a receptive soil in Ceylon, where legends grew round the original incidents. Her cult took new aspects in the different parts of the island.
