At that time Kataragama was an isolated village connected to other human habitations only by jungle paths. The chief ones of these were the track to Tissa and that to Buttala.
1940 Esala Festival in Kataragama
The 1817 Uva-Wellassa Rebellion and its Aftermath
The period after Uva-Wellassa Rebellion seems to have been miserable at Kataragama, and Uva at large. Uva and Central provinces had been devastated by the British colonial military.
KATARAGAMA
Kataragama is, at once, a god and a place (gama means ‘village’) where the god resides. Kataragama, as a god, refers both to the Sinhalese version of the Hindu war god Skanda, second son of Siva.
The Cult of Kataragama
The Cult of Kataragama By Maureen Seneviratne Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 4, No. 2. (Spring, 1970) www.studiesincomparativereligion.com From the mystic mountain of the gods: Kailāsa in southern Tibet, to the southern tip of the last landfall this side of Oceania,