Aluth Sahal Man­ga­lya

By L.B.Sen­ar­atne
The four fes­ti­vals of the Sri Da­la­da Ma­li­ga­wa, in­cludes the  "Aluth Sahal Man­ga­lya" held on Dur­u­thu Poya Day. Dur­u­thu Poya it­self has a spe­cial significance to the Bud­dhist So­ci­ety in  Sri Lan­ka, where it is re­cor­ded that Bud­dha vis­ited Sri Lan­ka to bring peace among war­ring fac­tions liv­ing in the coun­try - that of  Yak­kas and Na­gaas.
Though the old chroni­cles do not in­di­cate as to when this fes­ti­val com­menced, yet it must have been dur­ing the reign of Kirti Sri Ra­ja­singhe, who had do­na­ted much land to the Sri Dal­ada Ma­li­ga­wa, es­pe­cial­ly pad­dy lands for the sus­te­nance of the rites with­in the Sri Da­la­da Ma­li­ga­wa for the of­fer­ings to the Sa­cred Tooth Rel­ic.
The pad­dy and rice are stor­ed in 'barns or 'Atu­was' of the Sri Da­la­da Mal­ga­wa away from the Ma­li­ga­wa it­self. But with the take over of several pad­dy lands from the Sri Da­la­da Mal­iga­wa when acquiring land for the Vic­to­ria pow­er sta­tion, land had been gran­ted by the Gov­ern­ment eles­where.

The 'Atu­wa' is sit­u­ated at Pal­le­kelle and from there the rice is brought to the Sri Da­la­da Ma­li­ga­wa and to eighty oth­er re­li­gious  in­sti­tu­tions which come un­der the umbrel­la of the  Sri Dal­da Ma­li­ga­awa.

Each year be­fore Dur­u­thu Poya,Sri Da­la­da Mali­ga­wa has to dis­trib­ute rice for the ear­ly of­fer­ing of  rice to these in­sti­tuions
The Diya­wa­da­na Nilame himself dis­bur­ses the rice from the 'At­u­wa' first­ly to the four De­vales and to oth­er Tem­ples and De­vales com­ing un­der the pu­rview of the Sri Da­la­da Ma­li­ga­wa.

In His­tor­ic Sa­ga­ma Tem­ple, some of the rice dis­trib­uted be­fore Dur­u­thu Poya is used for the 'Kir­i­pi­du Dhane' just af­ter the National New Year
So this year the ' new rice " or Aluth Sahal was dis­rib­ted to the re­spec­tive Tem­ples and De­vales on 11th of Jan­u­ary.  The rice is tak­en away from the 'At­u­wa' or barn with much pomp and pag­ean­try.

To­day, as one reads the news­pa­per, at Sri Da­la­da Mal­iga­wa the rites would be held to of­fer the new rice to the Sa­cred Tooth Rel­ic.

The 32-bush­el Bowl would be fil­led plac­ing it be­fore the in­ner shrine room and in the 'Han­dun Man­da­paya.The Diya­wa­da­na Ni­lame Pra­deep Ni­lan­ga De­la will com­mence the fill­ing of the bowl and there­after the priests in at­tend­ance at the in­ner Shirne Room  will fill the bowl to the brim. The Nayake Thera in charge of the In­ner shrine room the Ven­ar­a­ble Tib­bo­tu­wawe Medhalan­kara Thera will con­duct the re­li­gious cer­e­mo­nies

The new rice for this cer­e­mo­ny and for the use of the Sri Dal­ada Ma­li­ga­wa was brought from Pal­le­kelle Gran­ner­ies and al­so dis­trib­uted to the var­i­ous  De­vales sit­u­ated in the Cen­tral Pro­vince  for their use and for the 'Aluth Sahal' Man­gal­laya on Dur­u­thu Poya Day.