Where two Naga Kings battled it out

Buddha’s visit to Nagadipa – the Soliyas Mendis mural at 

Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya

Stupa at Nagadipa

While Nagadipa has become the most visited place at least among the Buddhists who visit Jaffna, a Northern Provincial Councillor has suggested that the name Nagadipa be changed to Nainativu.

After the war in the north ended, Jaffna became one place where everyone wanted to go. The main item on the agenda as far as the Buddhists were concerned, was a pilgrimage to Nagadipa. They had been deprived of visiting Nagadipa for nearly 30 years. Now they could do it.

A few days ago a newspaper reported that a member of the Northern Provincial Council is proposing that the name Nagadipa be changed to Nainativu. A request is being made through a resolution that the President and the Minister of Local Government should take steps to change the name by a gazette notification, the report said. 

For us Nainativu is the Tamil version of the island name ‘Nagadipa’. That is what we have been taught. If so, is there a need for a name change now, many will ask. 

The significance of Nagadipa for Buddhists is because it is one of the ‘Solosmasthana’ – 16 places hallowed by a visit of the Buddha. ‘Mahiyanganan Nagadipan Kalyanan Padalaanchanan…., is how the stanza recited to worship the holy places begins. Nagadipa ranks second to Mahiyangana indicating that it was the second place visited by the Buddha. The visit to Nagadipa was in the fifth year after Enlightenment.

The Mahavamsa, the Great Chronicle records the visit of the Buddha to Nagadipa to settle a dispute between two Naga kings – Chulodara and Mahodara – over a gem-studded throne. On Amawaka Poya day in the month of Bak the Buddha had observed that the two –uncle and nephew – were fighting for the throne and there was going to be a big calamity. The Buddha was residing at the Jetavanaramaya and decided to come over and bring peace. He was accompanied by Sumana, a protective deity residing on a ‘kiripalu’ tree at the entrance to the Jetavanaramaya. 

The Buddha preached to the two kings surrounded by their followers on the need for non-violence. He was thus able to bring peace between the two warring kings. Having made peace, they decided to gift the gem-studded throne to the Buddha, who in turn gave it back to them. The kings then decided to build a stupa enshrining the throne. That is how Nagadipa became a significant place of worship for the Buddhists.

Historical records indicate that there had been trade relations with other countries in North Sri Lanka. A stone inscription found in the island of Nagadipa has been identified as one containing trade regulations relating to wreckages off the port of Uratturai, presently Kayts, issued by King Parakramabahu I (1153-86). 

Professor Karthigesu Indarapala of the University of Jaffna who had read the inscription has been quoted as stating: “The fact that this edict was not by a subordinate official but by the king himself shows that the monarch was in supreme control of the northernmost region of the island.”

A Buddha statue had also been found when cutting the foundation for a new ‘sanghawasa’ for the monks to reside at the Nagadipa temple premises which had been described as one with unique features different to other statues in Sri Lanka.

As it happened to other Buddhist places of worship, the Nagadipa stupa had also been destroyed during the time the maritime provinces of the country were administered by European powers. It had later been restored in view of the religious and historical significance.

There is a Hindu kovil too close to the temple. Thus the little island is being visited both by Buddhists and Hindus. 

It’s a 20-minute ferry ride over the Palk Bay in the Jaffna Peninsula to Nagadipa from Kurikattuwan pier at Punkudutive Island, which is reached through Kayts along two causeways from Jaffna. The distance from Jaffna to Nagadipa is around 30km. 

Buddha’s visit to Nagadipa

​Now the most compassionate Teacher, the Conqueror, rejoicing in the salvation of the whole world, when dwelling at Jetavana in the fifth year of his Buddhahood, saw that a war, caused by a gem-set throne, was like to come to pass between the nagas Mahodara and Cülodara, uncle and nephew, and their followers; and he, the Sambuddha, on the uposathaday of the dark half of the month Citta, in the early morning, took his sacred alms-bowl and his robes, and, from compassion for the nagas, sought the Nagadipa.

That same naga Mahodara was then a king, gifted with miraculous power, in a naga-kingdom in the ocean that covered half a thousand yojanas. His younger sister had been given (in marriage) to the naga-king on the Kannavaddhamana mountain; her son was Culodara. His mother’s father had given to his mother a splendid throne of jewels, then the naga had died and therefore this war of nephew with uncle was threatening; and also the nagas of the mountains were armed with miraculous power.

The deva named Samiddhisumana took a rajayatana-tree standing in Jetavana, his own fair habitation, and, holding it like a parasol over the Conqueror, he, with the Teacher’s leave, attended him to that spot where he had formerly dwelt. That very deva had been, in his latest birth, a man in Nagadipa. On the spot where thereafter the rajayatana-tree stood, he saw paceekabuddhas taking their meal. And at the sight his heart was glad and he offered branches to cleanse the alms bowl. Therefore he was reborn in that tree in the pleasant Jetavana-garden, and it (the tree) stood afterwards outside at the side of the gate-rampart. The God of all gods saw (in this) an advantage for that deva, and, for the sake of the good which should spring (therefrom) for our land, he brought him hithcr (to Lafika) together with his tree.

Hovering there in mid-air above the battlefield the Master, who drives away (spiritual) darkness, called forth dread darkness over the ntigas. Then comforting those who were distressed by terror he once again spread light abroad. When they saw the Blessed One they joyfully did reverence to the Master’s feet. Then preached the Vanquisher to them the doctrine that begets concord, and both [nagas] gladly gave up the throne to the Sage.’ When the Master, having alighted on the earth, had taken his place on a seat there, and had been refreshed with celestial food and drink by the naga-kings, he, the Lord, established in the (three) refuges and in the moral precepts eighty kotis of snake-spirits, dwellers in the ocean and on the mainland.

The naga-king Maniakkhika of Kalyani, mother’s brother to the naga Mahodara, who had come thither to take part in the battle, and who, aforetime, at the Buddha’s first coming, having heard the true doctrine preached, had become established in the refuges and in the moral duties, prayed now to the Tathagata: ‘Great is the compassion that thou hast shown us here, O Master! Hadst thou not appeared we had all been consumed to ashes. May thy compassion yet light also especially on me, O thou who art rich in loving-kindness, in that thou shalt come yet again hither to my dwelling-country, O thou peerless one.’ 

When the Lord had consented by his silence to come thither, he planted the rajayatana-tree on that very spot as a sacred memorial, and the Lord of the Worlds gave over the rajayatana-tree and the precious throne-seat to the naga-kings to do homage thereto. ‘In remembrance that I have used these do homage to them, ye naga-kings! This, well beloved, will bring to pass blessing and happiness for you.’

When the Blessed One had uttered this and other exhortation to the nägas, he, the compassionate saviour of all the world, returned to Jetavana.

Here ends the visit to Nagadipa.