Sri Lanka’s acting head of archaeology has claimed that no evidence exists of a Hindu temple ever having stood at Kurunthur Malai in Mullaitivu, and refused permission for the Tamil shrine at the site to be rebuilt, in the latest move in a years-long state-backed effort to seize the hilltop for Sinhala Buddhism.
The hill is home to the Athi Aiyanar temple, where Tamil families have for generations worshipped Adi Sivan Aiyanar, a local Siva deity, gathering each year for Pongal observances and other rites.
Over the past several years, the site has been the target of a sustained appropriation effort, in which Sinhala Buddhist monks, backed by the Department of Archaeology and the Sri Lankan military, constructed a Buddhist vihara on the hilltop and consecrated a Buddha statue there, in defiance of a Mullaitivu Magistrate’s Court injunction barring any new construction.
The denial that any Hindu temple existed was set out in a letter from the Acting Director General of Archaeology, Senarath Wickramasinghe, who asserted that the land was a site containing historically important Buddhist archaeological remains, and that no evidence had been uncovered of a Hindu temple at the location.
The communication cited Sections 33 and 34 of Sri Lanka’s Antiquities Ordinance No. 9 of 1940, stating that erecting any new building or structure on land reserved for archaeological activity was unlawful and a punishable offence.
The controversy at Kurunthur Malai sharpened in 2018, when a Buddhist monk, accompanied by Sri Lankan soldiers, sought to install a Buddha statue on the hill, prompting protests from residents who objected to the attempt to alter the religious character of the area.
Tamil civil society organisations and activists have repeatedly accused Sri Lankan state institutions, the Department of Archaeology foremost among them, of driving the Buddhicisation of historically Tamil and Hindu areas across the North-East, using archaeological claims, land administration and military occupation to plant or expand Buddhist sites in places with longstanding Hindu ties.
The Mullaitivu Magistrate’s Court has repeatedly ruled against the takeover, ordering the removal of the illegally built Buddhist shrine and any new murtis from the hill, while affirming that Tamil devotees were free to worship at the existing Hindu temple.
Sri Lanka archaeology denies a Hindu temple at Kurunthur Malai, blocks Athi Aiyanar temple reconstruction in a state-backed effort to appropriate a Tamil Hindu site for Sinhala Buddhism despite court orders.
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