The three sources of superhuman influence from which the Singhalese peasantry expect good or ill are (1) the spirits of disease and poverty; (2) tutelary spirits of various grades and (3) the planetary spirits.

There are several important spirits of disease such as Maha Sohona, Riri YakÂ, Kalu KumÂra YakÂ, Sanni YakÂ.

Maha Sohona is 122 feet high, has the head of a bear with a pike in his left hand and in his right an elephant, whose blood he squeezes out to drink; he inflicts cholera and dysentery and presides over graveyards and where three roads meet and rides on a pig. In ancient times two giants Jayasena and Gotimbara met in single combat; the latter knocked off the head of Jayasena when the god Senasur tore off the head of a bear and placed it on Jayasena’s body who rose up alive as the demon Maha Sohona.

Riri Yak has a monkey face, carries in one hand a cock and a club in the other with a corpse in his mouth, is present at every death bed, haunts fields and causes fever flux of blood and loss of appetite, and has a crown of fire on his head. He came into the world from the womb of his mother by tearing himself through her heart.

Kalu KumÂra Yak is a young devil of a dark complexion who is seen embracing a woman; he prevents conception, delays childbirth and causes puerperal madness. He was a Buddhist arhat with the supernatural power of going through the air. In one of his aerial travels, he saw a beautiful princess and falling in love with her lost at once his superhuman powers and dropped down dead and became the demon Kalu KumÂra YakÂ.

Sanni Yak has cobras twisting round his body with a pot of fire near him, holds a rosary in his hand, causes different forms of coma, rides on a horse or lion, has 18 incarnations and forms a trinity with Oddi Yak and Huniam YakÂ. He was the son of a queen put to death by her husband who suspected she was unfaithful to his bed. As the queen who was pregnant was being executed, she said that if the charge was false the child in her womb will become a demon and destroy the King and his city. Her corpse gave birth to the Sanni Yak who inflicted a mortal disease on his father and depopulated the country.

When any of these demons has afflicted a person the prescribed form of exorcism is a devil dance. In the patient’s garden, a space of about 30 square feet is marked out (atamagala) and bounded with lemon sticks. Within the enclosure, raised about 3 feet from the ground, is erected an altar (samema) for the offerings (pidenitatu). The shape of the altar depends on the afflicting demon—triangular for Riri YakÂ, rectangular for Sanni YakÂ, semicircular for Kalu KumÂra Yak and square for Maha Sohona.

The offerings consist of boiled rice, a roasted egg, seven kinds of curries, five kinds of roasted seed, nine kinds of flowers, betel leaves, fried grain, powdered resin and a thread spun by a virgin. There are the usual tom tom beaters; and the exorcist and his assistants are dressed in white and red jackets, with crown shaped head ornaments, and bell attached leglets and armlets, and carrying torches and incense pans.

The ceremony consists of a series of brisk dances by the exorcist, and his men, at times masked, in the presence of the patient to the accompaniment of a chant (kavi) giving the life history of the devil, with a whirling of the blazing torches. This lasts from evening till dawn when the exorcist lies on his back and calls on the devil to cure the patient (yÂdinna); incantations follow (mantra), and the sacrifices are offered. For the Riri Yak a cock which had been placed under the altar or tied to the foot of the patient is killed and thrown into the jungle; for the Kalu Yak an earthen pot which had been placed on the altar is broken; for the Sanni Yak the offerings are conveyed in a large bag to a stream or river and thrown into the water; for the Maha Sohona the exorcist feigns himself dead to deceive the devil and is carried with mock lamentations to a burial ground.

The spirits of poverty—Gar Yakku—are twelve in number viz., (1) Molan Garavva; (2) Dala RÂkshayÂ, (3) Yama RÂkshayÂ; (4) PÛranikÂ; (5) RatnakÛtayÂ; (6) NÎla Giri; (7) Nanda Giri; (8) Chandra KÂvÂ; (9) MÂrakÂ; (10) Asuraya; (11) NÂtagiri; (12) PelmadullÂ. They haunt every nook and corner of a house, destroy crops, make trees barren, new houses inauspicious, send pests of flies and insects, reduce families to abject poverty, and are propitiated by a dance called Gar Yakuma. A shed (maduva) is put up for it and round it is a narrow altar, with a platform in front (wesatte). On the altar are placed four kinds of flowers, betel leaves, some cotton, a spindle, a cotton cleaner, a shuttle, a comb, a little hair, a looking glass, a bundle of gurulla leaves, two burning torches and a few cents. Men of the Oli caste dressed in white and red and at times masked dance from evening till morning within the shed and on the platform. Late at night an oblation is made in leaf-cups of seven different vegetables cooked in one utensil, boiled rice, cakes and plantains. At day break the dancers stretch themselves on the ground and receive nine pecuniary offerings; they then rise up and conclude the ceremony by striking the roof of the shed with a rice pounder.

The tutelary deities are of three grades viz., (1) Gods; (2) Godlings and (3) Divine Mothers. The Gods are Maha DeviyÔ; Natha DeviyÔ; Saman DeviyÔ; Kateragama DeviyÔ; and the Goddess Pattini.

Maha DeviyÔ is identified with Vishnu, and is the guardian deity of the island, and is a candidate for the Buddhahood; a miniature weapon in gold or silver is placed at his shrine as a votive offering.

Natha DeviyÔ is the future Maitri Buddha and is now biding his time in the Tusita heaven; Kandyan sovereigns at their coronation girt their swords and adopted their kingly title before his shrine.

Saman DeviyÔ is the deified half brother of Rama, who conquered Ceylon in prehistoric times, and is the guardian spirit of Adam’s Peak; pilgrims while climbing the sacred hill to worship Buddha’s foot-print, call on him to aid their ascent. A miniature elephant in gold or silver is the usual votive offering to him.

Kateragama DeviyÔ is the most popular of the gods; a prehistoric deity, to whom a miniature peacock in gold or silver is the customary, votive offering. He is said to be the six faced and twelve handed god Kandaswamy who on his homeward return to KailÂsa after defeating the Asuras halted at Kataragama in South Ceylon; here he met his consort Valli Amm whom he wooed in the guise of a mendicant; when his advances were scornfully rejected, his brother assuming the head of a man and the body of an elephant appeared on the scene and the terrified maiden rushed into her suitor’s arms for safety; the god then revealed himself and she became his bride. The god AyiyanÂr invoked in the forests of Ceylon is said to be his half brother.

Pattini is the goddess of chastity.

The three eyed PÂndi Raja of Madura had subjugated the gods and was getting them to dig a pond near his royal city when, at Sakraya’s request, Pattini who resided in Avaragiri Parvata became conceived in a mango fruit. After it was severed from the tree by an arrow of Sakraya, it remain suspended in the air and on PÂndi RÂja looking up to observe the wonder, a drop of juice fell on the third eye in the middle of his forehead by which he lost his power and the gods were liberated. Pattini was found inside the mango as an infant of exquisite beauty sucking her thumb. When she grew up she performed wonders and ultimately disappeared within a Kohomba tree (margosa). An armlet or a miniature mango fruit in gold or silver is placed at her devala as a votive offering.

These deities are worshipped in separate devÂla which are in charge of KapurÂlas who have to bathe daily and anoint themselves with lime juice, avoid drinking spirits and eating flesh, eggs, turtle or eel and keep away from houses where a birth or death has taken place. A dewala consists of two rooms, one being the sanctum for the insignia of the god—a spear, bill hook or arrow—and the other being the ante room for the musicians; attached to the devala is the multengÊ (kitchen). On Wednesdays and Saturdays the doors of the dewala are opened; the MultengÊ KapurÂla cooks the food for the deity; the TevÂva Kapural offers it at the shrine on a plantain leaf enclosed with areka-flower-strips, and purified with saffron water, sandal paste and incense. Before and after the meal is offered, drums are beaten in the ante room. In return for offerings made by votaries the AnumetirÂla invokes the god to give relief from any ailment, a plentiful harvest, thriving cattle, success in litigation, and children to sterile mothers. Punishment to a faithless wife, curses on a forsworn enemy and vengeance on a thief are invoked by getting the KapurÂla to break a pÛn kale—a pot with mystic designs,—or to throw into the sea or a river a charmed mixture of powdered condiments. Once a year, when the agricultural season begins, between July and August, the in-signia of the gods are carried on elephants in procession through the streets accompanied by musicians, dancers, temple tenants and custodians of the shrine. The festival begins on a new moon day and lasts till the full moon when the procession proceeds to a neighbouring river or stream where the KapurÂla cuts the water with a sword and removes a potful of it and keeps it in the dewala till it is emptied into the same stream the following year and another potful taken.

The well-known godlings are (1) Wahala BandÂra DeviyÔ alias DÊvat BandÂra; (2) WirÂmunda DeviyÔ; (3) Wanniya BandÂra; (4) Kirti BandÂra; (5) Menik BandÂra; (6) Mangala DeviyÔ; (7) KumÂra DeviyÔ; (8) Irugal BandÂra; (9) Kalu Vedd alias Kalu BandÂra; (10) GangÊ BandÂra; (11) Devol DeviyÔ; (12) IlandÂri DeviyÔ; (13) Sundara BandÂra; (14) MonarÂvila Alut DeviyÔ; (15) GalÊ DeviyÔ; (16) Ayiyanar DeviyÔ.

The godlings are local; those which are worshipped in one country district are not sometimes known in another. Their insignia together with a few peacock feathers are sometimes kept in small detached buildings called kovil with representations of the godlings rudely drawn on the walls. A priest called a Yakdessa is in charge of a kovil and when people fall ill “they send for the Yakdessa to their house, and give him a red cock chicken, which he takes up in his hand, and holds an arrow with it, and dedicates it to the god, by telling him, that if he restore the party to his health, that cock is given to him, and shall be dressed and sacrificed to him in his kovil. They then let the cock go among the rest of the poultry, and keep it afterwards, it may be, a year or two; and then they carry it to the temple, or the priest comes for it: for sometimes he will go round about, and fetch a great many cocks together that have been dedicated, telling the owners that he must make a sacrifice to the god; though, it may be, when he hath them, he will go to some other place and convert them into money for his own use, as I myself can witness; we could buy three of them for four-pence half penny. When the people are minded to inquire any thing of their gods, the priests take up some of the arms and instruments of the gods, that are in the temples upon his shoulder; and then he either feigns himself to be mad, or really is so, which the people call pissuvetichchi; and then the spirit of the gods is in him, and whatsoever he pronounceth is looked upon as spoken by God himself, and the people will speak to him as if it were the very person of God.”1

GalÊ DeviyÔ or GalÊ BandÂra, also called Malala BandÂra is the god of the rock and is propitiated in parts of the Eastern Province, Uva and the Kurunegalle district, to avert sickness, bad luck and drought. “In these districts, in all cases, the dance, which is a very important part of the proceedings, and indispensable in the complete ceremony, takes place on a high projecting crag near the top of a prominent hill or on the summit of the hill, if it is a single bare rock. On this wild and often extremely dangerous platform, on some hills a mere pinnacle usually hundreds of feet above the plain below, the AnumetirÂla performs his strange dance, like that of all so called devil dancers. He chants no song in honour of the ancient deity but postures in silence with bent knees and waving arms, holding up the bill hooks—the god himself for the time being. When he begins to feel exhausted the performer brings the dance to an end, but sometimes his excitement makes it necessary for his assistant to seize him and forcibly compel him to stop. He then descends from his dizzy post, assisted by his henchmen, and returns to the devÂla with the tom toms and the crowd.”2

The spirits of the forest, invoked by pilgrims and hunters are Wanniy BandÂra, Mangala DeviyÔ, IlandÂri DeviyÔ and Kalu BandÂra alias Kalu VeddÂ. Kaluwedda is a demon supposed to possess power over the animal race. “When a person, more commonly a public hunter, shoots an animal, whether small or large, he, without uttering a single word, takes on the spot three drops of blood from the wound, and smearing them on three leaves makes them into the shape of a cup, and offers them on the branches of a tree, clapping his hands, and expressing words to this effect, “Friend Kaluwedda, give ear to my words: come upon the branches, and receive the offering I give to thee!” The effect of this superstition is supposed to be, that the hunter will seldom or never miss his game.3”

Manik BandÂra is the spirit of gem pits and Gange BandÂra is the spirit of streams and rivers.

“The malignant spirit called Gange BandÂra, Oya BandÂra, Oya Yakka, etc. is properly an object of terror, not of worship; and under very many different appellations the identity is easily perceived: he is the representative or personification of those severe fevers, to which, from some occult causes, the banks of all Ceylon rivers are peculiarly liable. The manner of making offerings to the Gange BandÂra is by forming a miniature double canoe, ornamented with cocoanut leaves so as to form a canopy: under this are placed betel, rice, flowers, and such like articles of small value to the donor, as he flatters himself may be acceptable to the fiend, and induce him to spare those who acknowledge his power. After performing certain ceremonies, this propitiatory float is launched upon the nearest river, in a sickly season. I have seen many of these delicate arks whirling down the streams, or aground on the sand banks and fords of the Ambanganga (Matale East).”4

Ayiyannar DeviyÔ is the god of tanks and he is propitiated under a tree by the bund of a tank, by throwing up in the air boiled milk in a hot state. Sundara BandÂra extends his protection to those who invoke him before sleeping.

WÎramunda DeviyÔ is a spirit of agriculture and rice cakes made of the new paddy is offered to the godling on a platform on which are placed husked cocoanuts, flowers, plantains, a lighted lamp, a pestle and a mortar. Gopalla is a pastoral godling who torments cattle at night and afflicts them with murrain. Devol DeviyÔ is a South Indian deity who came to Ceylon in spite of the attempts to stop him by Pattini who placed blazing fires in his way. Masked dances of a special kind involving walking over fire take place in his honour. Kirti Bandara, and Monaravila Alut DeviyÔ are two lately deified chieftains, the former lived in the reign of king Kirti Siri (1747–1780), the latter is Keppitipola who was beheaded by the British in 1818.

Wahala Bandara DeviyÔ alias Devat Bandara is a minister of Vishnu and is invoked when demon-possessed patients cannot be cured by the ordinary devil dance. At his devÂla in Alut Nuwera, 11 miles from Kandy, the KapurÂla beats the patient with canes till the devil is exorcised. With him is associated Malwatte BandÂra, another minister of Vishnu.

The peace of the home is impersonated in seven divine mothers who are said to be manifestations of the goddess Pattini. Their names vary according to the different localities. They are known in some places as:—(1) Miriyabedde Kiri Amma or BeddÊ Mehelli; (2) PudmarÂga Kiri Amma (3) UnÂpÂna Kiri Amma; (4) Kosgama Kiri Amma; (5) BÂla Kiri Amma; (6) BÔvalagedere Kiri Amma; (7) Indigolleve Kiri Amma.

Navaratna Valli is the patroness of the Rodiyas and is said to have been born from the Telambu tree. Henakanda BisÔ BandÂra was born of a wood apple and is invoked as the wife of Devat BandÂra.

A thank offering is made to the divine mothers when children are fretful, when a family recovers from chicken pox or some kindred disease, when a mother has had an easy confinement. Seven married women are invited to represent them and are offered a meal of rice, rice cakes, milk, fruits and vegetables; before eating they purify themselves with turmeric water and margosa leaves; a lamp with seven wicks in honour of the seven divine mothers are kept where they are served; after the repast they severally blow out a wick by clapping their hands and take away what is left of the repast. Before a house is newly occupied the seven divine mothers are invoked by ceremoniously boiling rice in milk; a fire is made in the main room and over it is kept a new pot full of milk resting on three green sticks placed like a tripod. As the milk begins to boil pounded rice is put into it. The person superintending the cooking wears a white cloth over his mouth. Seven married women are first served with the cooked milk-rice on plantain leaves, and afterwards the others present.

The mystery of the jungle is impersonated in the BeddÊ Mehelli.

After a successful harvest or to avert an epidemic from the village a ceremonial dance (gammadu) for which the peasantry subscribe takes place for seven days in honour of the gods, godlings and divine mothers. A temporary building, open on all sides, and decorated with flowers and fruits is erected on the village green, and a branch of the Jak tree is cut ceremonially by the celebrant and carried into the building and placed on the east side as a dedicatory post with a little boiled rice, a cocoanut flower, two cocoanuts and a lamp. Altars are erected for the various deities and on these the celebrant places with music, chant and dance their respective insignia, all present making obeisance. Water mixed with saffron is sprinkled on the floor, resin is burnt and a series of dances and mimetic representations of the life history of the deities take place every night. On the last day there is a ceremonial boiling of rice in milk and a general feast.

Planetary spirits influence the life of a person according to their position in the heavens at the time of his birth, and an astrologer for a handful of betel and a small fee will draw a diagram of 12 squares, indicating the twelve signs of the Zodiac and from the position of the 9 planets in the different squares will recommend the afflicted person a planetary ceremony of a particular form to counteract the malignant influence. Representations (bali) of the nine planetary spirits, of the 12 signs of the Zodiac, the 27 lunar asterisms, the 8 cardinal points, the 7 intervals of time, and the 14 age periods are made of clay and are placed erect on a large platform of split bamboo measuring about 12 square feet—the arrangement varying according to the advice of the astrologer;—and on the floor is drawn an eight-sided or twelve-sided figure where the celebrant dances and chants propitiatory verses in honour of the planets. The afflicted person sits the whole time during the music, dance and chanting before the images holding in his right hand a lime connected by a thread with the chief idol, and near him are 2 cocoanut flowers, boiled rice, a hopper, 7 vegetable curries, limes, cajunuts, betel, raw rice, white sandalwood and hiressa leaves. At intervals a stander-by throws portions of an areka flower into a koraha of water with cries of ‘ayibÔvan’ (long life).

The Sun (Iru) rides on a horse entwined with cotton leaves (imbul) with an emblem of good luck (Sirivasa) in hand and propitiated by the SÂnti Mangala Baliya; sacred to him is the ruby (manikya).

Mercury (Budahu) rides on an ox with a chank in hand, entwined with margosa leaves (Kohomba) and propitiated by the Sarva Rupa Baliya; the emerald (nÎla) is sacred to this planet.

Mars (Angaharuva) rides on a peacock with an elephant goad (unkusa) in hand, entwined with gamboge leaves (kolon) and propitiated by the Kali Murta Baliya; the coral (pravala) is sacred to this planet.

Rahu rides on an ass with a fish in hand entwined with screw pine leaves (vetakeyiyÂ) and is propitiated by the Asura Giri Baliya; the zircon (gomada) is sacred to Rahu.

Kehetu rides on a swan with a rosary in hand, entwined with plantain leaves (kehel) and is propitiated by the Krishna RÂksha Baliya; the chrysoberyl (vaidurya) is sacred to Kehetu.

Saturn (SenasurÂ) rides on a crow; with a fan in hand entwined with banyan leaves (nuga) and is propitiated by the Dasa KrÔdha Baliya; the sapphire (indranÎla) is sacred to this planet.

Venus (SikurÂ) rides on a buffalo with a whisk (chÂmara) in hand, entwined with karanda leaves (galidupa arborea) and is propitiated by the Giri Mangala Baliya; the diamond (vajra) is sacred to this planet.

Jupiter (Brahaspati) rides on a lion with a pot of flowers in hand, entwined with bo leaves and is propitiated by the Abhaya KalyÂna Baliya; the topaz (pusparÂga) is sacred to Jupiter.

The moon rides on an elephant with a ribbon in hand entwined with wood apple leaves (diwul) and propitiated by the SÔma Mangala Baliya; pearls (mutu) are sacred to the moon.