Sri Dalada-Seal of Lanka's Sovereignty

The 10-day public exhibition of the sacred tooth relic which commenced on April 18 after a respite of 16 years ends today.

- BY RANDIMA ATTYGALLE

Revered by millions and regarded as Sri Lanka's seal of sovereignty, the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha, since its arrival in the island, had been the insignia of the royalty, shifting to wherever the seat of the government had moved.

The most sacred relic had been sheltered in the last Sinhala kingdom of Kandy for the past three centuries in the Dalada Maligawa or the Palace of the Tooth Relic. The sacred tooth relic is revered with a continuum of deeply seated rites and rituals, evolving a tradition of its own which had caught the imagination of many foreign travelers to the island as well.

John Davy an English physician who accompanied the Governor of Ceylon, Sir Robert Brownrigg on his tour of the Central and the Uva provinces, documents in his work, 'An Account of the interior of Ceylon and of its inhabitants with travels in that island' (1821) his impressions of the Dalada Maligawa and the tooth relic: 'The Dalada Maligawa, was the domestic temple of the king, and it's the most venerated of any in the country, as it contains the relic, the tooth of Boodhoo to which the whole island was dedicated and which is considered by good Boodhists as the most precious thing in the world.' (spelled as in the original writing) Davy who goes onto note that he had the rare opportunity enjoyed by only a few Europeans 'of seeing the celebrated relic when it was recovered, towards the conclusion of the rebellion (of 1818) and brought back to be replaced in the Dalada Malegawa, from which it had been clandestinely taken,' provides a detailed description of it and even provides a sketch to give some idea of its size and form.