No. 29.— 1884.] 



AN— KELITA. 



393 



Wellassa, and there "pulled horns," and collecting the broken 

 pieces into a heap, named that place Angoda. With nineiremaining hooks 

 he reached Navagamuva, and again " pulled horns "; finally, with but 

 two hooks, he came to Perddeniya, and pulled them at An-pitiya. 



So far the legendary origin of an-keliya, which clearly connects 

 it with the continent of India, whence it may have been imported 

 into Ceylon — possibly under some form unsuited till modified to 

 the nature of the people — with the rest of Hindu rites and cere- 

 monies at present overlying and marring the simpler Buddhism 

 of the Island. For it is not perhaps unreasonable to recognise in 

 the two '* horns " udupila and yatipila, and the ceremonial 

 attending their " pulling," the Sinhalese development (albeit 

 unknown to themselves) of that mysterious worship of the emblems 

 of Nature, which from early times has formed an important element 

 in the Hindu cult. The forms in which the linga or male nature, 

 the type of Siva, the Regenerator, is represented in mystical con- 

 nection with the ydni or bhaga, the female power. Siva's sakti or 

 energy, Parvati, are as countless as the names of those gods, and 

 may well have come to assume on Ceylon soil the disguise of 

 united opposing " horns." The struggle of the votaries of 

 "Palanga" and "Pattini " (? Maha Deva and Bhavani) on the 

 a?i-pitiya, to be witnessed almost any day in one district or other 

 of the Island, recalls a legend related in the Servarasa. 



"When Sati, after the close of her existence as the daughtar of Daksha, 

 sprang again to life in the character ot Parvati, or mountain-born, she 

 was reunited in marriage to Maha Deva. This divine pair had once a 

 dispute on the comparative influence of sexes in producing animated 

 beings ; and each resolved, by mutual agreement, to create apart a new 

 race of men. The race produced by Maha Deva was very numerous, 

 and devoted themselves exclusively to the worship of the male deity ; 

 but their intellects were dull, their bodies feeble, their limbs distorted, 

 and their complexions of different hues. Parvati had at the same time 

 created a multitude of human beings, who adored the female power only; 

 and they were all well-shaped, with sweet aspects and fine complexions- 

 A furious contest ensued between the two races, and the Lingajas were 

 defeated in battle. But Maha Deva, enraged against the Yonijas, would 

 have destroyed them with the fire of his eye, if Parvati had not inter- 

 posed and appeased him : but he would spare them only on condition 

 that they should instantly quit the country, to return no more. And 

 from the Yoni, which they adored as the sole cause of their existence, 

 they were named Yavanas." * 



* Moor's Hindu Pantheon, p, 387. 



