Chief Incumbent of the Godagedara Rajamaha Vihara Ven Pamunuthenne Dhammaloka mentioned that enhancing the religious wellbeing of individuals needs to be given precedence always and much more at instances like this when people who find themselves dealing with difficulties because of the worsening financial disaster are resorting to vice and violence.
Ven Dhammaloka was appointed because the chief Incumbent of the Godagedara Rajamaha Vihara in December 2021, at a time the area people was distancing themselves from the temple. The Thera who hails from Hunnasgiriya within the Kandy district was ordained on the tender age of ten and has been a resident on the temple for the previous 22 years.
“Because the financial state of affairs within the nation worsens persons are resorting to vice and violence amidst their battle to outlive and it’s the obligation of the clergy to assist minimise these tendencies”, he mentioned. He mentioned that his first precedence was to rebuild the bond between the temple and the 3000 or extra Buddhist households that reside within the space and improve their religious wellbeing.
The precise interval the Godagedara Rajamaha Vihara was initially constructed has not been confirmed because the ruins of the temple is believed to have been constructed by King Valagambahu throughout his reign between 89 to 77 BC.
Ven Dhammaloka mentioned that ‘Godagedara’ is talked about in a guide named ‘Nampotha’ written in the course of the Kandyan period which results in the assumption that the temple was initially constructed throughout the identical interval because the Maligatenna, Kosinna, Pilikuttuwa and Uruwela Rajamaha Viharas that are in proximity of Mudungoda within the Gampaha district the place the temple presently stands.
The Godagera Rajamaha Vihara belongs to the Malwathu Maha Vihara of the Siyam Maha Nikaya and in keeping with a booklet by Deshabandu. G. Weerasinghe it’s mentioned to have been re-established on the premises it stands right this moment in 1814, by venerable Weeragule Kondagngna a resident bhikkhu of the Uruwala Valagamba Rajamaha Vihara.
Ven Weeragule Kondagngna was succeded by Ven Pethiyagoda Dharmadarshi Thera, Ven Weeragule Rathanajothi Thera, Ven Rambukpotha Pagnasara Thera, Ven Buthpitiye Sri Somasara Thera, Ven Thimbiriye Sri Sidaththa Thera, Ven Yagoda Sri Devananda Thera, Ven Weeragule Sri Saranathissa Thera, Ven Kiththamahara Sri Sumanathissa Thera, Ven Thalagune Buddarakkitha Thera, Ven Madugalle Dhammasiddhi Thera and Ven Balagama Pagnasara Thera who’re recognized to have served the neighborhood and improved the temple.
Of those bhikkhus, Ven Rambukpotha Pagnasara Thera was appointed because the chief Incumbent of the sacred Sri Padasthana revered by Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Muslims alike.
The current temple complicated located on eight acres of fertile land includes of an historical bo tree (a sappling of the Sri Maha Bodhiya) which is over two centuries outdated and believed to have powers of therapeutic, a stupa, a big shrine room, a statue of the Buddha that appears upon the paddy fields on the northern border of the premises, a bell tower, the ‘Sedapalu Devalaya’ a shrine to the guardian deity of the world and resident halls for bhikkhus.
The remainder of the land has been cultivated with fruit and vegetable crops together with pineapple, rambuttan and banana.
The Godagedara Rajamaha Vihara is a ten minute stroll from Belum Mahara junction on the Colombo – Kandy foremost street.
