Modern Sri Lanka Studies

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Diffusion of religious values and repositioning the god Sakra in Sinhalese religious pantheon: The case of new Lakshmi Shrine in Katharagama
(University of Peradeniya, 2013) Rasnayake, S.; Kamalrathne, T.; Pradeep, H.U.S.
Historically, Buddhism in Sri Lanka has been shaped by various socio-economic and political frameworks. Within the existing sociological and anthropological literatures on Buddhism's changes in Sri Lanka, the present paper intended on analyzing the impact of Christian teachings on Buddhist religious pantheon as related to the legend of God Sakra at present social context. According to Buddhist teachings, an individual is provided with positive consequences depending on his/her meritorious actions and demerits depending on his/her evil actions. This is a fundamental principle in the Buddhist philosophy. The concept of merit- sin (Pin-paw) is based on this fundamental principle. There is no Buddhist teaching on chasing or flushing of sin. Nevertheless, there is an organized religious cult with ritual performing to god Sakra at Kataragama new Lakshmi shrine which is believed to be influencing the devotees to believe in flushing or canceling their sins in this world. The God Sakra is imaginary god of Buddhist church. Nevertheless, with the development of particular set of ritual practices, god Sakra is being transformed as a living god in the devotee's court.