The serene sanctuary of Nalanda Gedige holds the divine statues of Ganesh, Buddha and Bodhisattva. Like many magnificient temples in the cultural triangle, the architects of Nalanda Gedige blended Buddhist and Hindu iconography. It is hard to imagine that we’ve just concluded an ethnic conflict when the two ethnicities have so much in common.
Nalanda Gedige is located in the Matale district of Sri Lanka. There is a Pagoda-like structure that is purely made by stone and it is a wonderful creation of ancient Sinhalese. The temple sits 27 metres below its present height as the UNESCO team that worked on restoring it for 6 years did this to prevent further soil erosion.
Long ago, this epitome was a type of a centre where our Sinhalese ancestors used it to acknowledge the time throughout the island. The survey department of Sri Lanka has proved that this location is exactly in the middle of our country.
From ancient times, it has been used to acknowledge the period of the setting sun. The meaning of ‘gedige’ in Sinhala means ‘house of bell’ in English. Hence, we can conclude that in age-old times that there was a bell which was used as a clock to tell people the time.
In addition to this, the most important thing in Nalanda Gedige is its relation to Ravana’s son Indrajith.
According to Ramayana itself, Indrajith conducts a yaga to retrieve a mysterious and powerful vehicle that ever existed, granted to him by Brahma. But the yaga was disturbed and Indrajith was killed in that place.
According to studies, Nalanda Gedige is the place where Indrajith carried his sacred yaga to obtain that precious aircraft.
There is an unidentified statue found in Nalanda gedige by the Archaeology Department of Sri Lanka. Its appearance has no similarity with a human being but it shows more similarities to an extra terrestrial being. Hence, it could be speculated that Indrajith had called assistance from extra terrestrial beings and tried to obtain one of their aircraft which was such a mysterious and powerful vehicle.
Even Ramayana itself admits that it was a kind of a mysterious vehicle granted to him by Brahma. Such is the yore and enigma of Nalanda Gedige. There is even a carving of Prince Indrajith at the top of the Nalanda pagoda which has been built in a later period to honour him.
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