History

                                                                                          सर्व मंगल मांगल्ये शिवे सर्वार्थ साधिके l

                                                                                         शरण्ये त्रयंबके गौरी नारायणि नमोस्तुते ll
                                                                                           नमो देव्ये महादेव्ये शिवाये सततं नम: l
                                                                                        नमः प्रकृत्ये भद्राये  नियतां प्रणत स्मताम ll

Munneswaram is a small village situated in North Western province, located about a mile inland to the east of Chilaw town from which is separated by a large plain of paddy fields. It is a place of great antiquity and is chiefly remarkable for an ancient Hindu temple built of granite, sand stone and chunnam called Sri Munneswaram temple. The temple at Munneswaram to give its full name, Vadivambiga Sametha Munna Nathaswamy temple, has a better tradition of antiquity than any other Hindu temple in Sri Lanka. It had been held, it is said by the Hindus for many countries past as one of the most important ancient shrines of this land.  

In Sri Lanka, as Sir Paul Peiris has stated "long before the arrival of Vijaya there were five recognized Iswarams which claimed and received the adoration of all India and named Thiruketheeswaram and Thandeswaram near Mannar, Tirukkoneswaram near Trincomalee, Nakuleswaram near Kankesanturai and Munneswaram near Chilaw." The name Munneswaram indicates that it is the oldest of all the Iswara temples. Munneswaram temple was mentioned by one of the Sinhalese poets of the 15th century, the author of the Kokila Sandesaya in the time of popular king Parakrama Bahu VI of Kotte (1412 A.D. - 1467 A.D.), when the bird messenger traveling from Matara to Jaffna passes this temple. Since this shrine is mentioned in Kokila Sandesaya, the origins of this temple go back to a period very much prior to the reign of Parakrama Bahu VI.

The temple flourished during the reign of this king and his descendants until 1528 A.D. King Parakrama Bahu VI of Kotte and his descendants gifted several villages and paddy lands for its maintenance. Interestingly a sannas (deed) to this effect is still seen on the outer wall of the main shrine room and its legality was upheld in the Chilaw courts.

According to the tradition, at Munneswaram during a period when Brahmins of Munneswaram temple is said to have ruled Chilaw and Puttalam Districts in the name of the Goddess Sakthi (Pathini), coins known in the country as 'princers coin' (Tamil - Kuraddu Kasu; Sinhalese - Andu Massa) were minted. The shape of the coin was that a pair of princers, hence the name. On the outer side of one of its forks or handles was an inscription which with some difficulty, was found to be in Chola grantham, the reading of which was, is "Parasurama".

Simon Casie Chetty gives a description of this temple as in 1834 as follows: "it is a place of great antiquity, and is chiefly remarkable for an old temple built of sand stones and chunnam, roofed over with the same material in the form of an arch, having at the west end a small dome, surmounted with a copper vase originally gilt. On the walls of this temple there are some inscriptions in the Grantha character, but so much worn out by time that they are scarcely legible. The temple is surrounded by a mud wall, within which is a well providing water for ablution".