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The chimes of peace
Devotees believe that the bell at Jaffna's Selvasannithy temple will ring in peace. Thiruni Kelegama finds out more

A bell can achieve iconic status. The bell of Atri could be rung by anyone who had been wronged. Then the king would call together the wise men appointed for this purpose so that justice could be done.

The Liberty Bell is forever associated with the American Declaration of Independence. It rang out first in 1776 from the tower of Independence Hall summoning citizens to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon. Now, every July 4, the bell is rung, in unison with thousands of bells across the United States.

Then there is the bell which will hopefully come to symbolise peace in Sri Lanka....

Selvasannithy Temple, a Murugan temple, is located on the banks of the lagoon at Thondmannar. This temple is reminiscent of the Murugan temple in Kataragama, and other renowned Mururgan temples in South India, such as Thiruchendur. A large number of devotees flock to the temple to seek help, worship and receive blessings from Lord Murugan, the deity of the temple.

This temple had a large bell in the early 1950s. When this bell tolled, the sound could be heard within a radius of six miles. The bell was a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Somasundaram Sellamuthu who had had it made in England. It was believed that when the bell chimed, peace would always reign in the country.

But the bell was destroyed by a fire during the war. Its loss was deeply felt by devotees at the temple. But they continued to worship there, despite its loss.

Those among them who have left the country and taken up residence in other parts of the world, decided to replace the bell with another of similar size and acoustics. It was believed that when the bell started to chime again, peace would be restored.

With an organising committee comprising Dr. and Dr. Mrs.Sivayoham, Rev. P. Bhuvanendran, a son of a former high priest of the temple, Mrs. Gowri Raghavan, Mr. and Mrs. A.T. Moorthy, the former High Commissioner of England and a number of other expatriates living in England, they set out to restore the bell, believing that it was 'God's intention'. Mr. V. R. Vadivetkarasan had also helped in the completion of the project.

"We visited the only two bell foundries in England; the one in Whitechapel, London and at Laughborough," said Dr. Mrs. Indra Sivayoham. "Finally we decided to get the bell made at John Taylor Bell Foundry in Laughborough."

The project was begun in June 2000 and was scheduled to be completed towards the Hindu New Year 2002. "But as Lord Murugan would have it, the bell was completed ahead of schedule in February this year," said Dr. Mrs. Sivayoham. "This was also about the time that the present government set in motion a peace process for which we are ever so grateful."

As the clapper of the bell would need to last a long time, a further clapper has been commissioned. The bell weighing two metric tonnes was then shipped to Colombo, by which time the Kandy-Jaffna road had also been opened.

"It somehow seemed significant that the bell was put up in time for the annual festival of Selvasannithy Murugan. The bell should be inaugurated at the temple on the first day of the festival," added Dr. Mrs. Sivayoham.

The 'peace' bell was installed a few weeks ago. The people in Jaffna were to hear its first chimes this week, during the festival,the chimes which they pray will herald the dawn of peace in our troubled land.

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