"In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the village is famous for its Hindu Temple - Selvachchannathy- to which shrine Hindus from all over Sri Lanka, and even from Malaya(Malaysia), come in large numbers to pray. Besides the inherent holiness of the temple with many devotees attending almost every day there are a number of "madams" where visitors find convenient accomodation. The temple is also famous for "annathanam"(free feeding of devotees) and the Deity is fondly called "Annathana Kanthan".
The history of the temple, in short, as handed down the generations in the village, is as follows:
In the olden days there was a small temple on the present site but owing to disputes among the owners, early in the eighteenth century, the temple was closed and the daily poojas ceased to be performed. Several days afterwards Lord Murugan, the Deity of the Temple, appeared in a dream to one Maruthar Kathirgamar, a pious but not educated man in the village and told him that as the temple had been closed His devotees had been deprived of praying at the temple and asked Kathirgamar to open the temple and conduct the daily poojas. Kathirgamar, however, did not pay heed to this dream. However he continued to have the same dream on many subsequent nights. Kathirgamar then pleaded that he was an ignorant man who did not know how to conduct a pooja. Lord Murugan then told him not to be afraid as He would help him to perform the pooja. Finally Kathirgamar agreed and went to the temple, opened the doors, washed and cleaned up the place but before he performed the first pooja prayed to God for guidance and the Lord directed him as to how to perform the pooja without chanting any mantras and by covering his mouth with a piece of cloth. From that time on the temple grew more and more popular and devotees from beyond the village started coming to the temple. It is believed that Kathirgamar used to commune with the Lord and when he wanted some important work done in the temple for which he had not the wherewithal, Lord Murugan would appear in dream to a devotee, mostly outside the village, and tell him to have the work done at his expense. Many such instances are related in the village. People began to have a great deal of faith in the temple.
It may be worth noting that even to this day the decendants of Maruthar Kathirgamar carrying on the tradition of having their mouth covered when performing the pooja."
-----Extracted from the biography "Dr. Katherkamer Sithamparapillai"(1980) by the late Mr. Sinnathamby Kula Singam, M.B.E.
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