Visit of King Alexander

S ri Pada or Adam's Peak as it was known to the early West was in the limelight from times before the recorded history of the island. Legends surrounding the sacred mount existed prior to the Christian era. It is axiomatic that worship of deities in high places is indulged in by mankind from times of remote antiquity. Indeed, high inaccessible places were held in awe and veneration from the time of man's primordial religion - worship of nature. The cult persisted in the pagan world up to the early Greek and Roman times and even later, thus Mt. Olympus in Greece was dedicated to the Greek pantheon.

Even to this day, Chomolungma (Tibetan for Goddess Mother of the World), a peak in the Himalayan range and several other peaks en route to Everest and Mt. Everest itself are held sacred by the Tibetans and Nepalese. It is recorded that Norkay Tensing and his sherpa clansmen who accompanied Edmund Hillary in his successful expedition to Mt. Everest in 1953, offered a sacrifice of food to the mountain goddess Chomolungma invoking her blessings for success of the expedition. Hillary himself buried a small crucifix given him by the leader, Colonel John Hunt. Tradition is hard to die!

Alexander's visit

By the time that Macedon's illustrious son, Alexander the Great, Greek warrior king and empire builder, is believed to have visited Sri Pada (circa 324 B.C.), the peak was already held in veneration. After his subjugation of the Persian empire and the dependencies thereof, Alexander led his forces on to India beyond the Indus to the ancient city of Taxila. He was at last countered by Porus the Indian king and his cohorts of battle trained fighting elephants. These huge beasts were unfamiliar to the Greek cavalry to which they presented a forbidding and formidable obstacle. The terrified horses stampeded and started to scatter out of control in utter panic. On the representation of his generals, fearing mutiny by the army Alexander decided to come to terms with Porus.

After his skirmish with the Indian king, the restless Alexander decided to detour the southwest coast of India and explore further south where he had heard of the fabulous isle of Sri Lanka known to the early Greeks as 'Taprobane'. Here reports of the sacred mount of Sri Pada, then dedicated to the Hindu deity Saman and known as 'Samanthakuty', attracted his attention. The peak with its proud pinnacle commanding an enchanting prospect was too much of an attraction for the pleasure-bent Alexander to resist.