Hindu Temple Town Nallur on Jaffna Peninsula

Today, Nallur is the northeastern suburb of Jaffna city, but in a sense Nallur is the ancient Jaffna, as it was the residence and temple town of the Tamil kings during the period of the Jaffna kingdom in the late Middle Ages and early Modern Age. The Portuguese Christians destroyed the major Hindu temple and erected a church on the original site. However, the Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil – dedicated to the highly venerated Tamil deity Murugan, as the name „Kanda“ for „Skanda“ indicates – was reconstructed in the 19th century 1.5 km further west and again has become the spiritual centre and main sanctuary of Tamil Hindus on the Jaffna Peninsula. Besides the impressive temple, built in the the typical Dravidian style, remnants of palaces of the ate Jaffna kings can also be seen in Nallur.

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