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The Diyawadana Nilame with Tooth Relic casket
The lay custodian of the Sacred Tooth in Kandy today is known as the Diya Vadana Nilame, literally, the 'Water-increasing-official'. He is, in other words, the Water-increaser or Rain-producer.
There was no such thing as a
sprinkler back then, thus the Diyavadana Nilame was the minister who
was responsible to see that the people had rain in due season to sow
their fields and cultivate their crops, and that was the reason why
this particular minister was entrusted with the custodianship of the
instrument of rain making of the Buddhist kings of Ceylon. |
