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PADALAMA: A floor, foundation.
PADIYA: Water to wash the feet on entering the sanctuary of a Dewale.
PADUWA: A palanquin bearer. This class carries the palanquins of males, those of females being carried by Wahunpura tenants.
PAHALOSWAKADA: Full-moon day.
PALLEMALERALA: The chief officer of the Pallemale (lower temple in the Dalada Maligawa.)
PANAMA: A fanam, equal to one-sixteenth part of a rupee.
PANALELI: Horns cut into shape for combs, and given as penum.
PANDAMA: A torch, candle, see atpandama.
PANDAM-DAMBU: It is sometimes written Dâmbu. The same as Dambu q. v.
PANGUWA: A holding, a portion, a farm.
PANGUKARAYA: The holder of a panguwa, a tenant, a shareholder.
PANHARANGUWA: An ornamented arch or support for lights at festivals in temples.
PANIKKILA OR PANIKKALA: Elephant keeper. He has the charge of temple elephants used in processions, in which service he is assisted by a grass-cutter allowed by the temple, and is besides fed when on duty at a temple.
PANIKKIYA: The headman of the tom-tom beater caste. A barber.
PANMADUWA: The festival of lights occasionally held at a Dewale in honour of Pattini Deviyo, in which all the tenants of a village join and contribute to the expenses.
PANPILI: Rags for lights or lamps. The same as Dambu.
PANSALA: The residence of a priest. Lit. hut of leaves.
PANTIYA: An elephant stall. A row of buildings. A festival.
PAN-WETIYA: A wick.
PATA: A measure corresponding to a hunduwa. One-fourth of a seer. The same as Awaliya.
PATABENDI: Titled. There are in some villages a superior class of tenants called Patabendo, doing nominal service, such as occasionally guarding the proprietor’s house. In temple villages, however, they perform services similar to those of the Ganwasama.
PATHISTHANAYA: A lance with an ornamented handle, carried in processions or on journeys of state by the Hewawasam or Atapattu tenants.
PATHKADAYA: A priest’s kneeling cloth or leathern rug.
PATHKOLAYA: A piece of a plantain leaf used instead of a plate. It is called Pachchala in Sabaragamwua. In temples there is a special tenant to supply it for the daily service.
PATHTHARAYA: The alms bowl of a priest, sometimes of clay but generally of iron or brass, or, rarely of silver.
PATTAYA: The sheath of an arecanut branch. It is very commonly used by way of a bottle for keeping jaggery or honey in.
PATTINIAMMA: The female attendant in the Pattini Dewale.
PATTINI-NETUMA: Dance held by Nilawasam tenants in charge of temple cattle, who serves at the giving of fresh milk called “Hunkiri-payinda-kirima” and at the “Kiri-itirima” ceremony of boiling milk in Dewale at the new year, and sprinkling it about the precincts, in expression of a wish that the year may be a prosperous one.
PATTIRIPPUWA: An elevated place, or raised platform in the Widiya of Dewale, as a resting place for the insignia during procession.
PAWADAYA OR PIYAWILLA: A carpet or cloth spread on the ground by the dhobi on duty for the Kapurala to walk upon during the Tewawa, or at the entry of a distinguished visitor into the house of the proprietor.
PEDIYA: A dhobi. A washerman.
PEDURA: A mat. It is given for use at a threshing floor or for a festival or public occasion by tenants as one of their dues.
PEHINDUM: Uncooked provisions given to headmen, generally by low class tenants.
PELA: A shed, a watch-hut.
PELDORA: Perquisite to the watcher of a field, being the crop of the paddy around the watch-hut. See Hiwelande.
PELELLA: A screen made of leaves and branches to answer the purpose of a wall in temporary buildings.
PELKARAYA: A sub-tenant. See Dalu pathkaraya. The Mulpakaraya (original or chief tenant) frequently gets a person to settle on the lands of his panguwa, in order to have a portion of the services due by him performed by the person so brought in, who is called the pelkaraya; lit. cotter.
PELLAWEDAGAMAN: The service turns of tenants. A term in use in the Kegalle District.
PENPOLA: A priest’s bath.
PENUMA: The same as dekuma. q. v.
PENUM-KADA: A pingo of presents, provisions, vegetables, dried fish or flesh, chatties, etc., given annually or at festivals by tenants to their landlords.
PENUMWATTIYA: Presents carried in baskets.
PERAWA: A measure equal to one-fourth of a seer, in use in the Kurunegala District, corresponding to a Hunduwa.
PERAHANKADA: A piece of cloth to strain water through, used by priests, being one of their eight requisites. A filter; vide “delipihiya” supra.
PEREHERA: A procession; the festival observed in the month of Ehela (July), in Dewale, the chief ceremony in which is the taking in procession, the insignia of the divinities Vishnu, Kataragama, Nata and Pattini for fifteen days. All the Dewala tenants and officers attend it; buildings and premises are cleansed, whitewashed, decorated, and put into proper order. The festival is commenced by bringing in procession a pole and setting it up at the Temple in a lucky hour. This is done by the Kapurala; during the first five days the insignia are taken in procession round the inner court of the Dewale; the five days so observed are called the Kumbal-Perehera, from Kumbala, a potter, who provided the lamps with stands called Kalas generally used in some Dewala at the festival. During the next five days, called the Dewala Perehera the procession goes twice daily round the Widiya or outer court of a Dewale. During the third or last five days, called the Maha or Randoli-perehera the procession issues out of the temple precincts, and taking a wider circuit passes round the main thoroughfare of a town. The festival concludes with one of its chief ceremonies, the Diyakepima, when the insignia are taken in procession on elephants to the customary ferry which is prepared and decorated for the occasion; and the Kapurala, proceeding in a boat to the middle of the stream, cuts with the Rankaduwa (golden sword) the water at the lucky hour. At that very instant the “Rankendiya” (the gold goblet) which is first emptied of the water preserved in it from the Diyakepima of the previous year, is re-filled and taken back in procession to the Dewala. It is customary in some temples for the tenants to wash themselves in the pond or stream immediately after the Diyake-pima. This is a service obligatory on the tenants. After the conclusion of the Perehera, the officers and tenants engaged in it, including the elephants, have ceremonies, for the conciliation of lesser divinities and evil spirits, performed called Balibat-netima, Garayakunnetima and Waliyakun-netima. The Perehera is observed in all the principal Dewala such as Kataragama, the four Dewala in Kandy, Alutnuwara Dewale and Saman Dewale in Sabaragamuwa etc. The following notice of the Kandy Perehera is taken from a note to the first report of the Service Tenures Commission:—“The most celebrated of these processions is the Perehera, which takes place at Kandy in Esala (July-Aug.) commencing with the new moon in that month and continuing till the full moon. It is a Hindu festival in honor of the four deities Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama (Kandaswami) and Pattini, who are held in reverence by the Buddhists of Ceylon as Deviyo who worshipped Goutama and are seeking to attain Nirwana. In the reign of King Kirtissiri (A. D. 1747–1780) a body of priests who came from Siam for the purpose of restoring the Upasampada ordination objected to the observance of this Hindu ceremony in a Buddhist country. To remove their scruples, the king ordered the Dalada relic of Buddha to be carried thenceforth in procession with the insignia of the four deities. Nevertheless, the Perehera is not regarded as a Buddhist ceremony.”
PERUDAN: Food given to priests according to turns arranged amongst tenants.
PETAWILIKARAYA: A tavalan driver. It is the Moor tenants who perform this service.
PETHETIYA: A vessel for measuring an hour. A small cup of brass or silver, or sometimes a cocoanut shell, having a small hole in the bottom, is put to float in a basin of water, the hole is made of such a size that the water which comes through it will be exactly sufficient to make the cup sink in the space of a Sinhalese hour or peya, equal to twenty-five minutes or one-sixtieth part of a day.
PETMAN: Foot-paths. They are to be kept free of jungle by the tenants, with whom it is a principal duty.
PILIMAGEYA: Image-repository, the chamber in Wihare for images.
PILLEWA: A bit of high land adjoining a field, called also “Wanata”.
PINBERA: The beating of tom-tom, not on service but for merit at pinkam at the poya days, or after an almsgiving.
PINKAMA: In a general sense, any deed of merit, but more particularly used for the installing of priests in “Was” in the four months of the rainy season (July to November) for the public reading of Bana.
PIRIWEHIKADA: A pingo made up of “piriwehi” wicker baskets filled with provisions or other articles.
PIRUWATAYA: A cloth, towel, sheet etc., supplied by the dhobi and returned after use.
PITAKATTALAYA: The exterior of a Dewale or the portion outside the sanctuary. It is also a term applied to all the classes of tenants whose services are connected with the exterior of a Dewale, as distinguished from the Etul-kattale, tenants or servants of the sanctuary.
PIYAWILLA: The same as Pawadaya. q. v.
POKUNA: A pond, or well, or reservoir of water, resorted to at a Perehera for the Diyakepuma.
POLÉ: The present given to the Vidane of a village by a sportsman on killing game within the village limits. It is about four or five pounds of flesh. In some districts the custom of giving the pole, apart from the Gangate, has ceased to exist, but it is kept up in Sabaragamuwa.
POLGEDIYA: The fruit of the cocoanut tree.
POLWALLA: A bunch of cocoanuts used in decorations, and the supplying of which forms a service.
PORODDA: The collar of an elephant.
POSONMASA: The third month of the Sinhalese year (June-July).
POTSAKIYA: The button fastened to the end of a string used in tying up and keeping together the ola leaves and wooden covers of native manuscripts.
POTTANIYA: A bundle larger than a “mitiya.”
POYAGEYA: A detached building at a Wihare establishment within proper “sima” (military posts). It is used as a confessional for priests on poya days, as a vestry for convocations and meetings on matters ecclesiastical, and for holding ordination and for worship.
PUJAWA: An offering of any kind—e. g. food, cloth, flowers, incense, etc.
PULLIMAL: Ear-rings.
PURAGEYA: The scaffolding of a building or the temporary shed put up to give shelter to the workmen and protection to the permanent structure in course of erection.
PURANA: A field lying fallow, or the time during which a field lies uncultivated.
PURAWEDIKODIYA: A flag. A term used in the Four Korale.
PURAWASAMA: See Ganpandura. A term in use in the Kurunegala District for ground rent.
PURUKGOBA: Tender cocoanut branch for decorations. It is called Pulakgoba in Sabaragamuwa and Pulakatta in Matale.
PRAKARAYA: A rampart, a strong wall.