Kande Yaka
Vedda · deity · Vedda traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Kande Yaka, the Spirit of the Mountain, is the foremost of the Vedda yaku and the great patron of the chase. He is understood as the deified spirit of Kande Wanniya, a celebrated hunter of generations past, and is invoked together with Bilindi Yaka to secure game. In the kirikoraha the shaman circles a tripod bearing coconut milk, waving the ceremonial arrow, until the yaka possesses him and pronounces upon the coming hunt. Sources differ on whether Kande Yaka is wholly distinct from the war-god of Kataragama, with whom later Vedda tradition increasingly identifies him as Kanda Kumara.
Domains
- the hunt
- mountains
Powers
- grants success in the hunt
- possesses the dancing shaman
Epithets
- Kandē Yakā — Spirit of the Mountainvedda.org, 'The Veddas of Sri Lanka' (secondary)
- Kande Wanniya — the Hunter of the Mountain (his mortal name)Seligmann & Seligmann, The Veddas (1911), ch. IX (primary)
Relations
- sibling: Bilindi YakaElder brother of the hunter Kande Wanniya; the two became yaku together.Roar Media / Kataragama accounts and Seligmann (1911), on Kande Wanniya and his infant brother Bilindi (secondary)
Sources
- Kande Yaka is the chief of all the yaku and the principal spirit invoked for success in hunting.: Seligmann & Seligmann, The Veddas (1911), ch. IX (primary)
- He is the deified spirit of Kande Wanniya, a celebrated hunter of former generations, and is increasingly identified with the god of Kataragama (Kanda Kumara / Murukan).: vedda.org, 'The Veddas of Sri Lanka'; Roar Media, 'Kataragama Devale and the Story of Sri Lanka's Warrior God' (secondary)