At the entrance to the Kandy city as you travel form Colombo we see near the Kandy Police Station, a Hindu Temple popularly known to the Sinhalese as Pulleyar Kovil dedicated to God Ganesh, the elephant headed son of Siva (see here for an interesting folklore how Ganesh ended up in a elephant head). The history of the Kovil is not known, but it is said that this holy place was founded during the early times of the British rule. The devotees started building a shrine for Ganesh after finding a statue of the God in a well there. According to the tradition, the final day of the four devales (Vishnu, Natha, Kataragama and Pattini) in Kandy starts from the pulleyar Kovil after the water cutting ceremony.
Source : "Kandy"
By Central Cultural Fund
