Kanda Surinduni Lyrics by Clarence Wijewardena

O Lord Skanda, having seen your glory and your power, with awakened hearts
we offer our worship in devotion //
We have come to pray to you, we have come to pray to you… //

Your dwelling stands ringed by the seven hills
your fame has spread across the seven seas
We have come to pray to you, we have come to pray to you… //

Seated in majesty upon the peacock throne
with overflowing hearts we offer our worship in devotion //
We have come to pray to you, we have come to pray to you… //

O Lord Skanda, may we be granted your protection
may my country be filled with every blessing //
We have come to pray to you, we have come to pray to you… //

This is a devotional song addressed to Kanda Surindu, the god Skanda, known in Sri Lanka as Kataragama Deviyo and to Tamil devotees as Murugan. He is one of the most beloved guardian deities of the island, and this song is sung the way a pilgrim speaks at his shrine: standing before the god, heart open, asking for his blessing. There is no love story or personal ache here. It is straight worship, the voice of devotees who have travelled to pray.

The refrain that returns after every verse, “we have come to pray to you,” is the whole emotional center. It is the simple, repeated declaration of pilgrims who have made the journey to the temple, and the repetition mirrors the way chants build at a real shrine, the same line offered again and again until it becomes the act of devotion itself.

The imagery places the god in his sacred home and at the scale of legend. “Ringed by the seven hills” evokes the temple set among the mountains, the way Kataragama and the hill shrines of Skanda sit cradled by ranges, while “your fame has spread across the seven seas” is the old Sinhala way of saying his renown reaches the ends of the earth. The peacock throne is Skanda’s own emblem, the peacock is his mount and his sign, so picturing him “seated in majesty upon the peacock throne” calls up the familiar image every devotee carries of the god in his full glory. Calling on his “glory and power” (oda and teda) is the language of awe, the feeling of a small person standing before something vast and luminous.

The song closes by turning the personal prayer outward. After asking for the god’s protection, the final wish is not for the singer alone but for the whole country, that “my country be filled with every blessing.” That move, from bowing at the shrine to praying for the prosperity of the land, is what gives this hymn its warmth. It is devotion that ends not in asking for oneself but in asking good for everyone.