Mage Ratata Dhalada Himi Sewanai Lyrics by Sanath Nandasiri

For my country the Sacred Tooth Relic is shelter
For my land the Sacred Tooth Relic is refuge
A free land filled with all good things
From birth all of this is mine to inherit ….//

On the golden spire atop the Tooth Relic temple
The whole country wakes to the light of its jewels …//
Two thousand years of a proud and glorious past
Rises again with the majesty of a lion …//

For my country the Sacred Tooth Relic is shelter …/

It was right here that the nation was bound as one
The fear and doubt within our hearts were driven away …//
Under the Lord’s protection the flag of victory was raised
Victory drums were beaten, victory songs were sung …//

For my country the Sacred Tooth Relic is shelter …/
From birth all of this is mine to inherit///

This is a patriotic and devotional song built around the Sri Dalada, the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha, which is kept in the Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth in Kandy. The song treats the relic not just as a holy object but as the very thing that shelters and protects the country, and it sings about that with pride and gratitude.

The opening lines carry the whole idea. The relic is called the shelter and the refuge of the land, and the singer says that a free, prosperous country and this protection are things he was born into, an inheritance handed to every Sri Lankan from birth. For centuries the Tooth Relic was tied to kingship on the island. Whoever held the relic was seen as the rightful ruler, so to a Sri Lankan ear, saying the relic shelters the nation is also saying that the country’s sovereignty and identity rest on it.

The middle verse turns the temple itself into the image. The golden spire, the rankota, rises above the shrine, and the lyric pictures the whole country waking up to the light glinting off the jewels at its peak, as if the relic at the heart of the temple is a sun rousing the land each morning. Then it reaches back two thousand years and says that long, proud history wakes again with the majesty of a lion. The lion is the old symbol of the Sinhala people and of the nation, the same lion that stands on the flag, so this line is reaching for the strength and dignity of the whole lineage.

The last verse remembers the relic as the place where the country found unity and courage. Under its protection, fear and doubt were pushed out of people’s hearts, the flag of victory went up, and the drums and songs of triumph rang out. By the end the song has carried its single feeling all the way through, that this relic is the still center the country gathers around, the source of its protection, its history, and its sense of itself, and that belonging to it is a gift each person receives simply by being born here.