When nearly 5,000 devotees throng its hallowed precincts daily with tremendous piety and faith, the place has to possess something omnipotent. It would not be an understatement to say that the Munneswaram kovil in Chilaw is unsurpassed among the Shiva temples in Sri Lanka.
As one of the five ‘pancheswarams’, the five most hallowed shiva shrines, the Munneswaram kovil is believed to have existed from prehistoric times and is the focus of many myths associated with the central characters of the Ramayana. The temple is located just two miles off Chilaw on the Chilaw-Kurunegala road and is popularly known as the ‘Munneswaram Maha Devale’ amongst local devotees.