Production of vishuddhi spaces and their subjects: identity, meaning, and space of the "ritigala vishuddhi haramba" process and its establishment in Ritigala, Sri Lanka

Abstract

This ethnographic study demonstrates a comprehensive discussion on the community and space of the bearers of an indigenous warrior combat art known as Ritigala Vishuddhi Haramba which originated in the countryside of Ritigala, Sri Lanka. According to its custodian, Ritigala Vishuddhi Haramba is a “combat discipline” combining meditation and combat which involves an ancestral knowledge system that came along with a long tradition; it is a “way of life” which has the ability to transform an average human into a wise, resilient, and well-disciplined individual who can handle both combat abilities and human responsibilities with patience, discipline, and sensitivity (Sumedha 2019a). The study examines what this community is, what its members do, the knowledge and worldviews they employ and rely on, and how they create and maintain their identity and meaning of life through their dedication and deep engagement in this combat. I focus on how they produce their own spaces by redefining, modifying, sanctifying, and transforming the very spaces they believe to have used by their vishuddhi ancestors using a traditional cultural proceeding, ancestral connections, and occult powers negotiating time, space, and authority within the mainstream social, spatial, and cultural constraints of Sri Lanka.