31/10/2020
As the world celebrates Halloween today, let us tell you a chilling legend from the forests of our own little island - the legend of Mahasona!
As with all folktales, there are many variations to the story but one popular version centers around a man of fearsome reputation (some give him the name of Ritigala Jayasena) who challenged one of King Dutugemunu's ten giant commanders, Gotaimbara, to combat.
Gotaimbara, endowed with titanic strength, manages to decapitate Ritigala Jayasena with a single kick. A deity, taking pity on Jayasena's widow weeping upon the headless co**se, attempts to re-animate him by attaching his head back on his shoulders before the sun sets. Unable to find his head and with time running out, he reattaches a head retrieved from a co**se of a bear and in his haste, ends up attaching it backwards. The well-intentioned plan goes awry when Jayasena wakes from the dead as the terrible bear-headed demon Mahasona.
This grotesque demon is said to haunt cemeteries, wooded mountains, and appear before travelers on lonely junctions where three roads meet.
