Maha Sona
demon in Sinhalese folklore
Maha Sona or Maha Sohona (Sinhala: මහ සෝණා, මහ සොහොනා) is a devil (or yaksa or dewaya, meaning demon, fiend or monster) in Sinhalese folklore, said to haunt the afterlife. The name Maha Sona denotes "the greatest demon" or "god or demon of the cemetery" in the Sinhala language. He is one of the most feared and commonly known gods or demons in Sri Lanka. According to popular folklore, he was originally a giant who was defeated and decapitated in a duel by another giant, Gotaimbara (who lived in the 1st century BC). His head was then replaced with that of a bear or tiger. He is believed to kill people by crushing their shoulders or by afflicting them with disease. Traditional exorcism rituals are performed to repel the demon in such cases. The Sri Lankan Army's Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol units are popularly known as the "Maha Sohon Brigade", named after this demon.
Origins
In local folk traditions, Maha Sona was formerly a human known as Ritigala Jayasena (Jayasena of Ritigala), a fierce warrior who lived during the reign of King Dutugamunu. After offending the giant Gotaimbara (one of the Ten Giant Warriors of King Dutugamunu) in a drunken stupor, he agreed to a bare-handed duel.
The public source identifies “Maha Sona” as demon in Sinhalese folklore. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Maha, Sona and demon.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maha Sona” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.