The northern part of Sri Lanka was inaccessible to the Sri Lankans for over 30 years due to the LTTE terrorists controlling the most of this area. After the defeat of the LTTE in 2009, this area has seen a massive development in the infrastructure and facilities enabling any Sri Lankan to travel and visit any area.
Along with this freedom to access these forbidden jungles, ruins of hundreds of ancient Buddhist sites hidden in the jungles of Mullaitivu District, Vavuniya District, Mannar District and Kilinochchi District have been discovered the Army. Due to 30+ years of ethnic cleansing of Tamil Tiger Terrorists supported Tamil politicians, Buddhist villages which supported few monks in some of these temples also have disappeared.
Even after the end of the LTTE , Tamil Politicians are continuously creating obstructions using the innocent civilian villagers around national heritage sites to stop these being developed or conserved.
The ruins at the Kurundumale ( Tamil : Kurundumalei) in Mulathivu district is such a place currently being fought the politicians stating that this is a site of a Hindu Kovil and not a Buddhist site. The ruins of Kurundumale has been documented in an archaeological report of 1905. An inscription which was recorded at this site has now disappeared. In August 2013, this site was declared as a protected archaeological site a gazette notification.
To understand the importance of this site, we need to go back to the time of the arrival of the great Mahinda Thero to the country in 250 BC. The preaching of the Buddha were in the language of of Pali. The Atuwa (අටුවා) are the text written in Pali which describes the the deeper areas in Tripitaka in detail. When the Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka, the local priests stared documenting the deeper analysis of Tripitaka in local language (Hela Basa) which were collectively called Helatuwa (හෙළටුවා). Helatuwa consist of three Attakatha (අට්ඨකථා). These are Maha Attakathawa (මහා අට්ඨකතාව), Pachchari Attakathawa (පච්චරි අට්ඨකතාව) and Kurundi Attakathawa (කුරුන්දි අට්ඨකථාව).
It is believed that the Kurundi Attakatha has been documented in the Kurundavashoka Viharaya (Kurundashoka Viharaya) in Kurundumale. According to Mahavamsa, the Kurundavashoka Monastery has been built king Kallatanaga (109-104 BC) and records various donations king Aggabodhi I (575-608) and king Vijayabahu I (1070-1110).
The first to report these ruins in some detail was Mr J. Penry Lewis, Government agent, Northern Province in his report of the Vanni in The Manual of Vanni District in 1895.