The famous Kanniya Hot Springs of Trincomalee are indeed what they are, a natural series of hot baths that have been opened for the public at an old historical site dating back to the age of Ravana, as is said, to almost five thousand years ago to the Vedic period when Indo Aryan migrations were occurring on a large scale. It is said that the legendary Rakshasa (native Iron Age tribes equated with demons) was a great devotee of Lord Shiva, a fact clearly displayed in the Hindu epic Ramayana. He is said to have defeated by the god himself when his mother was ill and their prayers did not cure her illness. Thus in Ravana’s anger he tried to destroy the incredibly sacred spot of Koneswaram Temple in a show of power over him. His defeat is said to have coincided with her death and in a display of grief he thrust his sword into the ground, making warm water burst forth. Here begins the incredible history of Kanniya, and it continues with a number of new renovations taking over from the lost works of old, building up on the ashes of what had long since passed. According to the much later Mahabharata, written somewhere during the 1st Century BC, the Hot Springs were a place of worship to devotees of Shiva, and that all sentient creatures stopped off at Gokarna Bay-or Gokanna, ancient terms for Trincomalee-to pray here. Much later it was converted into a Buddhist monastery but there is absolutely no written record of this. In total there are seven separate wells, each cut off from the rest by square stone foundations.Thus the Hot Springs continue to be a place of worship and of interest even today among members of the Hindu population.