Ardnaree Kandy, as it was in 1915,

Source:Sundaytimes

When George Morrison Reid Henry, the ornithologist whose magnum opus was ‘A Guide to the Birds of Ceylon’ (OUP 1955), took over the post of acting Assistant Entomologist to the Department of Agriculture and moved to Peradeniya Botanical Gardens on June 28, 1915, he took up residence at Ardnaree Bungalow. In 1916   his sons Jim and Bob had attended Trinity College while living at Ardnaree.

G.M. Henry says the hill on which Ardnaree was situated was clothed with a mixture of cocoa, coconut and areca palms, jak and breadfruit trees, Dadap and others, all rather neglected and forming a rich paradise for the birds characteristic of that kind of cultivation: bulbuls and several species of barbets, Bronzed-wing and Ash Doves, babblers, sunbirds, munias and robins.

Then there was Achsah Barlow who was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and took her Bachelor’s degree at Smith College.  She attended the School of Fine Arts in New York, and then continued her art studies in Paris, visiting the museums of Europe.  In December 1910 she married Earl H. Brewster, an American painter.

Brewster’s interest in Buddhism and Oriental Languages brought him to Ceylon in November 1921.  His wife and small daughter Harwood born in 1913 accompanied him, and they soon settled in ‘Ardnaree’, the beautiful rambling bungalow overlooking the Kandy Lake. “Kandy weaves enchantment. We decide to look for a bungalow or our own and live here; but it is weeks before we find Ardnaree, Lake View Estate”.

It was on the invitation of his friends Earl and Achsah Brewster that D.H. Lawrence had been persuaded to visit Ceylon at their bungalow in Kandy, “Ardnaree”.This was 1922.

“We stayed with the Brewsters in a huge bungalow with all those black servants in the background,” Lawrence’s wife Frieda reminisces. “In the morning the sun rose and we got up and I always felt terrified at the day and its heat.

“The sun rose higher and the heat would rise.” With the Lawrences, the heat was a debilitating problem: unfortunately, their visit straddled April, the hottest month of the year in Kandy, and that year, 1922, was hotter than usual according to reports.

Another problem common to both was nocturnal fauna activity.

In 1926, Lawrence asked a friend if he had “ever heard the night noises of a tropical jungle, and then instantly emitted a frightening series of yells, squawks, trills, howls and animal ‘help-murder shrieks’’’, David Ellis, Mark Kinkead-Weekes and John Worthen report in D. H. Lawrence: Dying Game 1922-1930 (1997).

Eventually Ardnaree became the residence of the principal of Dharmaraja College. Lake View Estate together with Ardnaree was bought by the Buddhist Theosophical Society (BTS) in 1923 from Church of England Missionaries. The college hostel hitherto at Malabar Street (presently Kandy Nursing Home), was first moved and the college remained in the city Natha Devala premises.

On Speech Day 1929 it was reported “there are at present 40 boarders, lit by electricity, connected by telephone to the town exchange. A hydraulic ram, gifted by 25 Buddhist Officers of the General Post Office Colombo. A swimming bath, 50 feet by 27, functions when there is an abundant supply in the water in the many valley springs….this was during Principal K.F. Billimoria’s time -1902 -1932.

In a letter dated 11th April 1931, Principal Billimoria appealed to friends for funds when the mortgaged land had to be saved when the mortgagee sued the college.

Ardnaree together with Lake View Estate 37 acres, was bought by Dharmaraja College in 1923 (more precisely Buddhist Theosophical Society (BTS) who was the managing company at the time). Money was raised not only for the bungalow but entire estate. It is the property of Dharmaraja College now (all BTS schools were taken over by the government in 1962 and now it is a government school).

P.de.S. Kularatne was transferred by BTS to Dharmaraja from Ananda College in 1932 and he became the first principal to occupy the Ardnaree Bungalow having built new buildings for the hostel as well as a new campus in the 37 acre Lake View Estate. Rabindranath Tagore also stopped by Ardnaree in 1934 during his visit to Sri Lanka.

Then Principal L.H. Methananda occupied it until 1945 when he took over as principal of Ananda.

From then onwards it has been occupied by Dharmaraja Principals: S. A. Wijayathilake (1945-1955), Charles Godage (1955–1959), D. B. Thewarapperuma (1959–1961), Col. E. A. Perusinghe (1961–1964), Col. S.L.B. Amaranayake (1964–1971), D. G. B. Samarajiva (1971–1973). A. P. Gunaratne (1973–1987), U. B. Herath (1987-1988), Nihal Herath (1988–1990), T. B. Damunupola (1990–1995), W.M. Bandaranayake (1995–1998), A. B. Herath (1998–2000), S. M. Keerthiratne (2001–2016), D. Wanasinghe (2016-2021) and Kamal Abeysinghe (2021 to- date).