Remembering Anagarika Dharmapala
Source:Thuppahis
Item presented in FACEBOOK by Peradeniya University Friends with this title: 160th Birth anniversary of Anagarika Dharmapala**
Anagarika Dharmapala a noble son of Sri Lanka who made immense sacrifices towards Buddhist revival and national upliftment in the 19th century was born at Matara on 17 Sept 1864.
He worked and campaigned with unswerving loyalty to the nationalist cause in an era when Buddhism and the national culture had reached their lowest ebb.
Buddhist places of worship had fallen into disrepair because temple lands had been taken away.
Pirivena education suffered from neglect and Buddhist schools were almost non-existent.
The Buddhist clergy too, declined with debilitating effects on the national life and national culture.
The western influence was gradually weaning away people destroying their national identity.
The achievements of Anagarika Dharmapala have to be judged in this difficult context he worked.
He was born Don David Hewavitharana as the eldest son of business magnate Don Carolis Hewavitharana and Upasika Mallika Hewavitharna of Hittatiya, Matara near my home. David Hewavitharana aged six, was admitted to a Roman Catholic school, since the Buddhist temple schools at the time were forcibly shut down by the British colonial government.
He was taught very little else except Bible lessons. However, he, was fortunate to be guided on Buddhist principles by Ven Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala thero at Vidyodaya Pirivena.
In 1873, as a 9 year old school boy young David attended the great Panadura debate between Christians missionaries and Buddhist monks led by Ven.Migettuwatte Gunananda thero.
Intelligent and conscientious David pursued his studies with diligence, but his reluctance to forsake Buddhist principles brought him in to conflict with authorities ending his school career in 1883.
Dharmapala then joined the Department of Education and achieved a distinction pass in clerical service examination. However, he resigned from his post to devote time for the cause of humanity by becoming an Anagarika, a homeless celibate.
His parents supported him in this endeavour.
In accordance with Buddhist practices, he took the Eight Precepts commitments for life.
After he changed his name and took vows, he changed his attire to a yellow robe different from that of a bhikkhu.
He was viewed as a Bodhisattva a role model among Buddhists.
Having renounced the secular life, Dharmapala journeyed to remote villages to see for himself how the local villagers suffered without proper roads, houses, schools and hospitals.
He played an active role in reviving Buddhism in Ceylon and in the nationalist movement.
In 1886, when Col. Olcott returned to Sri Lanka with C.W. Leadbeater, to launch a National Educational Fund, Anagarika Dharmapala joined and accompanied them to all distant corners of the country to reawaken his dormant countrymen with his vibrant preaching and fluent oratory.
His words and deeds inspired his listeners.
Gradually, his forthrightness and his charismatic personality won the hearts of many thousands all over the world.
He became a friend of Indian national leaders and Western intellectuals like Mahatma Gandhi and Sir Edwin Arnold.
The Mahabodhi Society was established in 1891 with Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala thero as the President, Col. Olcott as the Director and Anagarika Dharmapala as the General Secretary.
Bodh Gaya temple the site of Gautama Buddha’s enlightenment was in deplorable condition and Anagarika Dharmapala gave priority to regain control of Buddha Gaya.
The Maha Bodhi Society was effective in raising the consciousness of Buddhist heritage and succeeded in restoring the ancient Buddhist shrines at Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, and Kushinara.
Upasana Centres, libraries, schools, and hospitals were established to serve the general public.
Maha Bodhi journal and Sinhala Bauddhya newspaper championed Anagarika’s cause.
The Chairman of the World Parliament of Religions extended an invitation for a Buddhist delegate to attend the World Religious Congress in Chicago, in September 1893 and Anagarika Dharmapala then aged 29 years, undertook the challenge to address the congress impressing everyone.
He was appointed a member of the Advisory Council of the World Parliament of Religions.
Dharmapala established the British Buddhist mission in London, a permanent Maha Bodhi Society Centre in Calcutta, the Mary Foster Memorial Free Hospital and a school at Rajagiriya.
The opening of the Maha Bodhi Society branches in Saranath and Calcutta as well as the construction and completion of the Mulagandhakuti Vihara at Isipathana and the Dharamrajika Vihara in 1930 were two crowning achievements of Anagarika Dharmapala, during his last days.
The sacred relics of the Buddha were enshrined at both viharas.
Anagarika Dharmapala, made his last visit to Sri Lanka in 1931, to establish the “Dharmapala Trust” and gift Mallika Santagar’s home in memory of his beloved mother Mallika Hewavitharana.
Anagarika Dharmapala entered the order of Maha Sangha in 1931 becoming Ven Sri Devamitta Dharmapala at Mulagandhakuti Vihara, at the location where Buddha preached his first sermon.
In January 1933, Ven Sri Devamitta Dharmapala received his “Upasampada” (higher ordination).
In conformity with the teachings of the Buddha, that all conditioned things are subject to anicca, dukkha and anatta, the energetic and enterprising Bodhisatva Dharmapala mindfully breathed his last breath facing the Mulagandhakuti Viharaya on April 29, 1933.
His last words were I wish to be reborn 25 times to spread Lord Buddha’s Dhamma.
Anagarika Dharmapala commemorations are held on 17th September Island wide to exhibit the gratitude of the Sri Lankans towards this leader who awakened the nation.
All reactions:
2Thavatinsa Mendis Jayasekera and 1 oth
When I visit Canada I am even more impressed by the strides we have made in Sri Lanka, largely due to our Buddhist revival, BTS etc of 1880s followed by Trades Union Movement of 1930s that created the intelligentsia and a stable democracy of a sort. …
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It is significant that the author/s chose to cast this essay in a series of short assertive sentences …. a form of DIKTAT perhaps? I did not therefore assert any editorial prerogative and alter the format or resort to highlights.
ADDENDA
This item on an important ‘force’ in Sri Lanka’s colonial history requires careful reading with attention to its context as well as the content of a wide range of books and articles on the history of the island from the 1840s to the 1950s.
Among the works that assiduous readers should consult are the many items on from the pen of Senaka Weeraratne. Let me add further readings without claiming comprehensiveness –because the field is as large as mind-boggling.
To begin with a LIST of my own writings,……………. proceeding chronologically
1990 “Noise as Cultural Struggle: Tom-Tom Beating, the British and Communal Disturbances in Sri Lanka, 1880s-1930s,” in Veena Das (ed.), Mirrors of Violence: Communities, Riots, Survivors in South Asia, Delhi: OUP., pp. 240-85.
1993 “Nationalism, the Past and the Present: The Case of Sri Lanka,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, 16: 133-161.
1993 “Emotion and the Person in Nationalist Studies” in Japanese in The Shinso, Jan. 1993. (Special edition on Nationalism Today ed. by T. Aoki), pp. 127-50.
1994 “Of Traditions, Memories and Ideological Blockages”, Asian Studies Review, November 1994, 18:71-76.
1996 “Beyond Anderson: Reconstructing and Deconstructing Sinhala Nationalist Discourse”, Modern Asian Studies, 30: 690-98.
1996 “Teaching Lessons and Removing Evil: Strands of Moral Puritanism in Sinhala Nationalist Practice,” Felicitation Volume for Professor S. Arasaratnam, edited by Michael Pearson, as South Asia, sp. issue, Sept. 1996, pp. 205-20.
1996 “Sihadipa: The Power of Ideology in Sri Lanka”, IIAS Yearbook 1995, Leiden: International Institute for Asian Studies, pp. 53-60.
1997 “Sri Lanka: Intellectual Currents and Conditions in the Study of Nationalism,” in Sri Lanka. Collective Identities Revisited. Vol 1, ed. by Michael Roberts, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp. 1-43.
1997 “For Humanity. For the Sinhalese. Dharmapala as Bosat Crusader,” Journal of Asian Studies, 56: 1006-1032.
1998-99 “Emotion and the Person in Nationalist Studies,” Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities, vol. XXIV & XXV, pp. 65-86.
2000 “Nationalisms Today and Yesterday”, in Gerald Peiris and S W R de A Samarasinghe (eds) History and Politics. Millennial Perspectives. Essays in honour of Kingsley de Silva, Colombo: Law and Society Trust, pp. 23-44.
2000 “Himself and Project. A Serial Autobiography. Our Journey with a Sinhala Zealot, Anagarika Dharmapala,” Social Analysis 44, 1: 113-39.
2001a “Submerging the People? Post-Orientalism and the Construction of Communalism,” in George Berkemer et al (eds) Explorations in South Asian History. Festschrift for Dietmar Rothermund on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 311-23.
2001b “Sinhala-ness and Sinhala Nationalism,” in G. Gunatilleke et al (eds.): A History of Ethnic Conflictin Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretation and Reconciliation, Colombo: Marga Monograph Series, No 4.
2001c “The burden of history: obstacles to power sharing in Sri Lanka”, Contributions to Indian Sociology, n. s., May 2001, 35: 65-96.
2001g “Dakunen sädi kotiyo, uturen golu muhudai,” [The fierce/vile Tamils to the south, the turbulent/unfathomable sea to the north] Pravāda 6: 17-18.
2002 “Primordialist strands in contemporary Sinhala nationalism in Sri Lanka: urumaya as Ur,” Colombo: Marga Monograph Series on A History of Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Recollection, Reinterpretationand Reconciliation, Colombo: Marga Monograph Series, No 20.
2003 “Language and national identity: The Sinhalese and others over the centuries,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Summer 2003, 9: 75-102.
