Features

Panadura Vadaya: A Socio-historical Sketch

Published

5 years ago

2021/09/19

by Dr D. Chandraratna

The important historical fact about the Colonial narrative of Buddhism in Sri Lanka was the ability of Buddhist ideals to survive even when the external political circumstances were highly unfavourable. The Panadura Vadaya signifies in many ways that dogged determination on the part of the educated sangha fraternity to persevere with the struggle, and more importantly in that struggle to delve deeper into scriptures to challenge Christianity at a scholastic level.

When Christianity had state backing it was not surprising for the colonialists to harbour an apocalyptic vision of the eventual triumph of Christianity. Therefore it was not unusual for the Colonial secretary Tennent to assert that the dissociation of the State from Buddhism will only expedite its inevitable decay as Spence Hardy, the Wesleyen missionary, had predicted in his book, The British Government and the Idolatry of Ceylon in 1839.

The educated sangha, on the other hand were acutely aware of the protection that Buddhism needed State patronage to arrest its decline but their pleas to honour the promises made in the Kandyan Convention of 1815 fell on deaf ears. By the middle of the 19th century British authors were cautiously optimistic that ‘Buddhism, shorn of its splendour, unaided by authority, will fall into disuse before Christianity is able to step into its place’ (Forbes, 1839).

The elite Sinhalese Christians like James Alwis while appreciating the colonial powers for propagating Christianity nonetheless lamented that Buddhist decline will erode the language and literature of the Sinhalese which he said is the heritage of Ceylon, maintained mostly by the sangha under whose tutelage even J Alwis acquired his punditry. He wrote that the ‘names of Batuantudawe, Hikkaduwe, Lankagoda, Dodanpahala, Valane, Bentota, Kahave and Weligama amongst a host of others have produced compositions by no means inferior to to those of a Buddhaghosa or a Parakkrama‘. Contrary to the missionary statements and the colonialist assumptions, erudition in Buddhist scriptures and knowledge of Pali, Sanskrit and Sinhalese was no less lacking among the sangha who were many, not the exception.

Monastic (Pirivena) and Missionary education

It was no secret that without state patronage monastic education, which was the mainstay of local knowledge and intelligence, waned drastically. Colebrooke’s insistence on English education with its declared outcomes such as the civilizing potential, secular advantage through state employment, and the pathway to redemption through the Christianizing intent was a blow to vernaculars. It discouraged many to receive the monastic pirivena which was the provider of indigenous language and religious knowledge. Major Davy was correct in his observation in 1815, that in the Kandyan provinces reading and writing is far from the uncommon acquirements and is as general as in England’ (Forbes 1839). But Colebrooke dismissed monastic learning curtly in one sentence. He said, ‘monastic education scarcely merits any notice’. A sub committee of the Legislative Council reported in 1867 that ‘whatever taught is intertwined with error and superstition and if left in the hands of Buddhist and Hindu priests will defeat the aims and objects of all of primary education’.

There was another reason for the neglect and virtual abandonment of Pirivena education in the Kandyan provinces. The Temple Lands Ordinance of 1856 contributed in no small measure to the use of monastic wealth, which earlier was used for pirivena schools, diverted for personal advantage of the incumbent monks. In most places usufruct of the lands became assets to individual monks and not to the institutions that they were in charge. It was noted in the Report of the Commission on the Administration of Buddhist Temporalities that, ‘The Kandyan priesthood lead a life of the careless and sensual…, and the offerings and produce of the lands are devoted for personal enjoyment. C. B Dunuvile, the Diyawadana Nilame and grandson of the Disave of Walapane who signed the Kandyan Convention complained that monks have abandoned their priestly duties and are engaged in temporal pursuits and all but a few are even ignorant of Pali. This statement was given before the Commission by Rambukwelle Sonuttara Thera of the Malwatta Chapter.

The British continued with state assistance to missionary education, as much as the Dutch, right from the beginning with Governor North taking the initiative. A few years into his tenure he wrote to the Colonial Secretary for missionary assistance to education. The Baptists arrived in 1812 and the Wesleyans (1814) and Church of England (1818) and the Americans followed by the London Missionary Society thereafter. In addition the government employed its own colonial chaplains, preachers and catechists in the State Ecclesiastical establishment.

Education no doubt was tied up with diffusion of Christianity and the Schools Commission, the important instrumentality was in the control of the Anglicans. The missionary effort extended beyond mere education for their evangelical zeal was not limited to, ‘making the natives learned men’ but in fact leading them to the Redeemer, i.e., conversion to Christianity. Their greater aim was directed to the larger multitude of ‘heathens’ outside the school, to whom they had to go by taking on the role of the itinerant preacher. John Murdoch set the example by resigning his position as Headmaster of the Government Central School in Kandy. His personal journal reads, ‘I shall require to travel on foot and shelter at night wherever I can; I shall be following the example of the Apostles, yea, of the Saviour Himself’.

Preachers: Christian and Buddhist Styles

The Christians had to face stiff competition from the Buddhists who were skilled preachers from yore. The latter had enduring contacts with the villagers and the missionaries even with state patronage, were handicapped from the start. Their English competency was of no use here. Proficiency in Sinhalese was an absolute necessity. It was an impediment to the foreigner competing with the Buddhist monk who was clearly in a class of his own. The missionary was at times offensive in the use of language and idiom, made worse by the novelty of the Buddhist scriptural content, which he only mastered after arrival in the island.

The complex system of word usage in Sinhala proved virtually an insurmountable hurdle to the foreign missionary. The use of pronouns conjoined with status differentials baffled them no end and often ended up offending the audience. An English author wrote in the preface to the English-Sinhalese dictionary that one Sinhalese singular person equivalent of the term you had fourteen different terms, each in the measure of the status of the person. The missionaries were so confused and virtually gave up by sticking to just one or two, which were less than polite. The word you in addressing a gathering became tho and umbala and the aristocrats in the audience were offended to be addressed as umba or tho in the presence of their subordinates seated alongside. Tho, thopi (you), Varella (come), palayalla (go), karapalla (do) did not please many in the audience. The Buddhist monks consciously avoided all status differentials by the use of the endearing term pinvathni flattering everyone.

To make matters worse the Sinhala translation of the Bible sponsored by the Church missionaries arbitrarily used one simplified term in translating the Sinhala equivalent of you as tho and thopi (meaning thou) was highly offensive to all and sundry. It was on the premise that it followed the simplicity that God had intended. On the use of the pronoun tho, wrote the chief translator Lambrick, ‘to apply tho to a man of respectable class is an actionable offence… a native professor of the Christian community admitted that he shudders whenever he reads that passage where the Devil using the derogatory term tho to our blessed Saviour’. They still retained it in the hope with time it will be weakened and diminished by the ‘mighty power of simplicity and truth’ of the Bible. But after much controversy and ill feeling the church missionaries back tracked and gave into Sinhalese Christians like James Alwis and John Pereira, and a new acceptable version of the Bible appeared in the 1860’s.

The Missionary preachers faced an uphill battle from the outset. Their countenance was problematic. Their unfriendly attitude of superiority, appearance and even personal aloofness were very much unfamiliar to the villager. Most Buddhist villagers therefore refused to attend. The preachers felt it and they complained to the Missions that that they are often taunted, cajoled and met with contempt, opprobrium and laughter. The villagers at times ridiculed the missionaries in demanding payment for attendance or arrack to sit till the end, in the knowledge that Europeans levied heavy taxes on arrack and had a penchant for liquor.

The arrival of the Print word

Religious controversy, proselytization debate and preaching received a boost with the introduction of the printing press. The Dutch firstly established a printing press in 1736 and the Wesleyans under a trained printer Mr. Harvard revived the printing press. They were followed by the Christian Church Mission and Baptists few years later. The Sinhalese Tract Society was organized under John Murdoch in 1849. The missionaries used the press to instruct the Christian believer and furthermore to convert the nominal believer into a devout disciple and in so doing, ‘save the deluded heathen from idolatrous superstition’ of the local faith, seen by the Europeans as ‘a massive evil structure’.

Gogerly, the manager of the Wesleyan Press was convinced that ‘it is by the press that our principal attacks must be made upon this wretched system’. The missionary tracts and pamphlets had an extensive circulation, helped by the fascination of Buddhists to read the printed word. This same development was to assist the Buddhists to counter the Christian effort and retaliate, but with the added benefit of scholarly dialogue and debate for which they were superior to the foreigner. Ultimately it played a major role in the revival of Buddhism and nationalism in the country.

The activities of the missionaries were not taken as a serious matter by the many. The Buddhists in the low country were interested in halting the decline of their religion than competing with the missionaries. Tennent wrote that ‘Active hostility was scarcely visible’ except the enthusiasm to propagate their own religion by erecting ‘banamaduwa’s and holding pinkam’. In fact the low country Sinhalese were quite comfortable with both Buddhism and Christianity having lived through the foreigner and their different faiths for centuries. It was not uncommon for the Sinhala Christians to be tutored by Buddhist monks for whom they showed the greatest respect. In fact many Sinhalese were willing to get their children baptised, with ‘no regard to their worthiness’ as Christians for legalities and secular advancement and also in the hope they become closet Buddhists. The clergy also did not mind fake baptisms in order to bolster the statistics to enhance the incomes to their missions.

(To be continued)

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Features

Fractious West facing a more solidified Eastern opposition

Published

14 hours ago

2026/04/9

Sahan Weerasooriya

An Iranian attack on a neighbouring Gulf state. Image courtesy BBC.

Going forward, it is hoped that a reported ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran would provide a basis for a degree of stability in the Middle East and pave the way for substantive peace talks between the powers concerned. The world is compelled to fall back on hope because there is never knowing when President Donald Trump would change his mind and plans on matters of the first importance. So erratic has he been.

Yet, confusion abounds on who has agreed to what. The US President is on record that a number of conditions put forward by him to Iran to deescalate tensions have been accepted by the latter, whereas Iran is yet to state unambiguously that this is so. For instance, the US side claims that Iran has come clear on the point that it would not work towards acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, but there is no official confirmation by Iran that this is so. The same goes for the rest of the conditions.

Accordingly, the peace process between the US and Iran, if such a thing solidly exists, could be said to be mired in uncertainty. Nevertheless, the wider publics of the world are bound to welcome the prospects of some sort of ceasing of hostilities because it would have the effect of improving their economic and material well being which is today under a cloud.

However, questions of the first magnitude would continue to bedevil international politics and provide the breeding ground for continued tensions between East and West. Iran-US hostilities helped highlight some of these divisive issues and a deescalation of these tensions would not inevitably translate into even a temporary resolution of these questions. The world community would have no choice but to take them up and work towards comprehending them better and managing them more effectively.

For example, there are thorny questions arising from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Essentially, this treaty bans the processing and use of nuclear weapons by states but some of the foremost powers are not signatories to it.

Moreover, the NPT does not provide for the destroying of nuclear arsenals by those signatory states which are already in possession of these WMDs. Consequently, there would be a glaring power imbalance between the latter nuclear-armed states and others which possess only conventional weapons.

Such a situation has grave implications for Iran’s security, for instance. The latter could argue, in view of the NPT restrictions, that the US poses a security threat to it but that it is debarred by the Treaty from developing a nuclear arms capability of its own to enable it to match the nuclear capability of the US. Moreover, its regional rival Israel is believed to possess a nuclear weapons capability.

Accordingly, a case could be made that the NPT is inherently unfair. The US would need to help resolve this vexatious matter going forward. But if it remains, US-Iran tensions would not prove easy to resolve. The same goes for Iran-Israeli tensions. Consequently, the Middle East would remain the proverbial ‘powder keg’.

Besides the above issues, the world has ample evidence that it could no longer speak in terms of a united NATO or West. Apparently, there could be no guarantee that US-NATO relations would remain untroubled in future, even if the current Iran-US standoff is peacefully resolved. US-NATO ties almost reached breaking point in the current crisis when the US President called on its NATO partners, particularly Britain, to help keep open the Hormuz Straits for easy navigation by commercial vessels, militarily, on seeing that such help was not forthcoming. Such questions are bound to remain sore points in intra-Western ties.

In other words, it would be imperative for the US’ NATO partners to help pull the US’ ‘chestnuts out of the fire’ going ahead. The question is, would NATO be willing to thus toe the US line even at the cost of its best interests.

For the West, these fractious issues are coming to the fore at a most unpropitious moment. The reality that could faze the West at present is the strong opposition shown to its efforts to bolster its power and influence by China and Russia. Right through the present crisis, the latter have stood by Iran, materially and morally. For instance, the most recent Security Council resolution spearheaded by the US which was strongly critical of Iran, was vetoed by China and Russia.

Accordingly, we have in the latter developments some marked polarities in international politics that could stand in the way of the West advancing its interests unchallenged. They point to progressively intensifying East-West tensions in international relations in the absence of consensuality.

It is only to be expected that given the substance of international politics that the West would be opposed by the East, read China and Russia, in any of the former’s efforts to advance its self interests unilaterally in ways that could be seen as illegitimate, but what is sorely needed at present is consensuality among the foremost powers if the world is to be ‘a less dangerous place to live in.’ Minus a focus on the latter, it would be a ‘no-win’ situation for all concerned.

It would be central to world stability for International Law to be upheld by all states and international actors. Military intervention by major powers in the internal affairs of other countries remains a principal cause of international mayhem. Both East and West are obliged to abide scrupulously with this principle.

From the latter viewpoint, not only did the West err in recent times, but the East did so as well. Iran, for instance, acted in gross violation of International Law when it attacked neighbouring Gulf states which are seen as US allies. Neither Iran nor the US-Israel combine have helped in advancing international law and order by thus taking the law into their own hands.

Unfortunately, the UN has been a passive spectator to these disruptive developments. It needs to play a more robust role in promoting world peace and in furthering consensual understanding among the principal powers in particular. The need is also urgent to advance UN reform and render the UN a vital instrument in furthering world peace. The East and West need to think alike and quickly on this urgent undertaking.

Features

Science-driven health policies key to tackling emerging challenges — UNFPA

Published

14 hours ago

2026/04/9

Sahan Weerasooriya

Dr. Dayanath Ranatunga

Marking World Health Day on April 7, health experts have called for a stronger commitment to science-based decision-making to address increasingly complex and evolving health challenges in Sri Lanka and beyond.

Dr. Dayanath Ranatunga, Assistant Representative of the United Nations Population Fund, stressed that health is no longer confined to hospitals or traditional medical systems, but is shaped by a broad spectrum of social, environmental, and technological factors.

“This year’s theme, ‘Together for Health. Stand with Science,’ reminds us that science is not only for laboratories or policymakers. It is a way of thinking and a tool that shapes everyday decisions,” he said.

Dr. Ranatunga noted that modern health challenges are increasingly interconnected, ranging from infectious diseases such as COVID-19 to climate-related risks, demographic shifts, and emerging forms of online violence.

He warned that maternal and newborn health continues to demand urgent attention despite progress. Globally, an estimated 260,000 women died from pregnancy and childbirth-related causes in 2023 alone—many of them preventable through timely, science-based interventions.

“In countries like Sri Lanka, where fertility rates are declining and survival rates improving, every pregnancy carries greater significance—not just for families, but for the future of communities and economies,” he said.

The UNFPA official also highlighted the growing threat of Technology Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV), including cyber harassment and online abuse, noting that these forms of violence can have deep psychological consequences despite lacking visible physical harm.

He emphasised the need for multidisciplinary, science-informed approaches that integrate mental health, digital safety, and survivor-centered care.

Turning to demographic trends, Dr. Ranatunga pointed out that increasing life expectancy is bringing new challenges, particularly the rise of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular illnesses, and cancers.

In Sri Lanka, nearly 13.9% of mothers develop diabetes during pregnancy, a trend attributed to obesity and unhealthy lifestyles, underscoring the urgent need for preventive healthcare strategies.

“Are we investing enough in prevention?” he asked, noting that early intervention and healthier lifestyles could significantly reduce long-term healthcare costs, especially in a country with a free public healthcare system.

He underscored the importance of data-driven policymaking, stating that scientific research and analytics enable governments to identify gaps, anticipate future needs, and allocate resources more effectively.

The UNFPA, he said, is already leveraging tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to improve access to maternal healthcare, including mapping travel times for pregnant women to reach health facilities.

Digital innovation is also transforming healthcare delivery, from telemedicine to real-time data systems, improving efficiency and ensuring continuity of care even during emergencies.

In Sri Lanka, partnerships between the government and development agencies are helping to modernise training institutions, including facilities in Batticaloa, equipping healthcare workers with both clinical and digital skills.

However, Dr. Ranatunga cautioned that technology alone is not a solution.

“It must be guided by evidence and grounded in equity,” he said, pointing out that women’s health remains significantly underfunded, with only about 7% of global healthcare research focusing on conditions specific to women.

He also drew attention to the growing health impacts of climate change, including extreme weather, food insecurity, and displacement, describing it as an emerging public health crisis.

“Health does not begin in hospitals. It is shaped by the environments we live in, the choices we make, and the systems we build,” he said.

Calling for renewed commitment, Dr. Ranatunga urged stakeholders to invest in prevention, embrace innovation, and ensure that science remains central to policy and practice.

“Science is not just about knowledge—it is about ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to live healthy, dignified lives, and that no one is left behind,” he added.

By Ifham Nizam

Features

Sharing the festive joy with ‘Awurudu Kaale’

Published

14 hours ago

2026/04/9

Sahan Weerasooriya

The visually impaired who make up Bright Light Band in Awurudu attire

Melantha Perera is well known as a very versatile musician.

He was involved with the band Mirage, as their keyboardist/vocalist, and was also seen in action with other outfits, as well, before embarking on a trip to Australia, as a solo artiste.

I now hear that he has plans to operate as a trio.

However, what has got many talking about Melantha, these days, is his awesome work with the visually impaired Bright Light Band.

They have worked out a special song for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, aptly titled ‘Awurudu Kaale.’

Says Melantha: “This song has been created to celebrate the spirit of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and to share the joy of the Awurudu season with all Sri Lankans”.

Yes, of course, Melantha composed the song, with the lyrics written collaboratively by Melantha, Badra, and the parents of the talented performers, whose creative input brought the song to life during moments of inspiration.

Melantha Perera: Awesome work with Bright Light Band

This meaningful collaboration reflects the strong community behind the Bright Light Band.

According to Melantha, accompaning the song is a vibrant video production that also features the involvement of the parents, highlighting unity, joy, and togetherness.

Beyond showcasing their musical talents, the visually impaired members of Bright Light Band deliver a powerful message, through this project, that their abilities extend beyond singing, as they also express themselves through movement and dance.

Melantha expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of the project and looks forward to sharing it with audiences across the country during this festive season.

He went on to say that Bright Light Band extends its sincere gratitude to Bcert Australia for their generous Mian sponsorship, the CEO of the company, Samath Fernando, for his continuous support in making such initiatives possible, and Rukshan Perera for his personal support and encouragement in bringing this project to completion.

The band also acknowledges Udara Fernando for his invaluable contribution, generously providing studio space and accommodating extended recording sessions to suit the children’s availability.

Appreciation is warmly extended to the parents, whose unwavering commitment from ensuring attendance at rehearsals to supporting the video production has been instrumental in the success of this project.

Through ‘Awurudu Kaale’, Bright Light Band hopes to spread festive cheer and inspire audiences, proving that passion and talent know no boundaries.