KAMALIKA PIERIS

Revised 27.6.20

Ven. Ellawala Medhananda was born on 28^th January 1937. He was named Piyaratne. His father was Ellawala Imiyahami Punchi Mahatthaya and his mother was Hapurugama Kiri Ethana. Father was a person of some standing in the village. He owned considerable land.   He was a building contractor and had 12 or so workers under him.   He   also engaged in gemming. He was not very religious, but would read the Pujavali or Jataka Pota before going to sleep.

Piyaratne was the sixth of eight children, 5 girls and 2 boys.  He first attended a school in Ellawala. On passing the Grade 5 exam, he attended Ruwanwella Madhya Maha Vidyalaya. According to his biographer, young Piyaratne met a bhikkhu on the road and decided, then and there, to become one himself.  His mother welcomed the idea. His father did not, but advised him not to back out halfway, now that he had taken the decision to be a monk.

At thirteen he went to Napawala Sumangalaramaya, in Getahatta, hoping to be ordained as a samanera. Instead he was made to work all day long at household tasks including cooking and washing up. He did not like it. He left the temple and went home, walking all the way, not once but thrice.  Each time Loku Hamuduruwo, Ven. Soratha, came to his house and persuaded him to return.  Piyaratne returned for the fourth time and was   ordained a samanera in 1950.

In 1955 he was sent to Ratmalane Parama Dhamma chetiya for his education. He recalled that at the time, the Pirivena was not developed unlike now. The food was inadequate. He got lunu kanda for breakfast every day. Loku Hamudurowo gave him five Rupees a month and his mother gave another ten, but this was not enough for his needs. However, he got pens and copy books as pirikara.

From Parama Dhamma he moved to Vidyodaya Pirivena. He stayed at Hunupitiya Gangarama while attending Vidyodaya. His subjects were Sinhala, history, Sanskrit.  Medhananda was at Vidyodaya when it was elevated to a University.  He obtained an honors degree in Sanskrit, with a class, from there. Then he obtained a second honors degree from University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, specializing in Sinhala. He also obtained a Masters degree from University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He started on a Ph.D thesis but could not complete it,   due, he said, to his teaching commitments. 

On graduating, in 1962, Ven. Medhananda went headlong into secondary school teaching.  He taught in several schools in the   Uva-Sabaragamuwa provinces.  They were, in sequence, Badulla Dharmaduta Vidyalaya, Karandana Maha Vidyalaya,   Kuruwita Maha Vidyalaya,   Uduvaka Siddhartha Vidyalaya, Ellepola Maha Vidyalaya and Anura Maha Vidyalaya, Getahetta.   (Dates not provided)

W.J.M. Lokubandara , when he became Minister of Education decided that Ven. Medhananda should be in the Education Department, not puttering about in secondary schools. He appointed him  as assistant director in the Education Department, where his first task was inspection of schools. Medhananda was also in the religious education section.. Ven. Medhananda  worked in several zonal and provincial  education divisions in Sabaragamuwa  and retired from the Eheliyagoda division.

Medhananda‘s first appointment was to Badulla Dharmaduta Vidyalaya.  He stayed at Kailagoda Vihara while teaching there. Dharmaduta was a leading school in the district, it had 3000 to 4000 students. It was trilingual. Medhananda  taught history, Sinhala and Buddhist civilization. Medhananda introduced Advanced level classes to Dharmaduta,  with history as one of  the A level subjects. Students were eager to take up History at A level, Medhananda said. He  also started a sil movement  in the school.  

Karandana Maha Vidyalaya had excellent students, recalled Medhananda. They came from good homes and were well brought up. He taught Buddhist civilization and history at A level. When Medhananda transferred to Kuruwita these students had no one to teach  these two subjects. There was just 8 months left before the exam. Medhananda got them down to his temple every evening and taught them.’They did well in the exam.’

Medhananda’s longest period of teaching was at Kuruwita. At Kuruwita he started a school magazine ‘Gaveshana’ to encourage pupils to write creatively. Kuruwita was a large school and the principal was too old to manage the school. MP Nanda Ellawala asked Medhananda to find a good principal for Kuruwita. Medhananda scouted around and found a suitable person, the principal of Weligepola Maha Vidyalaya.

Medhananda was next  asked to accept the post of principal at Uduvaka Siddhartha Maha Vidyalaya for one year. it was a neglected school. No principal ever stayed long  .Medhananda was asked   to turn it round. 

Uduwaka was in a bad state,  recalled Medhananda . The school had just three classrooms, the lavatory had no door, the access road was so bad that not even a tractor could go on it. Medhananda obtained donations from well wishers   and provided the school with class rooms, an open air theatre, library, playground and  Budu medura .He also built  class rooms for ‘industrial training.’ He spoke to the owner and obtained the adjoining land for the school, when others had failed to do so.

The school had no water, Medhananda obtained water from a stream one kilometer away on a hill. His team  did all the work .The wood needed for  building was obtained from nearby Danagala Kanda. Medhananda obtained a permit, cut down trees and   with the help of pupils,  the logs were carried downhill and loaded to lorries below.

Medhananda said he too participated in the physical labor involved.  He said he had carried bricks and  sand, dragged wood, cut drains, and dug the soil when necessary. He was Principal and labourer, both.     He arrived in school early. He returned after school had closed and stayed there till 7 or 8 pm. Sometimes he slept there, on a bench, especially when  building was in progress.

Ven. Medhananda found that discipline was very lax in the school. students came and went as they wished, were absorbed in love affairs and spent school time in the nearby boutiques. Medhananda   put stop to this. No pupil could leave school once he came in, except with permission. Parents could not hang around in the school either.

Despite this, some pupils   left the school premises during school hours without permission. Medhananda   caned them  before the whole school. Parents protested. Medhananda did not give in.

Medhananda   created a prefect  committee of 15 girls and 15 boys   and gave them much responsibility; They were entrusted with looking after classes when  teachers were not  available. 

 Medhananda insisted that the staff must be punctual and  should take less leave. They must go to class on time. Teachers must move from one class to another quickly, without wasting time chatting. he was very strict about this.  The staff resented all this for about a month, then  settled down said Medhananda . 

The number of pupils increased from the initial 300 to 1500 during Medhananda’s time. they came from Hanwella, Dehiovita, Eheliyagoda   and Karandana. There were only 5 in the A level class when he arrived. He coached them  and all five entered University  to study in the Arts  faculty.  The numbers in the  A level class then rose to 150. 

In addition to the arts stream, Medhananda introduced commerce. He wanted to start science as well and began to build a laboratory. Vasudeva Nanayakkara, MP helped with money from the Decentralized Fund.

Then in 1977 the government changed . UNP came to power. UNP supporters in Uduwaka were opposed to Medhananda . They wanted Medhananda removed.  but the MP of the area, resisted. He   said it was Medhananda  who  had developed the school.

A meeting to decide  on the  building needs of the schools in the area,  took place in the Education Department . Medhananda participated and said that his science building needed to be completed. The MP for the area, who was also present, said that Uduwaka  did not need a science lab. Medhananda pointed out that  pupils from ten miles away attended Uduwaka. The school served about 10 villages,  ‘These are poor  people. Please approve the remaining money.’ No said  the  MP,  Uduwaka  does not need a science lab.  Education   must be done the way I want it.

There was an argument between Medhananda and MP.  A few days later Medhananda  got a letter transferring him to Ellepola  Maha Vidyalaya in Balangoda  as ‘upa guruverayek’.  Medhananda  went to  Nissanka Wijeyeratne, then Minister of Education , and got the transfer cancelled, he then returned to Uduwaka, signed in as principal, and then asked for a transfer. 

M.L.M. Aboosally was MP for Balangoda at the time. He intervened. He personally  visited Medhananda   and asked Medhananda to name any school he wanted. Medhananda  had no preference. Aboosally  then appointed  Ven. Medhananda as principal of Ellepola Maha Vidyalaya  since the principal   there was going on transfer. Medhananda   observed that it was a Muslim politician who had come to his aid, not the Sinhalese.

Ellepola Maha Vidyalaya  gave him a welcome when he arrived. Ellepola had sufficient buildings  but otherwise, Ellepola was a bad as Uduwaka, Medhananda recalled.  Medhananda   started A level classes and gave the school an open air stage.

Wimal Wickremasinghe, MP for Eheliyagoda, then asked Ven. Medhananda to take over Anura Maha Vidyalaya, Getahatta  . Medhananda  improved that school too. The access road was improved and  buildings renovated.  Medhananda  added new buildings, including a  library and  shrine room. Pupil count rose from 364 to 2000. There were only 3 pupils in A level class initially.  Under Medhananda ,  Anura Vidyalaya’s  Arts and Commerce results for ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels  improved so much, that Anura ended up as one of the five schools with the best results in Sabaragamuwa. 

Medhananda taught Sinhala, History and Buddhist civilization in the schools he went to.  He encouraged students to study these subjects.  He also encouraged them to explore the historical sites in their area.

At Dharmaduta, he told the pupils to go and look at historical places in Badulla.  They first went to Matigahatenna pansala, where Medhananda found an inscription. Pupils then went to Alupota and  other archaeological sites in Moneragala. Karandana students were taken on exploration to Valaellugoda kanda.  Advanced level students from Uduwaka   joined Medhananda in his exploration of the ‘whole of the Sitawaka kingdom.’

When history was removed from the school syllabus, in 1972, Medhananda tried to compensate. He wrote many essays to the mass media on history and archaeology and also arranged for an all island series of talks. There was a good response, said Medhananda to his biographer.

Medhananda has been among the group who had agitated for the return of history to the school syllabus. He had very unflattering things to say about its removal. When Histoyr was brought back to schools, Medhananda, then in the Ministry of Education, was on the board responsible for Grade 9 History textbook.

Ven. Medhananda  has also had a successful,  though  brief, career as a University teacher. After his spell at Kuruwita Maha Vidyalaya , he was asked to join  the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, his University , as a lecturer. Ven.  Kaluachchimulle Mahanama had left for postgraduate studies abroad and Medhananda was asked to fill in. He was given a room in the Vice Chancellor’s quarters to live in.

He taught Sanskrit at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Medhananda recalled that   some lectures were attended by more than 400 students. University teachers had also attended his lectures. My view ( Kamalika Pieris) is that he would have lectured on history and Buddhist civilization  in addition to Sanskrit  and the increased audiences would have been for these, not Sanskrit.

In 1971 the teaching at Sri Jayewardenepura  was hampered by the fact that  the JVP was giving the lectures inside the University .  The University  closed. Medhananda and some other s decided to use the time to  translate   Sanskrit works to Sinhala.

While teaching at Sri Jayewardenepura, Medhananda accepted a request to take over Uduwaka Anura Vidyalaya. When the undergraduates go to know of this, they signed a petition asking that  Ven. Medhananda be persuaded to  stay on in the University. The petition was signed by undergraduates of  Colombo, Peradeniya and Sri Jayewardenepura . Medhananda observed that as far as he  knew, this was the first time that such a request had been made.  Medhananda said he still had a copy of this petition.

Medhananda insisted that he must go to Anura Vidyalaya as he had accepted the position. The University  was   determined not to lose his services. Sri Jayewardenepura  asked Medhananda  to teach on weekends, as a substitute could not be found. Medhananda  readily  agreed. He taught in the University during weekends, for two years, without pay. But the University eventually   found a way to pay him, and he got paid for his full period of work, including arrears. University had kept a complete record of the lectures he had given. Medhananda travelled to Nugegoda from  Getahatta   in his own car. He owned a Vauxhall car,  ‘in rather poor condition,’  bought for 3000 rupees.  

Ven. Medhananda is a prolific writer.  That is well known. He has written many books on Sri Lanka history and on Buddhism. Medhanand. also composed many kavi. His biographer, Kahatapitiya says, Medhananda had learnt how to write Kavi from ‘Sirisena Maitipe pavat va gena yanu labu Arunaloka grantha vidyalayen”.

 Medhananda  has contributed  poems and prose writings to Ambavanaya”  and ‘Sinhala Bauddhaya’. His first published book of poems was Athvasi hasna’( date not available). In 1956 he wrote  Abhinava swarna mayura sandesaya.’   This was a sandesa  sent from Napawala to Natha devale, Kandy, asking Vishnu to protect  rata, jatiya, agama.

In 1958 he published  ‘Sokaye geethaya’  which was based on a story written in English.   A relative gave him the money to print this work and Medhananda had  sold a considerable number of copies, each  priced at fifty cents, which was a big sum those days.   His next composition, influenced by the Sanskrit work on the subject, was  Buddha charita maha kavya. ( continued)