Dharmaraja College, Kandy is one of the premier Buddhist Schools in the country boasting a prolific history of more than 120 years since 30th of June 1887. The college was named after Buddha.
Dharmaraja College, as well as the other Buddhist Schools in Sri Lanka, owes its existence to Col Henry Steele Olcott, philanthropist and the founder of the Buddhist Theosophical Society.[12] Having read a printed version of the ‘Panadura Vadaya’ of 1873, a public debate between Buddhist and Christian representatives on the correctness of each belief, Col Olcott was really impressed of the teachings in Theravada Buddhism, which were in line with his vision as a theosophist.[13] It resulted in him arriving in Sri Lanka to study more on Buddhism, and starting a branch of the Theosophical Society, first in Colombo and then in Kandy and Galle. He was ably supported by the Venerable Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera - hero of the ‘Panadura Vadaya’, the Venerable Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thero, the Venerable Walane Sri Siddhartha Thero and the Venerable Ratmalane Dhammaloka Thero, along with Anagarika Dharmapala, Walisinghe Harischandra, and Sir D.B. Jayatilaka.[14]
With Sir Olcott’s initiative and guidance, the theosophists identified that a major factor for the decline of Sinhala Buddhists was the lack of proper education facilities, and the best solution was to make available educational institutes with a solid Buddhist religious background. It was under this theory that foundations were laid to the beginning of the ‘Buddhist Schools’ in Sri Lanka, which include the likes of Dharmaraja College, Ananda College, Maliyadeva College & Mahinda College. In 1887 Sir Olcott visited Kandy and expressed his wish to start an English-medium Buddhist School.[15] Several Kandyan nobles were very supportive of the idea, and it was decided that the plot of land in front of the Old Palace, adjoining the Natha Devalaya was the best for building the school. But there was an obstacle in that the plot was covered by a Bo tree, held sacred by the Buddhists, which had to be felled for putting up a school building. The British Administration opposed the felling citing that it would be an action against Buddhism. Wadugodapitiya Punchirala Korale, felled and removed the tree in one night, and leveled up the plot for the building.
It was under this pretext that in the morning of Thursday, the 30th of June 1887, Dharmaraja College, under the name of 'Kandy Buddhist High School', was opened. This occasion was graced by Sir Olcott and several Kandyan nobles including Dullawe Adhikaram, Wadugodapitiya Punchirala Korale, T.B. Panabokke and A.D.J. Gunawardena.[16]
Andiris de Silva was the first principal and the only teacher of the school at that time, which had enrolled 12 students.[17] The number of students reached the 50’s and the staff increased to three under Andiris de Silva, who was an efficient leader and an accomplished teacher. Many of the local nobles supported the school by enrolling their children in, having faith in the staff and headmaster.
[edit] Initial development
However, by 1890, the necessity of a more qualified principal emerged and The Colombo Theosophical Society appointed Sir D.B. Jayathilake as principal.[18] The school had around 80 students by then, and Sir Jayathilake’s popularity as a leader and his multi-disciplinary fluency and knowledge boosted enrolments as well as the quality of the school. The foundations of transforming Dharmaraja from a mere educational establishment to one of the best schools in Sri Lanka were laid by Sir Jayathilake. Sir Jayathilake was appointed the deputy principal of Ananda College in 1898, and later went on to become the Governor of Ceylon.
H. Banbury succeeded Sir Jayathilake as principal and he brought forth a campaign to raise funds for a permanent school building, traveling even in remote villages collecting donations. He used the money to build a single storied building near the city premises of the school, which was later named the ‘Banbury Building’ in his honor. One of the most notable events during his time was officially changing the name of the school to ‘Dharmaraja College’. Banbury left to India in 1899 to further pursue his studies.
Wilton Hack took over from Banbury, and took over the challenge of developing the school’s resources.
Later in 1899, following the retirement of Hack, C.S. Rajaratnam was appointed principal. Though he himself was not a Buddhist, he was an acclaimed scholar and continued to guide the school along Buddhist principles and attitudes, while giving more emphasis to improve the standard of the education. He won high acclaim from the Educational authorities.
[edit] Golden age
Dharmaraja’s golden age began with the appointment of K.F. Billimoria as principal in 1902. Billimoria gave priority to shaping Dharmaraja into a strong institution which could ably compete with the other Missionary Schools at that time. He recruited many able educators as dedicated as himself towards heightening the standards of Dharmaraja, and also identified the need of developing the physical resources to match the educational achievements. The founder of the Scout Movement, Lord Baden Powell visited the 'Lake View Park International Scout Centre' of Dharmaraja College twice during this period. It is a unique distinction held by any Sri Lankan school.[19] In 1915, a two story building was completed at the city premises, which later was named in honor of Billimoria. By 1922 Billimoria had raised enough funds to purchase the ‘Lake View Estate’, a 37-acre (150,000 m2) land overlooking the Kandy Lake, and built the A and B wings of the College Hostel in 1923. The actual hostel began at the Principal’s quarters in 1921. There were several incidents of high social and literal importance occurred around Dharmaraja College during this period. Once, a Nobel Laureate in Literature, the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore did a dance recital at the Principal's bungalow when he visited the school in the 1920s. And the English poet D. H. Lawrence spent a holiday at Ardnaree, the college Principal's bungalow, in 1922.[20]
The College Scout Group began in 1914,[19] under the patronage of Billimoria and many sports and other extra-curricular activities were encouraged. The '1st Kandy Dharmaraja Scout Group' won the coveted "King's Flag" for three consecutive years from 1917 to 1919. This flag was traditionally awarded to the troop in any of the British colonies that had the largest number of King's Scouts.[19] This is an unprecedented record held by any of the Sri Lankan schools even today. The Cricket Big-Match between Dharmaraja and Kingswood also began in this time.[21] Several world renowned figures visited Dharmaraja during his office, including Mahatma Gandhi, Lord Baden Powell and D. H. Lawrence. Billimoria served 30 years as principal. He was forced to retire in 1932, which led to the beginning of another important chapter of Dharmaraja History.[22]
P. de S. Kularatne, who had served as the principal at Ananda College, took over duties from Billimoria in 1932 and continued the work. However, Dharmaraja was facing a financial crisis when Kularatne assumed duties, and even the Lake View premise was under threat of being sold. But Kularatne, was able to save the land and secure a home for Dharmaraja, for centuries to come. He restored the Hostel and transformed the Principal’s quarters at the city premises to classrooms and a laboratory complex, and Dharmaraja started teaching science subjects in 1933. The first academic buildings in Lake View were built around this time and a part of the students were taken there. The roads and other facilities were also developed so that Lake View transformed from a shrubbery into a property any school would be proud to own. Cadetting in Dharmaraja also began during Kularatne’s office and so did many other sports including Tennis, Swimming etc. In 1935 Dharmaraja was visited by four distinguished visitors from India; Rabindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Uday Shankar and Kalki Krishnamurthy.
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