Dharmaraja College
Dharmaraja College, founded in 1887, is a boys' school in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is a Buddhist school with around 300+ teaching staff and over 4,000 students.
A land area of is owned by the school spreading over half of the Dharmaraja hill. Dharmaraja has one of the oldest scout troops in the world, the 1st Kandy Dharmaraja Scout Group, which was established in 1913. It is one of the first Sri Lankan schools to start playing cricket. It has consistently ranked among the first two boys schools in Sri Lanka in the preference rankings based on year 5 scholarship examinees' preferences.
History
Background and initiation
Dharmaraja College, Kandy is one of the premier Buddhist schools in the country and is named after the Buddha.Dharmaraja College, as well as the other Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka, owes its existence to Col Henry Steel Olcott, philanthropist and the founder of the Buddhist Theosophical Society. Having read a printed version of the Panadura Vaadaya of 1873, a public debate between Buddhist and Christian representatives on the correctness of each belief, Col Olcott was impressed with the teachings in Theravada Buddhism, which were in line with his vision as a theosophist. 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 Thera, the Venerable Dodanduwe Piyarathana Thero, the Venerable Walane Sri Siddhartha Thero and the Venerable Ratmalane Dhammaloka Thero, along with Anagarika Dharmapala, Walisinghe Harischandra, and Don Agaris Divakara Mohottige, Mudaliyar of Central Province. Mudaliyar Agaris was a popular and respected man throughout Kandy Province and had been given the title in 1878 after his father, Don Alexander-James Divakara Mohottige had died.
With Sir Olcott's initiative and guidance, the theosophists identified that a major factor for the decline of Sinhalese Buddhists was the lack of education facilities, and the best solution was to make available educational institutes with a Buddhist religious background. It was under this theory that foundations were laid for the beginning of the Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka, which include Dharmaraja College, Ananda College, Maliyadeva College and Mahinda College.
In 1887 Sir Olcott visited Kandy and expressed his wish to start an English-medium Buddhist school with the help of Sumangala Thero and the Mudaliyar of Kandy at that time; D.M Agaris. Several Kandyan nobles were 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 levelled up the plot for the building.
It was under this pretext that on 30 June 1887, Dharmaraja College, under the name of Kandy Buddhist High School, was opened. This occasion was graced by Sir Olcott, Mudaliyar Divakara Mohottige and several Kandyan nobles including Dullawe Adhikaram, Wadugodapitiya Punchirala Korale, T.B. Panabokke and A.D.J. Gunawardena.
Andiris de Silva was the first principal. He was the only teacher of the school at that time, which had enrolled 12 students. The number of students reached the 50s 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 Mudaliyar Mohottige and the school by enrolling their children.
Initial development
However, by 1890, the necessity of a more qualified principal emerged and appointed Sir D.B. Jayatilaka as principal. The school had around 80 students by then. 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.H. Banbury succeeded Sir Jayathilake as principal and he ran a campaign to raise funds for a permanent school building, travelling 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 honour. One of the most notable events during his time was 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.
Later in 1899, following the retirement of Hack, C.S. Rajaratnam was appointed as principal. Though he himself was not a Buddhist, he was an acclaimed scholar and continued to guide the school along Buddhist principles and attitudes.
Golden age (1902-1935)
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. The founder of the Scout Movement, Lord Baden Powell visited the 'Lake View Park International Scout Centre' of Dharmaraja College twice during this period. In 1915 a two-story building completed at the city premises, which later was named in honour of Billimoria.By 1922 Billimoria had raised funds to purchase the 'Lake View Estate', a 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. Among special events at the time 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.
The College Scout Group began in 1914, under the patronage of De Saram Brothers 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. The flag was awarded to the troop in any of the British colonies that had the largest number of King's Scouts. 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. Several renowned figures visited Dharmaraja during his office, including Mahatma Gandhi, Lord Baden Powell and D. H. Lawrence. Billimoria served 30 years as principal. He retired in 1932, which led to the beginning of another important chapter of Dharmaraja History.
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. 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. The roads and other facilities were developed. Cadetting in Dharmaraja began during Kularatne's office and so did 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.
Second fifty years (1936-1960)
In 1936 Kularatne was re-appointed as the principal of Ananda, and L.H. Mettananda, who was Ananda's principal at that time, was appointed principal of Dharmaraja. Mettananda identified the necessity of more buildings for the college and set off to build two two-storey buildings at the Lake View premises. It was funded using proceedings of the Golden Jubilee Carnival in 1937 and other fund-raising projects. Dharmaraja started its Advanced Level classes in 1940, and around this time the Secondary Section of the college was moved to Lake View, leaving only the Primary Section at the original premises. Mettananda served Dharmaraja for nearly ten years. In 1946 he was appointed principal back at Ananda, but his service to Dharmaraja would be remembered for years to come, especially with the Mettananda building which now houses the College Offices and the Library.S. A. Wijayathilake was appointed principal of Dharmaraja in November 1945, the same year that free education was established in Sri Lanka. Wijayathilake faced the task of maintaining the momentum set by Mettananda and Kularatne. He added several more buildings to the school and also developed the laboratories and the library. Wijayathilake, who was a scholar of Buddhist studies and Classical Languages, emphasised on developing the literary activities of the students.Image:Dharmaraja College Flag.jpg|thumb|Flag of Dharmaraja CollegeWijayathilake retired in early 1955 and was replaced by Charles Godage, who was also a patron of Arts and a poet and writer. He started the Dharmaraja Development Society in 1955. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike started off his victorious campaign for the Parliamentary election of 1956, by an alms giving held at the Dharmaraja Primary School hall, which was known as a "Jayabima". In 1957, the "Kandy Education Front", which led the movement of persuading the Ceylonese government to take over assisted schools around the country, was established at the Dharmaraja Primary School hall under the Chairmanship of Sir Bennet Soysa, a distinguished Old Rajan. By 1959, the end of Godage's office, the number of students had risen from 842 to 1276. This meant many more buildings, lab equipment and resources were necessary. Godage, along with the Development Society, added several more classrooms and laboratories, and also repaired many others. Godage later left for England in 1959 for further pursuing his studies.