Author: Rohan Mathes
Publication: The Buddhist News
Network
Date: September 12, 2003
URL: http://www.buddhistnews.tv/current/sl-bud-survive-260903.php
In spite of 500 years of powerful
suppression by three foreign powers, Buddhism still could not be destroyed
due to the reverence paid to the Buddha chivara, the presence of Buddhist
temples and monks and the love of poetry, observed Deshamanya Dr. P. R.
Anthonis in his address at the second E. A. Wijesooriya Memorial Oration
organised by the Mahinda College O.B.A (Colombo Branch) at the SLFI auditorium
on Tuesday.
Speaking on the theme "Miracle of
the Survival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka under 500 Years of Suppression",
Anthonis said that in the era in which the society was primarily agricultural
and in which there were no Sinhalese songs, poetry came naturally to the
lips of the people of the orient. The moment feeling touched the fringe
of passion, it broke into metrical strains.
Even medicine was taught in the
form of poetry in Sri Lanka and India. All types of sentiments could be
expressed in poetry. The necessity for all civil servants to pass an examination
in Sinhalese and Pali to understand the religion and customs brought a
close relationship with scholar monks who were masters of Sinhalese, Pali
and Sanskrit. This was a significant factor in the spread of Buddhism in
the West.
Teachers who evoked great admiration
not only for their erudition and scholarship but also for their Buddhist
monastic disciplines and purity of their lives also contributed to the
spread of Buddhism in the West.
Although the Colebrooke Commission
in 1832 stopped all Sinhalese schools of the island run by temples to break
the connection of the Sinhalese with the temples, the Deepaduttaramaya
of Kotahena started classes as Dhamma schools by the Ven. Seenigama Deerakkhanda
Thero. Migettuwatte Gunananda Thero got his training here. The same year
of 1832, a child who was later Sir Edwin Arnold was born in England and
in the USA another child by the name of Henry Steele Olcott was born.
When the missionaries produced pamphlets
in schools against Buddhism, the Buddhists too retaliated with pamphlets
which later took the form of booklets such as "Kanni Mariyage Heti".
Then came the personal contacts
in the form of debate starting from Ganegama followed by Waragoda, Udanwita,
Gampola and finally Panadura.
The arrival of Col. Olcott bestowed
on us the Buddhist Marriage Registrars, the Vesak holiday, the lost rights
and the big schools like Woodward's Mahinda and Higgins' Musaeus.
A nation as a whole must take a
keen interest in the lives and achievements of its great men and women,
as it is not merely an act of gratitude but also an investment of a priceless
character. "Apadana Sobhini Panna", Dr. Anthonis said.
