THE PANADURA VADAYA CONVENED BY GUNANANDA THERA

Sri Lanka’s uniqueness comes from Buddhism. The Sinhala language and Sinhala culture began to evolve considerably after the arrival of Buddhism in the reign of Devanampiyatissa, through the intervention of Mahinda Thera. Rapid development could be seen with regard to education, literature, the arts and craft, and even technology: Buddhism buttressed the massive irrigation culture that eventually became the envy of the world. State sponsorship would prove to be instrumental in the development of architecture and agriculture. Sri Lanka became known for centuries thereafter as the Granary of the East.

The arrival of the Portuguese on the 15th of November, 1505, changed all this, darkening the skies that had beamed so munificently at the country until then. Portuguese troops went on to demolish Buddhist temples and expel Buddhist monks, forcing the people under the shadow of their sword to embrace the Christian faith. The Portuguese would rule the

island for 150 years until Dutch imperialists drove them out in 1658. The Dutch were more oriented towards commerce, but as Father Phillipus Baldaeus makes it very evident in his book A true and exact description of the great island of Ceylon, they were just as concerned about spreading Christianity as their bloodthirsty predecessors.

The British expelled the Dutch in 1796, and brought the entire country under their rule after the signing of the Kandyan Convention on the 2nd of March, 1815. Ceylon became a British colony. 20 years later, Thomas Macaulay presented his famous Minute on Education at the British Parliament, in which he outlined his ideas for education reforms in India that would move the elite of those societies completely to embrace Western culture.

Three of the points he highlighted in his Minute were: the need to spread Christianity, the dissemination of British culture to the natives, and the replacement of traditional technologies by Western technologies. The third proved to be the most detrimental to Sri Lanka’s economy. We see its deleterious effects even now, since as a result of their reforms we are left today without a single completely Sri Lankan product. Even the tools we use are imported from the West.

The reforms put into effect in Ceylon in 1835 through the Colebrooke Cameron Commission would go on to destroy about 100,000 acres of paddy field in the Uva-Wellassa area. These reforms also destroyed Sri Lanka’s thriving canal irrigation industry. According to Walisinghe Harischandra (Pura Vidyawa), the ruins of Anuradhapura were torn down to build highways connecting the plantations with the cities. Christian churches were also built over Buddhist temples. Anyone protesting these actions would be swiftly arrested.

In order to placate the natives and win their confidence, the British rewarded loyal Sinhalese with privileges, including titles and honours. This misled the people of Sri Lanka, particularly the Buddhists, who fell into the trap and accepted such hollow cosmetics while abandoning their faith. It destroyed Buddhism and proved to be a pivot for the spread of Christianity. Venerable Wedisinghe Mohottiwatta Gunananda Thera, seeing and deploring all this, sought to combat the anti-Buddhist forces in operation in the country.

Venerable Gunananda Thera was born Miguel Mendis Silva on the 9th of February 1823 at the village of Mohottiwatta (also known as Migetuwatta) in Modara, Balapitiya. He was later ordained as Mohottiwatta Gunananda Thera. Travelling across the country, the Thera went on to deliver about 4,000 sermons in a quest to make the people of Sri Lanka understand the tenets of the faith they had abandoned.

In the meantime, four great debates were organised and held at Waragoda and Baddegama in 1865, at Udanwita in 1866, and at Gampola in 1870. They were arguments and polemics made in writing. The Great Debate of Panadura, or the Panadura Vadaya, took place after these on the 26th and the 28th of August 1873.

The catalyst for the Debate was a sermon against Buddhist made by the Wesleyan priest Reverend Davin de Silva at the Wesleyan Church next to Rankoth Viharaya on the 12th of June. His arguments were a direct attack on a fundamental tenet of Buddhism. The essence of his diatribe was that in contradiction to the teachings of the Buddha, the consequences of good deeds and bad deeds are experienced by another being, and not by the person who commits them after his or her death. This challenged the doctrine of karma.

At Rankoth Viharaya or Galkanda Viharaya as it was known then, Venerable Gunananda Thera delivered a sermon on the 19th of July against Reverend Davin de Silva. A debate of sorts developed, the storms of controversy swelled in both temple and church, and sermons addressing misinterpretations of Buddhism were preached one after another.To resolve the torrent of controversy, the then Chief Incumbent of Rankoth Viharaya Venerable Gunarathana Tissa Thera met with Jeremias Dias and Kurukulasuriya Cornelis Perera Appuhamy, the patrons of the temple. It was decided at the meeting that a debate or discussion should be held between Venerable Gunananda Thera and the Christian priests. Accordingly, a date was fixed for the commencement of the Debate. It would be held on the 26th and the 28th of August, 1873, at Jeremias Dias’s estate Dombagahawatta.Prior to the Debate, the monks at Rankoth Viharaya went through the Tripitikaya and other Buddhist scriptures and discussed how they would set about meeting the challenge from the Wesleyan missionaries. Venerable Weligama Sri Sumangala Thera, Venerable Bulatgama Dhammalankara Thera, Venerable Ratmalane Sri Dhammaloka Thera, Venerable Rajaguru Waskaduwe Sri Sibhuthi Thera, and the disciples of Sri Devarakshitha all worked with Venerable Gunananda Thera with the support of lay devotees.

Sources from that era tell us that thousands of devotees arrived by cart to witness the Debate. It was the custom of these devotees to chant “Sadhu! Sadhu!” in praise of the monks at the end of a discussion. This annoyed the missionaries. While it did not lead to a riot, their anger was very much apparent. Thus Gunananda Thera calmly got up at one point and sternly asked the onlookers to maintain silence. The devotees duly abided.

Among those thronging at the hall to see the Debate unfold was Anagarika Dharmapala. Born on the 17th of September 1864, he had turned nine years when the Panadura Debate unfolded. He came to witness the Debate. What he took from it, the encouragement and inspiration, propelled him to take up the cause of Buddhism later on.

පාණදුර පුර පටන්ගත් වැඩ සියල්ල සඵලව ගියේ පාණදුර පුර වාදයෙන් බුදු දහම ලොව පතලව ගියේ පාණදුර කුදිටු දිනනට වාසියක් නොමවී ගියේ පාණදුර පාන සඳ ලෙස සැම තැන එළිව ගියේ.

THE STATE OF GUNANANDA THERA

In 1903 a resolution was passed by the Venerable Gunananda Thera Memorial Council proposing that a statue dedicated to Gunananda Thera be restored at a public place in Panadura. This was in addition to the establishment of the Gunananda Thera Memorial Hall. In 1956 the Panadura Buddhist Association arranged for the replacement of the statue by a new one, to be erected at the south end of the Panadura Galle Road.

The task of building this statue was entrusted to Mani, a Tamil sculptor from Madras in India. He ended up carving a life-sized statue of the Venerable Thera, similar to the wooden statue of the same figure seen today at the Dipaduptharama Viharaya in Kotahena, where he resided throughout much of his life as a monk.

On the occasion of the 2,500th Sambuddhatva Jayanthi on the 29th of December, 1965, the statue of Gunananda Thera was unveiled by Arthur V. Dias, a pioneer in the national freedom struggle fondly known as “Kos Mama”. Dias planted the seeds of a jack tree behind the sculpture, a tree that is no longer to be seen at the site.

Inscribed on the base of the statue of the Venerable Thera, who left behind a legacy in the city of Panadura, are the following words.

THE CITY OF PANADURA

The subject of folklore and history, Panadura remains etched in the narratives of the past as a land seeped in patriotism. Its history goes back to the Polonnaruwa era. At the time the area we identify with it today was ruled by a Minister called Ravideva, or Rivideva. The name Panadura is used interchangeably with Pashanadura or Galadura. Local sources tell us that these names had their origins from a large rock called Gonagala that made landfall. This is confirmed by the following poem.

පේන යුරා ගොඩට ම තුබු ගල ගෝණ
ආදි සුරා කළ වරදින්‌ වූ දොසින
මූද ගලා උත්පාතික වූ සදින
පාණදුරා නම ඇතිවිය සිට එතැන

While the historical chronology laid down by these lines may not be in order, they nevertheless highlight an important point, that there was a rock called Gonagala and that it made landfall. The word Pashana, which means Rock in Sinhala, turned into Pashanadura, which took as its etymological root Gonagala.

A city that grows under the shadow of coconut trees and estates, Panadura became known as a famous port of call in the Kotte Period. The Gira Sandesaya confirms this with the line, “පාණදුරේ තොටිනෙතරව යව එපිට (Beyond the Port of Panadura).” It became a shipping hub in the time of the Kings of Kotte, as evidenced by another line from the Gira Sandesaya, “මූදුකරේ යන එන නැව්‌ පෙනේය තට (Ships coming to the sea do appear”).

According to Henry Steel Olcott, Panadura was known as “Panchura.” The word seems to be Portuguese in origin, since the Portuguese and the British were known to pronounce the words of towns and villages very differently to how locals pronounced them.

Colonel Olcott, highlighting the historical significance of the region, described Panadura as a “Vijaya Bhoomi” or Land of Victory. He called it thus because it was in this region that the Panadura Vadaya transpired and ended, fittingly, on a triumphant note for the Buddhists. In his writings, he compliments Panadura well, and remembers it warmly: a tribute, no doubt, to its role in the Buddhist revival of the late 19th century.