{"id":103044,"date":"2020-05-31T22:59:35","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T04:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103044"},"modified":"2020-05-31T15:58:28","modified_gmt":"2020-05-31T22:58:28","slug":"ven-rambukwelle-siddartha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/05\/31\/ven-rambukwelle-siddartha\/","title":{"rendered":"VEN. RAMBUKWELLE SIDDARTHA"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Ven. Rambukwelle Siddhartha has\nplayed a significant role in the preservation of indigenous culture in Sri Lanka.\nBut his contribution has not been recognized and not much is known about him. I\nsearched the literature for references to Ven. Siddhartha, and also asked a friend\nin Kandy, to find out something about Ven. Siddhartha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend, who has a distant kinship\nconnection to this family, had gone to Rambukwelle temple, situated in the old\nTeldeniya area. She was shown the grave of Ven. Siddhartha containing his ashes\nand giving his years of birth and death. \nShe has also met descendants of Ven., Siddhartha in Rambukwelle village.\nShe was told that that a nephew of Ven. Siddhartha, the son of Siddhartha’s\nbrother, (name with held) had manuscript material on the Ven. Siddhartha. She\nconveyed this information to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ven. Rambukwelle Siddhartha was born on 12th December\n1889 and died on 8th November 1941. Nothing is known publicly of his childhood,\nyouth or his ordination. The family may be having this information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we do know is that he had gone to\nCalcutta with Anagarika Dharmapala where he came under the influence of Tagore.He\nobtained a degree in Calcutta, returned home and joined the University College\nin Colombo   where he taught Sinhala. He  lived in Horton Place when teaching at University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

K.N.O.Dharmadasa, writing on the origins of\nthe Department of Sinhala of the University of Ceylon, observed, that there was\na high standard of written Sinhala in Sri Lanka in the first half of the 20th<\/sup>\ncentury. That is because bhikkhus such as Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala and Ratmalane\nDhammarama and lay scholars such as W.F .Gunawardhana had set high standards\nfor Sinhala. There was also an active Pirivena education system at the time,\nled by Vidyodaya (1873) and Vidyalankara (1875) which   insisted on good Sinhala. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This tradition of Sinhala scholarship,\nnurtured in the Pirivena was transferred to the Sinhala Department of the\nUniversity, said Dharmadasa. The first two lecturers in Sinhala in University\nCollege in the 1940s were Ven. Suriyagoda Sumangala and Ven. Rambukwelle\nSiddhartha, both from the Pirivena tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first lecturer to be appointed to the\nDepartment of Sanskrit, Pali, and Sinhala was Rev. Suriyagoda Sumangala who\nheld an MA from the University of Calcutta, continued Dharmadasa. His career\nwhich started with much promise ended suddenly with his resignation during the\nmid-1920s. The next noteworthy lecturer who joined the department was Rev.\nRambukwelle Siddhartha who also held an MA from Calcutta. Unfortunately, his\ncareer too ended with his sudden demise before the University came into being, concluded\nDharmadasa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are scattered references which\nindicate that Ven. Siddhartha was influential in the University. An\nappreciation of Ven. Narada of Vajiraramaya, Colombo,   said\nthat Narada studied ethics and philosophy at the University College, Colombo, as\nan external student, where he was able to associate closely with Ven.\nRambukwelle Siddhartha , an oriental scholar monk of repute\u201d.  Olcott\nGunasekera confirms this. He stated that Narada had studied ethics and\nphilosophy at University College, Colombo and met Rambukwelle Siddhartha, an\noriental scholar monk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An appreciation of Prof. O.H.de A Wijesekera\nincluded a reference to Ven. Siddhartha. Venerable Rambukwelle Siddhartha,\nSenior Lecturer in the Department  Sanskrit, Pali and Sinhalese \nwas inculcating in his pupils a love for indigenous literature and the culture\nof the land, said the writer of this appreciation. Similarly, an appreciation\nof Ediriweera Sarachchandra  also\nincluded a reference to Ven. Siddhartha. \u2018Some academics\nserving at the university led by Ven. Rambukwelle Siddhartha and Prof. G. P.\nMalalasekara succeeded in inspiring a feeling for the indigenous culture among\nuniversity students\u2019 it said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 But Ven. Siddhartha did not escape criticism. The Sinhala standard at the University College was heavily criticized\nby Sinhala scholars outside the University , said Dharmadasa. Hela Havula group carried on a relentless\ncampaign against the teachers and teaching of Sinhala in University  College. Hela\nHavula attacked them, specially  Rev\nRambukwelle Siddhartha who was lecturing there.  When Ven. Siddhartha passed away, they\ncriticized the grammar in the obituary poem published on Ven.  Siddhartha, as well.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a formal photograph of the  teaching \nstaff of the University College. The date is not given but it can be\neasily obtained from University  records.\nIt is probably  early 1930s. Ven. Siddhartha is in the second row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A\nSinhala literary society was started in University College in 1923. It appears to\nhave been a shaky organisation. In 1932, there weren\u2019t even five\nstudents to make up the quorum and the meetings were cancelled, recalled Tissa\nKariyawasam. However, in the 1930s, the University College Sinhala Society was\ninterested in Kandyan dancing due to the teaching of Rambukwelle Siddhartha there,\ncontinued Kariyawasam. Malalasekera watching the activities of this society\nwanted to initiate practical classes in Kandyan dancing but this never materialised, concluded Kariyawasam. The biographer of Pani\nBharatha, Anura Priyalal Sirisena added that Ven. Siddhartha had tried to link\nUdarata dance and Indian dance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Oriental Faculty of University College had\nheld an annual Mela which showcased indigenous culture. This was intended as a\ncorrective to the Eurocentric approach favoured by the University .My recall is that Ven. Siddhartha\u2019s name was mentioned\nin connection with the Mela too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ven.\nSiddhartha\u2019s family in Teldeniya had told my friend that Ven. Siddhartha had\nknown nine languages. This is possible. He would have known Sanskrit, Pali, Sinhala,\nprobably Bengali. He definitely knew English. \nThere is evidence of this. Ven. Rambukwella has edited and translated\nthe <\/strong>Letters of J.\nD’Oyly. This was published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1937.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ven. Siddhartha, unlike most Bhikkhus of the\ntime, was well travelled. He has spent several years in each of the two\ninternational centers, to which the intelligentsia of the time flocked , Calcutta  in India and London in the UK. In addition to\nCalcutta, Ven. Rambukwelle has also lived in London. He was the incumbent\nbhikkhu at London Buddhist Vihara from 1933-1937. G.Uswatte arachchi says Ven. Siddhartha\nwas at the   School of African and Asian\nstudies (SOAS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This writer, Kamalika Pieris, writing on\nindigenous dance stated \u2018Ven. Rambukwelle Siddhartha knew to dance, sing vannam and play\nthe udekki. He composed a new Gajaga vannama.\u2019 This was based   on a statement by Tissa Kariyawasam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rambukwelle\nSiddhartha, with the assistance of Urapola Kiribanda used to sing vannamas\nplaying the udekki, recalled Tissa Kariyawasam. Siddhartha thera was a clever\nsinger and dancer too. He was the composer of the new Gajaga vannama, added\nKariyawasam.  Uswatte arachchi supported this view. Rambukwelle Siddhartha was reputed to be able to\nsing Vannam beautifully, said Uswatte arachchi.  This is all I have been able to find out about\nVen. Rambukwelle Siddhartha.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Ven. Rambukwelle Siddhartha has played a significant role in the preservation of indigenous culture in Sri Lanka. But his contribution has not been recognized and not much is known about him. I searched the literature for references to Ven. Siddhartha, and also asked a friend in Kandy, to find out something about Ven. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}