{"id":103118,"date":"2020-06-02T16:11:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T23:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103118"},"modified":"2020-07-03T15:02:07","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T22:02:07","slug":"ven-ellawala-medhananda-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/02\/ven-ellawala-medhananda-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"VEN. ELLAWALA MEDHANANDA Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

REVISED 26.6.20<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medhananda did not hold back his\narchaeological findings, hoping some day to put it all into one magnificent\nbook. He wanted to communicate his findings to the public as soon as\npossible.  Therefore he wrote up his\narchaeological findings in newspapers and periodicals as soon as he could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For each\nexploration he gave directions of how to get there,    described the  geography and history of the place, and then\nlisted  the structures and objects found,\nsuch as the remains of Buddha statues, stupa, pilimage, siripatul, and  displaced objects  such as columns, bricks and of course, the\ninscriptions found there, the main focus of all \nMedhananda explorations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first\nrecorded newspaper    article was in Silumina\u201d\non 7.4.1960. He continued to write for\nnewspapers and his biography (2008) lists a contribution to Lankadeepa\u201d on\n26.9.2007.  Medhananda biographer has\nmanaged to collect and list 636 contributions to newspaper and magazines,\ndating from 1960- 2007, but this is an\nincomplete list.  Medhananda is still\nwriting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have collected a lot of little known information\nafter spending 15 years on archaeological explorations, said Medhananda, \u2018assak\nmullaka nara   avidimin\u2019.  They were published in Budusarana\u201d, Davasa\u201d,\nDivaina\u201d and Lankadeepa\u2019. Divaina\u201d had a weekly column written by me, encouraged and supported by Divaina editor\nEdmund Ranasinghe. Medhananda wrote to “Divaina” for four years, with\nspecial focus on the Buddhist   remains\nin north and east. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these writings\nhad an immediate impact.      Medhananda wrote an article on Muhudu Maha\nVihara in Pottuvil to the Sinhala newspapers and thereafter the Archeological Department\ntook over the place. His writings to periodicals such as\u2018Sastrodaya\u2019\u201d\nand Rasavahini\u201d also had an impact.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medhananda has written 43 books as at 2008. Medhananda\u2019s\nmost significant books are Nagenahira\npalata ha uturu palate Sinhala Bauddha Urumaya\u201d<\/strong> and \u2018Magama rajadhaniya\u2019<\/strong>. His\nbook \u2018Nagenahira palata ha uturu palate Sinhala Bauddha Urumaya won the State\nLiterary award in 2005. It has gone\ninto 5 reprints. His book on king Valagamba\nwas published by the Department of Cultural Affairs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahagama rajadhaniya\u201d was first   published in 1970. I first wrote on Ruhuna to\nSastrodaya and then Rasavahini magazines, said Medhananda .  They were well received. So I thought of\nwriting this book,. He has been supported in this by fellow bhikkhus. In the\nbook he thanks Napawela Soratha, Kiriella Gnanawimala, Mapote Chandajothi, for\ntheir help and encouragement.  Medhananda\nrevised his views on the   Mahagama\nkings   when he discovered more\ninscriptions. He published a revised version in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medhananda\u2019s book Sangavunu aithihasika puda bim\u201d<\/strong> was first published 1999, second edition\n2014. In this book Medhananda described the unknown viharas across the island,\nexplored by him. He gave the history of these viharas, the archaeological\nremains found there, the significance of these remains and the content of the\ninscriptions found there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his introduction to \u2018Sangavunu aithihasika\npuda bim\u201d, Medhananda said, I have explored and examined the Buddhist remains\nin various difficult places (dushkara) and have   written on them giving description and\nhistory of the places. I have written thousands of these accounts. I have been asked\nby many to collect them into a book. 10% of the royalties from this book will\ngo for bank deposits for children, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also wrote    \u2018Aprakata brahmi lipi ha pura vastu,\u2019\n\u2018Kavantissa rajatuma ha Vihara maha Devi,” “Dutugemunu maha rajatuma,\nand \u2018 Dutugemunu rajatumage dasa maha\nyodayo\u201d, followed by Aithihasika Digavapiya\u201d, and Aitihasika Situlpawwa\u2019. He\nwrote several books about Buddhist remains in north and east. Two of these\nbooks are, \u2018Utura negenhira hela bodu urumaya,\u201d and   Nagenahira palate vinasayata yana pura\nvastu\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medhananda has contributed to \u2018Uva vansa\nkatava,\u2019 and \u2018Uva Vihara Vansaya\u2019, both published by Uva Provincial Council and\n\u2018Mahaweli vansaya\u2019, published by Mahaweli Ministry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medhananda has visited and written up the\nhistory of several forest monasteries, such as  <\/em> Buddhangala, Budugallena, Karandahela, Kudimbigala,\nMalayadikanda,   Nimalava, Piyangala,\nRitigala, Samangala   and Tarulengala.    <\/strong>The booklets were given to the temples to\nsell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these histories were written at the request\nof the chief priest of the temple. Ven. Tambugala Anandasiri, when he was at\nKudimbigala vihara, requested Medhananda to come there and write a historical\naccount of Kudimbigala. Others were explored and written up on Medhananda own\ninitiative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1978 he went to Piyangala, wrote about it,\ngave the book to Piyangala to sell, and also arranged for Piyangala monastery\nto get dana regularly. Budugallena had not been studied before, said Medhananda.  Medhananda\u2019s book on Buddhangala went into 10\nreprints.  Tarulenhela monastery is the\nold Habutagala vihara built by Kavantissa, said Medhananda.   (continued) <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 26.6.20 Medhananda did not hold back his archaeological findings, hoping some day to put it all into one magnificent book. He wanted to communicate his findings to the public as soon as possible.  Therefore he wrote up his archaeological findings in newspapers and periodicals as soon as he could. For each exploration […]<\/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-103118","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\/103118","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=103118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}