Anagarika Dharmapala did a lot for Buddhism revival

The 151st birth anniversary of Ven Anagarika Dharmapala is celebrated in different parts of the world on September 17. During his life time the salutary service he has rendered for reviving Buddhism throughout the world, especially in India, has been recorded in golden letters.

He founded the Mahabodhi Society of India on May 31, 1891 at Colombo and himself headed the Buddhist revival movement in India. Today his mission is spearheaded by Prasanna Jaysuriya, President of Mahabodhi Society of India and Ven P Seewalee Thero, Spiritual Head of the Society in India and a group of dedicated monks from Srilanka.

Anagarika Dharmapala was born on September 17, 1864 at Matarar of South Ceylone. His father was Don Carolis Hewawitherana and mother was Mallika. At the time of his birth his name was given as David Hewawitherana. In the middle of 19th century Sri Lankan people who were mostly Buddhists were leading a miserable life. Their culture and religion were suppressed by Portuguese, Dutch and English people who were ruling their country.

In his school days, David Hewawitherana observed that the teachers who were all Christians were looking down upon the Buddhist students and making all efforts to convert them to Christianity. Therefore, he changed his school at least 3 times. In 1883 at the age of 19 he completed the school education. At this juncture, he met Col Henry Steel Olcott and Madam Blavatsky which changed his course of life. In 1886 he joined as a translator with Olcott and Leadbeater who were touring the entire countryside of Ceylone. This gave an opportunity to David Hewawitherana to see for himself how entire country is dominated by missionaries who were busy maligning the culture, religion, tradition of Sri Lankan people and living no stone unturned to convert innocent people to Christianity. He was greatly disturbed and made up his mind to fight for protecting the religion and traditions of his country at all cost. He got an opportunity to accompany Madam Blavatsky to visit the head quarters of Theosophical Society of India at Addyar in south India in 1887.

In 1887, he read some articles written by Edwin Arnold which were published in Telegraph newspaper of London. In the articles Arnold had written about the miserable condition of Mahabodhi temples of Bodh Gaya. In 1890 with a Buddhist monk Kozen Gunaratne, he came to Addyar to attend a Buddhist conference. In January 1891, both of them visited Saranath and Bodh Gaya. On January 22, 1891, he saw the Mahabodhi Temple, where Siddhartha Gautama - the Buddha - attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, India. Here he experienced a shock to find the temple in the hands of Saivite priest, the Buddha image transformed into a Hindu icon and Buddhists barred from worshiping. As a result, he began a movement. To make his movement successful he shifted the Mahabodhi Society of India office from Colombo to Calcutta in 1892. One of its primary aims was the restoration to Buddhist control of the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya, the most important of the four ancient Buddhist holy sites. To accomplish this, Dharmapala filed several lawsuits against the Brahmin priests and Mahantas who had held control of the site for centuries. After a protracted struggle, he was successful, with the partial restoration of the site to the management of the Maha Bodhi Society in 1949.

Due to the efforts of Dharmapala, the site of the Buddha’s parinibbana (physical death) at Kushinagar has once again become a major attraction for Buddhists specially the citizen of Myanmar (Burma), as it was for many centuries previously. Mahabodhi Movement in 1890s after serious research and verification of records held the Muslim rule in India responsible for the decay of Buddhism in India.

Anagarika Dharmapala did not hesitate to lay the chief blame for the decline and debacle of Buddhism in India at the door of Muslim fanaticism.

In 1893 Dharmapala was invited to attend the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago as a representative of Buddhist World and Mahabodhi Society of India. He addressed the gathering on September 18 on the theme ‘World Indebtedness to Buddha’. Swami Vivekananda had addressed the participants of the World Parliament of Religions on September 11, 1893 and had gained immense popularity throughout America. In this conference, Swamiji heard Anagarika Dharmapala and greatly appreciated his talk, since then both of them remained in close contact.

Both of them were against casteism, differentiating people as high born and low born. Swami Vivekananda for service of the people established Rama Krushna Mission. With the similar objective Anagarika Dharmapala established Mahabodhi Society of India. Both these rare personalities brought to the limelight the great civilization of India, its religion, culture, humanitarian thoughts which till then was unknown to the Americans and Europeans. Anagarika Dharmapala while in America met Merry T Foster, a rich lady, who in subsequent years became one of the chief patrons of Maha Bodhi Society of India. By her donations, hospitals, temples, stupas and schools etc were established by Mahabodhi Society in India and Ceylone. In the year 1893-94, he toured extensively London, New York, China, Rangoon, Bankok and Colombo and raised donations for rebuilding shrines of Bodhgaya and Saranath. From 1896 to 1901 most of the time Dharmapala was touring in foreign countries. At London he met Sir Edwin Arnold, the author of ‘Light of Asia’ and Annie Besant.

In October 1901 Lieutenant Governor Woodbern visited Bodh Gaya and donated a piece of land to Mahabodhi Society for construction of Dharmapala Guest House. In 1901 Dharmapala wrote a letter to the Collector of Benaras stating the distressing condition of Saranath where Buddha gave his first sermon to his five disciples. He wrote as Zerujelum, is a holy place for Christians and Mecca for Muslims, the same way Saranath is holy for 4.70 lakh Buddhists. He requested that as the land of Saranath belongs to the Government, it should be handed over to the Buddhists for its maintenance and up keep. But before Government granted the land in his favour, he purchased a piece of private land near Mruga Vihar. However, the Government employees of Benaras created a lot of hurdles, but could not succeed in their evil design. At Saranath, he established an industrial school and an agricultural training centre to train the youth. Presently Ven P Seewalee Thero who is the Chief Monk of Sarnath centre is trying to establish schools and colleges in line with the goal of Angarika Dharmapala.

In July 1915, Anagarika Dharmapala purchased a piece of land at College Street, Calcutta. He got the Mahabodhi Society of India registered and formed a Board of Management. Asutosh Mukherjee, former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, and Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University, became its first President and Anagarika Dharmapala was its General Secretary. His first work was to construct a temple in the same plot. He started construction of the temple on December 6, 1915 and completed it in 1920 and named it as ‘Dharmarajika Vihara’. On November 20, 1920, Dharmarajika Vihara was inaugurated by Governor of Bengal, Lord Ronald Sai. He handed over to Asutosh Mukherjee, Anagarika Dharmapala and Annie Besant the mortal remains of Buddha which were brought from Governor House and kept in a separately constructed stupa at Dharmarijika Vihara. This place has become a pilgrimage for all Buddhists of the World.

This valiant revivalist of Buddhism breathed his last on April 29, 1933 at Saranath. In Odisha, Dr Achyuta Samanta has established a Buddhist Studies Department in the KIIT University to impart education in Buddhist philosophy and the great Buddhist tradition of Odisha.

(Dr Mohanty is a former Vice-Chancellor of Utkal University of Culture and Vice-President, Maha Bodhi Society of India, Mobile- 9238300265.)