Dharmaraja College, Kandy

Type:- Public
Established:- 30 June 1887
Founder:- Col. Henry Steel Olcott
Colour(s):- Maroon & Lightblue

Website:- www.dharmaraja.lk

Dharmaraja College (Sinhala: ධර්මරාජ විද්‍යාලය), founded in 1887 is a premier Boys' School in Kandy, Sri Lanka.It is a Buddhist school with around 175 teaching staff and around 4,500 students.The school has many renowned figures in its alumni (akaRajans) including William Gopallawa, A. E. Goonesinha, T.B Kehelgamuwa and others.

A land area of 54 acres (220,000 m2) is owned by the school spreading over half of the Dharmaraja hill. Dharmaraja has one of the oldest and most prestigious scout troops in the world, the 1st Kandy Dharmaraja Scout Group, which was established in 1913. It is one of the first Sri Lankan schools to start playing cricket. It has consistently ranked among the first two boys schools in Sri Lanka in the preference rankings based on year 5 scholarship examinees' demand.

History (first hundred years)

Background and initiation

Dharmaraja College, Kandy is one of the premier Buddhist schools in the country boasting a prolific history of more than 120 years since 30 June 1887. The college was named after Buddha.

Dharmaraja College, as well as the other Buddhist Schools in Sri Lanka, owes its existence to Col Henry Steel Olcott, philanthropist and the founder of the Buddhist Theosophical Society. Having read a printed version of the Panadura Vaadaya of 1873, a public debate between Buddhist and Christian representatives on the correctness of each belief, Col Olcott was really impressed of the teachings in Theravada Buddhism, which were in line with his vision as a theosophist. It resulted in him arriving in Sri Lanka to study more on Buddhism, and starting a branch of the Theosophical Society, first in Colombo and then in Kandy and Galle. He was ably supported by the Venerable Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera – hero of the ‘Panadura Vadaya’, the Venerable Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thero, the Venerable Dodanduwe Piyarathana Thero, the Venerable Walane Sri Siddhartha Thero and the Venerable Ratmalane Dhammaloka Thero, along with Anagarika Dharmapala, Walisinghe Harischandra, and Sir D.B. Jayatilaka.

Flag of Dharmaraja College

With Sir Olcott’s initiative and guidance, the theosophists identified that a major factor for the decline of Sinhala Buddhists was the lack of proper education facilities, and the best solution was to make available educational institutes with a solid Buddhist religious background. It was under this theory that foundations were laid to the beginning of the "Buddhist Schools" in Sri Lanka, which include the likes of Dharmaraja College, Ananda College, Maliyadeva College & Mahinda College. In 1887 Sir Olcott visited Kandy and expressed his wish to start an English-medium Buddhist School. Several Kandyan nobles were very supportive of the idea, and it was decided that the plot of land in front of the Old Palace, adjoining the Natha Devalaya was the best for building the school. But there was an obstacle in that the plot was covered by a Bo tree, held sacred by the Buddhists, which had to be felled for putting up a school building. The British Administration opposed the felling citing that it would be an action against Buddhism. Wadugodapitiya Punchirala Korale, felled and removed the tree in one night, and levelled up the plot for the building.

It was under this pretext that in the morning of Thursday, 30 June 1887, Dharmaraja College, under the name of 'Kandy Buddhist High School', was opened. This occasion was graced by Sir Olcott and several Kandyan nobles including Dullawe Adhikaram, Wadugodapitiya Punchirala Korale, T.B. Panabokke and A.D.J. Gunawardena.

Andiris de Silva was the first principal and the only teacher of the school at that time, which had enrolled 12 students. The number of students reached the 50's and the staff increased to three under Andiris de Silva, who was an efficient leader and an accomplished teacher. Many of the local nobles supported the school by enrolling their children in, having faith in the staff and headmaster.

Golden age

Dharmaraja’s golden age began with the appointment of K.F. Billimoria as principal in 1902. Billimoria gave priority to shaping Dharmaraja into a strong institution which could ably compete with the other Missionary Schools at that time. He recruited many able educators as dedicated as himself towards heightening the standards of Dharmaraja, and also identified the need of developing the physical resources to match the educational achievements. The founder of the Scout Movement, Lord Baden Powell visited the 'Lake View Park International Scout Centre' of Dharmaraja College twice during this period. It is a unique distinction held by any Sri Lankan school. In 1915, a two story building was completed at the city premises, which later was named in honour of Billimoria. By 1922 Billimoria had raised enough funds to purchase the ‘Lake View Estate’, a 37-acre (150,000 m2) land overlooking the Kandy Lake, and built the A and B wings of the College Hostel in 1923. The actual hostel began at the Principal’s quarters in 1921. There were several incidents of high social and literal importance occurred around Dharmaraja College during this period. Once, a Nobel Laureate in Literature, the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore did a dance recital at the Principal's bungalow when he visited the school in the 1920s. And the English poet D. H. Lawrence spent a holiday at Ardnaree, the college Principal's bungalow, in 1922.

The College Scout Group began in 1914, under the patronage of Billimoria and many sports and other extra-curricular activities were encouraged. The '1st Kandy Dharmaraja Scout Group' won the coveted "King's Flag" for three consecutive years from 1917 to 1919. This flag was traditionally awarded to the troop in any of the British colonies that had the largest number of King's Scouts. This is an unprecedented record held by any of the Sri Lankan schools even today. The Cricket Big-Match between Dharmaraja and Kingswood also began in this time. Several world renowned figures visited Dharmaraja during his office, including Mahatma Gandhi, Lord Baden Powell and D. H. Lawrence. Billimoria served 30 years as principal. He was forced to retire in 1932, which led to the beginning of another important chapter of Dharmaraja History.

P. de S. Kularatne, who had served as the principal at Ananda College, took over duties from Billimoria in 1932 and continued the work. However, Dharmaraja was facing a financial crisis when Kularatne assumed duties, and even the Lake View premise was under threat of being sold. But Kularatne, was able to save the land and secure a home for Dharmaraja, for centuries to come. He restored the Hostel and transformed the Principal’s quarters at the city premises to classrooms and a laboratory complex, and Dharmaraja started teaching science subjects in 1933. The first academic buildings in Lake View were built around this time and a part of the students were taken there. The roads and other facilities were also developed so that Lake View transformed from a shrubbery into a property any school would be proud to own. Cadetting in Dharmaraja also began during Kularatne’s office and so did many other sports including Tennis, Swimming etc. In 1935 Dharmaraja was visited by four distinguished visitors from India; Rabindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Uday Shankar and Kalki Krishnamurthy.

Becoming public school and further development

D.B. Thewarapperuma took over the duties from Godage, and continued the progress Dharmaraja had achieved during Godage’s office. The academic results and performance in sports saw improved during this time, and in 1960 Dharmaraja, along with Ananda, was taken over by the Government, which was a result of strong campaign led by Thewarapperuma and others. This meant that further development and improvement of the school’s resources could now be done without the cost burdening the school board. Thewarapperuma retired from his post in 1961.

Colonel E.A. Perusinghe took office as principal in 1961, and this period showed a marked improvement in the number of students and the number of staff members. Examination results became very satisfactory with large numbers of students being selected to universities, and Col. Perusinghe improved the infrastructure by building more classrooms for the Middle Section, and encouraged students to express themselves through school magazines, which he believed would give the students a chance to develop their communicative and literary skills. Under Col. Perusinghe Sports, Cadetting and Scouting activities prospered, with the students achieving National and International level victories. However Col. Perusinghe did not approve Boxing as a suitable sport for a school and removed it as a sport.

Col. Perusinghe retired in 1964 to be replaced by Colonel S.L.B. Amaranayake, who was an old boy of Dharmaraja. Col. Amaranayake completed the shrine room of the college and opened it. The academic achievements continued their positive trend under Col. Amaranayake, and extra curricular activities including cricket, football, hockey, cadetting and scouting reached very high standards. The hostel facilities too were developed and Col. Amaranayake settled the long term-problem of a water supply to the hostel. On 27 June 1965 the Kandy Municipal Council officially named the access road to the school as Dharmaraja Mawatha in recognition of the great service rendered by the school. After serving Dharmaraja for nearly six years, Col. Amaranayake retired in 1971.

D.G.B. Samarajiva took the helm of Dharmaraja from Col. Amaranayake, and was responsible for re-structuring the administration of the College. He founded the Sports Council, which gave more responsibility to the students in organising the Sports Meet, Colors Nite and other sporting events. Samarajiva also restructured the internal administration by giving more responsibility to the Sectional Heads, and distributing the responsibilities of the Principal between Deputy Principals, accommodating them office space. He assigned Teachers as in charge of all the school societies, and also developed the library facilities by assigning a staff member as librarian and reserving funds for expansion. The Commerce section got its own library and Samarajiva also recruited a library staff to provide a better service to the students. After a short but important term as principal, Samarajiva left to Mathara District as the Director of Education in 1973.

A. P. Gunarathne took over office from Samarajiva in 1973 and he gave priority to develop all aspects of the school so that Dharmaraja could live up to its name as one of the premiere schools in the island. By this time Dharmaraja showed the best academic results in the Central Province, with many students being qualified to University education. Gunarathne initiated a Career Guidance Unit in 1983, which provided assistance to school-leavers for building a successful career. In 1985, the College Computer unit was established. In 1987 Dharmaraja celebrated its centenary with a Grand Exhibition, Grand Scout jamboree by the name "Dharmaraja Centenary JIM 1987" and many other events.