Dash De Soysa
The controversy at Panadura or the Panadura Vadaya, which had its beginnings in 1873, may be considered a cornerstone of the modern society in which we live today. It is not a symbol of fanaticism but a landmark in the social transition which this island has undergone.
The western engagement with Sri Lanka moved from curiosity and trading in the sixteenth century to dominance and exploitation in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries before autonomy and independence in the twentieth century. Portuguese, Dutch and British colonialists brought various forms of Christianity of which Roman Catholicism has proved the most enduring. Inadvertently they revived Buddhism and helped create the religious foundation for the modern state of Sri Lanka.
In the British era Methodist missionaries had a complex relationship with the colonial authorities. At times they received support and encouragement in their activities, but this was often from officials acting in a personal capacity. They also received opposition to their educational and social plans. After the signing of the Kandyan Convention in 1815 by the Kandyan elite, and the acceptance of George III over Sri Wickrama Rajasingha, the British authorities acted as the de facto guardians of Buddhism and, the sacred Temple of the Tooth, Kandy, was a British ‘protectorate’.
The early missionaries found Ceylon’s Theravada Buddhism to be in a particularly poor state. Clergy were poorly educated, disorganised and held in low social esteem. Temples were in disrepair and the religion’s influence on the nation’s social fabric was diminishing. It seemed, to the early missionaries, that the relentless progress of Christianity across the globe might be best illustrated in Ceylon. It did not happen. As Christian missionaries, including Methodism’s Gogerly and Spence Hardy, translated and published Buddhist scriptures, the stories of Buddhism were revived. Missionary schools and Sunday schools were copied. The YMCA was mirrored by the Young Men’s Buddhist Association (and the Young Men’s Muslim Association) and the streams of children heading to Sunday school would be engulfed by the surge of children going to Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim religious classes.
Through the unforeseen consequences of missionary work, and through the deliberate activism of Western theosophists such as Col. Olcott, Buddhism revived in Sri Lanka so that today it is the state religion; politicians from traditionally Christian families such as the Bandaranaikes and the Wickremesinghes converted to Buddhism for political expediency, and the government some years ago was sponsoring a bill intended to make it illegal for an individual to change their religion. Within this context the Panadura Controversy stands as a seminal moment. The specific reasons for the debate in Panadura in 1873 were the publications by Revd Daniel Gogerly and a series of sermons denouncing Buddhism preached by Revd David de Silva in Panadura in the Methodist Church. The Venerable Migettuwatte Gunanan
‘Before an almost breathless audience, numbering at times from five to seven thousand in attendance,’ the debate lasted two full days. The Buddhist champion, the Venerable Migettuwatte Gunanan
The Methodist account of the incident differs from the Buddhist. WJT Small, the historian of Sri Lankan Methodism recorded, ‘The results of the debate were, from the nature of the case, inconclusive.’ It was conceded that the Buddhists had put the Christians on the defensive but that the Christians had got the opportunity to clearly present the gospel to many thousands of Buddhists. ‘But the net result was very small, except that relations were more strained than ever. The Christian Church continued to grow, but not as a result of the controversy.’ Moscrop and Rest
It is possible to argue that the single event of Panadura completely changed the social and religious context of Sri Lanka. Not because the event in itself was of ultimate significance but it was a printed account of this disputation that attracted Col Olcott to Buddhism and prompted his travel to Ceylon (Olcott credits his friend Dodanduwe Piyaratne Thero for bringing the printed account to his attention as well as the invitation to visit Ceylon). With his arrival in the island a new phase in the revival of the traditional religion arose’. Col Olcott helped to establish Buddhist schools, modelled on Christian Missionary schools, but with the focus on Buddhism instead, which helped ‘re-found’ Buddhism in Sri Lanka.
There is a further connection, related to this incident, between Wesleyan missionaries and societal transformation through Olcott’s role in the founding of Ananda College, which is currently the largest and most prestigious Buddhist boys’ school in Sri Lanka. Among early principals of Ananda College were western theosophists including an Irishman, CC Moore, who had a fairly unsuccessful period in charge from 1910-1913. The principal who transformed the school into a major Sri Lankan institution impacting the nation was P de Silva Kularatne from 1918-1943. Kularatne had been educated at Richmond College and Wesley College, Colombo, both schools founded and run by Methodist missionaries. The Maradana Methodist Church is situated adjacent to Ananda College. Arthur V Dias, a son of Jeremias Dias (and Selestina Rodrigo), an important patron of the Panadura Debate and the Rankoth Viharaya, became a well-known philanthropist and temperance activist. Leslie Goonewardena, a grandson of Mathias Swaris Goonewardena, the builder of the Methodist Church in Panadura and an organizer of the Debate became a radical independence activist. Dias, Goonewardena,
The Panadura incident ‘needs’ to be read as a symbol of the independence struggle. Western Christians, even if they were fronted by David de Silva, were challenged, engaged with and defeated by Ceylonese Buddhism. At a time when Ceylonese society was unable to challenge the political and military dominance the British held on the island, Buddhism was able to successfully challenge Christianity. Similar encounters were noted in mainland India, between Christianity and Hinduism. The ‘defeat’ of Christianity in this encounter heralded the resurgence of Ceylonese nationalism and eventual independence in 1948, though the latter was more a result owing to factors in mainland India. The Disputation at Panadura is somewhat ongoing in contemporary Sri Lanka. After generations of relatively peaceful co-existence, a fundamentalist Buddhist movement was challenging the right of Christians to evangelise in Sri Lanka, and, in places, to worship. A bill to outlaw conversion was being debated in the Sri Lankan parliament some years ago. That a section of Buddhism, in itself a missionary religion, attempting to outlaw conversion in Sri Lanka is a denial of the right that Migettuwatte exercised in August 1873. Those who do not know their history are destined to repeat its mistakes.
The four documents, kept at the Rankot Viharaya Buddhist temple in Panadura, hold immense historical, cultural, spiritual, and intellectual value. Created against the backdrop of religious discord between Buddhists and Christians in the mid-19th century, they consist of correspondence between the Christian and Buddhist leaders advocating for an open dialogue on doctrinal issues, as well as a transcription of the entire dialogue. This transcription spans 27 and a half pages of handwritten text on paper using ink. The event fostered reconciliation and mutual respect between the two religious communities, though in Panadura, the two sides consisted of inter-related families. The English translations, later made available in Europe and the US, had a significant impact on religious activists and scholars in those countries, contributing to the recognition of Buddhism as an advanced religion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abhayasundara, P., Controversy at Panadura or Pandura Vadaya, (Colombo: State Printing Corporation, 1990), p. VIII. 2
Small, WJT (ed), A History of the Methodist Church in Ceylon, (Colombo: Wesley Press, 1964), p. 222.
Moscrop, T. & Restarick, A.E., Ceylon and its Methodism, (London: Robert Culley, undated), p. 85. Ibid., p. 62-4
Young, R.F & Jebanesan, S., The Bible Trembled: The Hindu-Christian Controversies of Nineteenth Century Ceylon, (Vienna: De Nobili Research Library, 1995)
Young, R.F & Somaratna, G.P.V., Vain Debates: The Buddhist-Christian Controversies of Nineteenth Century Ceylon, (Vienna: De Nobili Research Library, 1996)
That controversial clash, by D. C. Ranatunga
Cultural Renaissance : A Lesser Known Pioneer Ven. Piyaratana Tissa Maha Thera
