Sarnath and Anagarika Dharmapala:                 Materials have been given by the Maha Bodhi Society of India

Bodiamphlet , who rebuilt the ruins of Buddhism and revived Buddhism.

Anagarika Dharmapala, the great Sinhala Buddhist patriot and a towering personality in revival and propagation of Buddhism had born in a prominent Buddhist aristocratic family in Sri Lanka. Though educated in missionary schools and destined by his father to a civil service career, he resolved at the age of eighteen to dedicate his life to the revival of Buddhism and the service of humanity. He made Buddhism a living faith in the country of his birth and created awareness towards the Buddha and the Dhamma all over the world.

 On his pilgrimage to India, he was deeply saddened to witness the neglect state of affairs of the Maha Bodhi Temple at Bodhgaya,  the very Spot where Prince Sidhartha attained Supreme Enlightenment and took the unshakable resolve while touching his forehead over the ‘Vajrasana’ to revive Buddhism in the land of its Origin. Thereafter he visited Sarnath and equally shocked to see the utter neglect and indifference shown towards the scared place of the Buddha’s First Sermon and hence the Birth of Buddhism. He decided to stay at Sarnath for his rest of his life and make it again a live centre of Buddhist Activities.

He founded the Maha Bodhi Society of India to revive Buddhism and re-built Sarnath and he was able to persuide the British authorities who were in power at that time to take all possible measures to preserve the sacred site. HIs first task was to construct the Mulagandha Kuty Vihara to enshrine the Sacred Relic of the Buddha and then to set up schools, a library, a monastery and a rest house for pilgrims. He succeeded in all these endeavors.

He took the noble teachings of the Sakyamuni Buddha to the West when he attended the Parliament of World Religions in 1893. He travelled extensively and also started a movement to arouse national feelings among the people in Sri Lanka, the then Ceylon under the British.

Anagarika Dharmapala who rendered an invisible and limitless service to the revival and spread of Buddhism took ordination in the last stages of his life and left this mortal world at Sarnath leaving behind an incomparable legacy in the service of Buddhism. Thus, Anagarika Dharmapala went down into history as the noble man who made a pioneering contribution to the revival of Buddhism in India and elsewhere.

(2) Summary from  "Anagarika Dharmapala: The Revivalist of Buddhism" written by Bhikshu Dharmarakshita,translated by Gyanaditya Shakya and published by the Maha Bodhi Society of India, 2017

 "Anagarika Dharmapala: The Revivalist of Buddhism" by Maha Bodhi Spciety　2017 (1)

Anagarika　Dharmapala was born on 17^th September 1864 in a rich family of Sri Lanka.

At that time, Sri Lanka was moulding in the structure of Christianity. Sinhalese started changing their dress, name etc. Western culture was dominating and propagating very rapidly.

Due to the British pressure and attraction, Sinhalese people were saddening towards their racial and traditional Buddhism. They started to hate their culture, name, religion and dress. They discomfort in speaking their own language Sinhalese too. Christian Missionaries took firm determination to convert Sri Lanka into western culture. there were also attracted towards Christianity. They were feeling proud in sending their children only in Missionary Schools.

The parents of Anagarika Dharmapala were not also unaffected, that is why they named their elder son as Don David Hewavitharana and admitted him in a Missionary School for study at the age of five. Don David was very brilliant and studied there with concentration. In the examination of Christianity, the first prize was given to him. After that, he was sent to Saint Benedict School, then admitted in Missionary School in Kotte. After that, he was sent to Saint Thomas School. During that time, the clash occurred between Christians and Buddhists. As the result, he stopped going to Missionary School.

Then he got the education of Pali and Buddhism from the contemporary and famous scholar Venerable Bhadanta Hikkudeve Siri Sumangala Mahathera. After achieving the deep knowledge of Buddhism, he realized that there is no other religion than Buddhism for the universal welfare, and then he launched a crusade against Christianity and British government. He started righteous fighting and with a lot of enthusiasm and boldly, he lethally attacked against western culture and government. On insisting by father, he started as a clerk in education department in 1884, but he resigned his job in some day and change his name to Anagarika Dharmapala from Don David and decided to dedicate rest of his life for the welfare of Sinhalese people tortured by Britishers.

Anagarika term is made of two terms ‘An’ and ‘Agarika’. ‘An’ gives negative sense, and ‘Agarika’ means householder, laymen, having a house, so ‘Anagarika’ stands for houseless person. Dharmapala term in also made of two terms ‘Dharma’ and ‘Pala’. ‘Dharma’ means truth, Dhamma and teachings of Gautam Buddha. ‘Pala’ means the protector, preserver or saver. So, Dharmapala means the protector of Dhamma.

On Olcott’s Association, he got attracted towards the Theosophy and he travelled to Madras from Sri Lanka for the first time in 1883 and then he also visited Japan in 1889. In the year 1890, a conference of Theosophy was held at Madras in which Anagarika Dharmapala came and from here he started tasks of revival on Buddhism in India.  In earlier the revolutionary acts done in Sri Lanka were also very important and historical.

The family name of Hewavitharana must be written in golden letters in the freedom of Sri Lanka. Hundreds of people used to gather, then he started delivering his speech. The title of his speech was mostly – remove the English government, stop sending their children to Missionary Schools, re-established Sinhalese art and boycott handicraft business of British clothing. These types of speech by Anagarika Dharmapala transmitted a new awareness in the people of Sri Lanka. They recognized their mistake. Having left their national dress, most of the Sinhalese women started wearing Portuguese gown. Anagarika Dharmapala scolded them also and encourage them to wear Indian saree. Now a day 75 percent of Sinhalese women wear saree and take their national dress.

Here’s a chronological introduction to his subsequent actions as follows.

1889 First visit to Japan.

1890 Visit to Madras, India in December.

1891 Visit to Sarnath on 20^th January and Buddhagaya on 22^nd January together with two Japanese.

     Established Maha Bodhi Society on 20^th May and started his works at Buddhagaya on 10^th July.

     Purchased a piece of land in the name of Maha Bodhi Society on 28^th August and established the     

     head office of Maha Bodhi Society India in Calcutta.

1892 World Parliament of Religions was held in Chicago, USA and he participated as a Buddhist leader

     and speaker. On the way back from USA, he met Mary Elizabeth Foster at Hawaii.

1893 Second visit to Japan.

1901 Bought a piece of land at Sarnath.

1902 Third visit to Japan and becoming one of founding members of the Japan-India Association.

1904 Built a small room and started living in Sarnath and travelled many countries and lots of places in

     India from Sarnath.

1906 Purchased the land where Mulagandha Kuty Vihara was built later.

1914 Anagarika Dharmapala was kept in house arrest for five years in Calcutta.

1920 Completed the construction of Dharmarajika Vihara.

1921 Established a Free Primary School.

1922 Founded Mulagandha Kuty Vihara but the construction work was suspended for four years.

1926 The Director General of Archeological Survey of India gave approval to complete the further

     construction of Vihara.

1931 On November 11^th, the Inaugural Ceremony was held. More than fifty thousand people of various

     Buddhist countries were present. Late Prime Minister Sri Jawahar Lal Nehru was participated in the

     function with his wife. Anagarika Dharmapala was taken to ceremony on a wheelchair because he

     was unable to walk.          

     Anagarika Dharmapala requested Japanese Government through the Japan-India Association in

     Calcutta to send a Japanese artist to draw murals on the wall of main hall of Mulagandha Kuty Vihara.

1932 The Japanese artist Nosu Kosetsu arrived at Calcutta on 25^th November and started mural painting

     work on 20^th December in Sarnath.

1933 On 16^th January, Anagarika Dharmapala got high ordination at Mulaghandha Kuty Vihara in Sarnath

     and he was fortunately able to see the first mural painted by Nosu Kosetsu. It was the picture of

     “Buddha Enlightened”.

       On 29^th April, Anagarika Dharmapala closed his eyes forever.