Abstract:
Vidyalankara Pirivena was founded in 1875 and subsequently it developed into one of the
two leading monastic education centers in Sri Lanka. The zenith of its development as an
education center was marked by its promotion into a full pledged university in 1959. Apart
from the contribution made for the development of education in Sri Lanka this particular
monastic institution was engaged in direct ‗political activities‘ particularly after 1940s. This
very ‗unconventional political engagement‘ of the monks of this institution has been
interpreted by researchers either as a ‗deviation from the original role of the monks‘ or as
‗doing justice to the historical nationalist role of the monks‘. However, in this present
research the above intervention by the monks of Vidyalankara is looked at afresh in a
different angle. All the available literature produced by the Vidyalankara monks and their
opponent schools and groups, biographies of the relevant people, literature produced by the
leftist political parties, relevant reports and proceedings of State Council and the newspaper
articles are the major sources used in this research. Apart from that certain audio and visual
material would also be utilized. The vision and the mission proposed through all the
engagements of the Vidyalankara monks in 1940 are tested against different Buddhist
monastic models that have been inferred through historical researches and deduced the
conclusion that it is not just a mere ‗political engagement only' but a profound monastic
modal that can be understood as an alternative to the monastic systems existed at the time.
