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by Aryadasa Ratnasinghe

Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka was born on February 13, 1868, at Waragoda, Kelaniya, in the northern suburbs of Colombo. He was Knighted in 1943.

Baron Jayatilaka's father was Wickremaratchi Imia Rajakaruna Liyana Atukoralage Don Daniel Jayatilaka Senanayake Liyana Aratchi, who was from Pattalagedera, Veyangoda. The mother was Liyanage Dona Elisiana Perera Weerasinghe, the handsome daughter of the celebrated oriental scholar, Don Andiris de Silva Batuwantudawe of Werahena, Bentota. Both families commanded respect of the people and were wealthy. The marriage of Baron Jayatilaka and Mallika Batuwantudawe was solemnised at Waragoda, with all pomp and ceremony, befitting their social status.

The nuptial celebrations lasted for over a week, entertaining their kith and kin from far and near. The marriage took place on August 12, 1898, when Baron Jayatilaka was 30 years old. They had five children (three daughters and two sons).

Future

The parents were ever mindful of the future of their children from the moment they were born. Being devout Buddhists, they always tried to bring up their children with spiritual awareness and manners conducive to Buddhist way of life. The father's great ambition was to make the eldest son Baron to enlist as an engineer in the Public works Department (PWD). With this aim in view, everything was done to give him a good education.

In 1874, at the age of 6 years, and at the auspicious hour, he read the first letter of the Sinhala alphabet, from the erudite scholar and orientalist, Ven. Ratmalane Sri Dharmaloka Maha Thera, who later became the Head of the Vidyalanka Pirivena (established in 1875) at Peliyagoda. Later, the child was admitted to the local Baptist Missionary School at Waragoda, which conducted classes in English. While attending school, he also learnt Buddhism, Sinhala, Pali and Sanskrit from the erudite Ven. Dhammarama Nayaka Thera to enrich his knowledge.

At the age of 22 years, having left Wesley College, Baron Jayatilaka, looked for a job in a State Department, because of the glamour of the Public Service in those days. He applied to become a clerk in the Land Settlement Department. At the interview, when he produced his testimonials, he was told "Look youngman! You are too good for this kind of job. You have a good future. So strive with endeavour". Thereafter, he never looked for a government job.

At this time, Christian schools in the island were preparing students to sit for the Junior and Senior examinations, conducted by the Cambridge University Examination Syndicate, England. Baron Jayatilaka was successful in both Examinations, but as no examination was conducted by the London University in Sri Lanka, he was compelled to graduate himself from the Calcutta University, as a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1898. It is said that his name still adorns the Rolls of Honour at the Wesley College, Colombo.

Fortune

In 1890, Baron Jayatilaka had the fortune of meeting Col. H.S. Olcott (who came to Sri Lanka in 1880 from the US), and participating in his campaign to establish English schools in the island open to Buddhist children. The first among them was the Ananda College in Colombo (estab. 1886). In the field of education, the first job that Baron Jayatilaka was assigned was his appointment as Principal of the Buddhist High School in Kandy (now Dharmaraja College). In 1898, he became the vice Principal of Ananda College, the first Principal of which was C.W. Leadbeater, a close companion of Col. Olcott.

The Buddhist residents in Colombo felt the need of forming an Association to promote Buddhist activities in the city.

The beginning was made in 1898, by the establishment of the Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA) at Borella, and Baron Jayatilaka was elected President, at the young age of 30 years, and held the post for 46 years, until his death in 1944. The YMBA is a glowing tribute and a lasting monument to his fair and unsullied name. The new building we see today was built in 1989, at a cost of Rs. 50 million.

In 1910, after 20 years of service to the country, Baron Jayatilaka, left for England to stay there for some time, and to go to Berlin, Germany, as the Representative of Sri Lanka, to attend the Congress of Religions, where he was expected to read a learned paper on Buddhism.

It was a time when people were beginning to realise more and more about the evils of alcoholic beverages. The clergymen of England felt the need to discourage the drinking habit, if not to stop it all together.

The All-India United Temperance Association condemned the habit of drinking, and Baron Jayatilaka, who took a serious view of the social menace, started the Ceylon Temperance Movement in 1914, despite much opposition from the Christian community.

At the age of 46 years, Baron Jayatilaka returned to Sri Lanka, having spent 3 years abroad. His image had been indelibly impressed in the minds of the people of the island, and its definition had been heightened by long service overseas. Nationalist he always was, and it was the right time to sow the seeds of Buddhist morality which was at an ebb. Both Buddhist clergy and Buddhist leaders worked with him on a new path of national resurgence, Buddhist revival and cultural regeneration.

On June 21, 1915, by order of the General Officer Commanding the British troops, Baron Jayatilaka was arrested for seditious speeches and writings, when communal riots broke out between the Sinhalese and the Muslims on May 28, 1915. An application for a habeas corpus was made for his release, but it was refused by the Chief Justice, Sir Alexander Wood Renton. Martial Law was declared,and order to 'shoot at sight' was proclaimed.

Career

His political career commenced from this time in right earnest. He emerged a politician overnight, not by choice but by the irony of destiny. In 1918, he left for England to fight the cause of the Sinhalese, at least to remove the wrong impression created about him, and the Sinhala community, by the alien rulers.

In 1944, while in New Delhi, India, Baron Jayatilaka fell ill and he was advised to return to Sri Lanka. When he was at Mussorie, he suffered from a light heart attack, and on May 29, 1944, he passed away at 11.45 a.m. at Bangalore.

The body was flown in a special plane in dismal weather, amidst heavy rain, storm, thunder and lightning. At 5.30 p.m., the plane touched down at Ratmalana. The body was taken in a motorcade to his country residence at Nikape, Dehiwala, for the public to pay their last respects to the dead.

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