|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Friday, 30 January 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
A world class oriental scholar from Sri Lanka by A. G. S. Kariyawasam
On January 31, 1990 death took away from amongst us a rare kind of scholar, mainly Oriental, when Professor O. H. de A. Wijesekera breathed his last at the age of 81 years. It is very seldom that we come to hear about scholars of his calibre because his scholarship embraced not only his main forte of Oriental studies but other related as well as unrelated disciplines such as philology, philosophy, linguistics and even music and drama. Born to teacher-parents at Induruva on September 6th, 1909, he had his academic career launched at a bilingual school in his native town. As his parents were in a transferable service he was compelled to spent a few years at St. Aloysius College, Galle from where he obtained admission to Ananda College, Colombo, which catered to his entire school education. At Ananda he was quite fortunate that he came under the benign influence of P. de S. Kularatne, one of the best teachers Sri Lanka had produced. Here he showed his mettle by passing the Cambridge Senior examination conducted by the London University in the first division. After his admission to the then University College his luck surfaced once more when he came under the influence of the doyen of Oriental scholarship at the time, Professor Gunapala Malalasekera, who was heading the then Department of Oriental Studies which comprised the three languages, Sinhala, Pali and Sanskrit. Known as Indo-Aryan at the time, this language combination provided young Wijesekera the opportunity to display his mettle by securing a First Class and also by topping the list among all the candidates in 1932. Accordingly, he was awarded that year's government scholarship for further studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where he again had the fortune of studying under the eminent scholar William Stede, co-editor of the PTS Pali-English Dictionary. Subsequently, the London School of Oriental and African studies awarded him the PhD degree for his thesis 'The Syntax of the Pali Nikayas'. In the meantime, he further improved his repertoire of academic achievements by specialising in Sanskrit, Comparative Philology, Vedic Culture, Indian Philosophy etc. These studies provided him with an MA and a diploma in these disciplines. On his coming back to Sri Lanka with these qualifications in 1936, he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Sanskrit, Pali and Sinhala of the then University College. Thus, as a full-time teacher, he became responsible for the production of a large number of university men and women who came to occupy places of distinction in running the affairs of the country, with a good number of Civil Servants among them. In 1948 he succeeded the German lady Betty Heiman as the Professor of Sanskrit at the University College, later becoming the Dean of the Faculty. In the succeeding years he received numerous invitations from universities and similar academic institutions abroad to deliver special lectures on Indological topics. It was in 1968 that he resigned from the University of Ceylon as its Vice-Chancellor, when crisis situations began to develop there as signs of the coming times. On the passing away of Prof. Malalasekera in 1973 Prof. Wijesekera succeeded him as the Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism and rendered a valuable service for three years till 1976. Reference should of necessity be made here to the rich contribution Prof. Wijesekera has made towards the enrichment of Indological Studies spanning a very long period from 1930 onwards, comprising well over two hundred high quality research papers on diverse aspects of the subject. All these were published in reputed journals, both local and foreign. During his three decades of connections with the University of Ceylon he had been responsible for the turning out of a good number of men and women serving the motherland in varying capacities. His classes there were generally small, owing to Sanskrit being studied as a separate subject for an Honours course only by a handful. But it had its advantages. During a one-hour lecture period he wold break the lecture at several places and go on discussing 'current affairs' or would be giving out valuable lessons on how to lead a good life as a responsible citizen. This made the lectures full of interest as it took away the boredom of continuous discussions on Philology or Vedic stanzas, which were the subjects the present writer had the fortune of studying under him in the late fifties at Peradeniya. Thus, his pupils had the fortune of listening to and benefitting from his vast experience in diverse fields. Formality was absent in the class-room, personal level discussion taking its place. He knew how to make any subject lively through discussion, as for instance when he once showed how the English term 'Advocate' had its semantically exact equivalent in its morphologically very close Sanskrit original 'Adhivaktru', thereby showing also the original unity of mankind. Being a great admirer of Mahatma Gandhi, non-violence or ahimsa played an important place in his life. The first decade of the University of Ceylon at Peradeniya (1952-1962) can be called the hey-day of the University, wherein Prof. Wijesekera also played a prominent role in its smooth continuity at the time although signs began to surface later that the 'golden period' had to be confined to the past, as it has been amply proved today. Before conclusion let us not forget that charming lady, Mrs. Mabel Wijesekara, an Indo-Aryan graduate herself, who had been the constant companion and helper of the late Professor in all his achievements. We wish her and her family the very best to carry out into the future all the good work initiated by her beloved husband. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
