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Prof. Nandadasa Kodagoda - a towering 
man of science



Prof. Nandadasa Kodagoda

I first met Koda, as I always referred to him, about 1960 when I was a lowly medical student and he was working with Professor Sinnatamby in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

During his teaching sessions, where his great teaching skills were already evident, we had a rapport which blossomed into friendship when I joined the Department of Forensic Medicine in the University of Ceylon many years later. He had by then changed his speciality from Obstetrics and Gynaecology to Forensic Medicine.

From that time on till his untimely passing away his influence on my life has not been inconsiderable. Hence my pleasure in penning a few words.

The late Professor Nandadasa Kodagoda was born on 31st October 1929, in the South of Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was then called. He attended the Buddhist temple school during his early formative years, which I believe left him with his greatest legacy.

That was the devotion and love of both his mother tongue and well as his religious beliefs, which had such a profound and immeasurable effect on his life, as well as on fledging Sri Lanka.

He learned English relatively late in life in order to pursue his ambition of becoming a doctor in order to care for his people. But although he started late, there was no evidence of this apparent handicap in later years, when he could hold his own in English with the best in the world.

He joined the medical school in Colombo (there was only one in those days), and qualified as a doctor in 1956. Two years later after having served in the provinces, he was appointed to the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology to work with the Professor.

His first love was this but first loves often do not blossom and he changed his speciality to Forensic Medicine and joined the university department as a lecturer in 1961.

Soon he was on his way to the United Kingdom for further studies and qualifications which were necessary to progress in the department. He arrived in the cold, drab but historic city (as it appeared to him at that time) of Edinburgh in Scotland.

He worked with the famous late Sir Sydney Smith. Sydney Smith was the foremost expert in Forensic Medicine in the world at that time, and his textbook was the standard tome of that era. Many years later the task of translating this book into Sinhala was undertaken by none other than Koda, the disciple of Sydney Smith.

He obtained the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and proceeded to obtain the Diploma in Medical Jurisprudence in London. He returned to his beloved country and worked as a Senior Lecturer in the University Department of Forensic Medicine. He then obtained Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Ceylon.

He also honed his forensic skills to become one of the finest in the land. His quick analytical mind coupled with clear articulation made him one of the best forensic physicians I have seen not only in his native Sri Lanka but internationally. His absolute integrity, quick thinking and instinctive grasp of facts made him a formidable witness in court.

He read widely and common sense combined with his profound knowledge made him one of the most respected men in Sri Lanka. Once there was a murder case in which the accused was a man of great repute and influence.

The autopsy was ordered by the magistrate who decided that it required the expertise of no less a person than a professor. When the professor was notified, the first person he came to for advice was Koda.

As a senior in the department he was most supportive of his juniors. In fact my first academic publication was almost at his insistence. If any member of the staff had any sort of problem, be it official of personal, he or she would make a beeline to Koda and be assured of not only a sympathetic ear and advice but also far more specific aid.

This empathy and compassion, no doubt inherent, but honed by his devout Buddhist principles he had acquired in early life. He lived according to these principles and instilled them to all he came into contact with.

He was one of the few people who translated their training in other countries into new methods of teaching to the students and trainees. In later years he was to take this to the nation via radio at first and later television, by popularising the 'mystic medicine' of the doctors.

He had slots in the radio programmes of the British Broadcasting Corporation to introduce Sinhala and Buddhism often whenever he was over in the United Kingdom. He took a great interest in research and was an active supporter of the Association for the Advancement of Medicine where some of his research was first aired.

In the course of time he was appointed to the chair of the department. From this he went on to be elected as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and still later in the early nineties he was appointed to the exalted position of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo, the highest position in the University. Not bad for a lad who started life in the village temple school!

He was quite a resourceful character too. Once he was on his way to see the famous fire-walking ceremony in Udappu, a coastal fishing village some miles north of Chilaw, when the clutch cable of his car snapped at Ja-ela just a few miles from Colombo. Waiting to get a cable and fixing it would have meant missing the ceremony, something he and his family had longed to see.

He knew that in early days of motoring, cars did not have clutches and gears were changed on the move by matching engine revolutions with that of the gears. So he drove all the way to Chilaw, a small matter of some thirty-five miles without a clutch and without incident, and what was more remarkable, was to arrive in time to witness the ceremony.

In later years he diversified his interests so that he could offer more to the community. He took an active part in the development of traditional alternative medicines, such as advising on the curriculum of the Ayurvedic School of Medicine.

He was involved in the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board, and also the founder of the Alcohol & Drugs Information Centre. He participated in medico-social problems of the community and in fact represented Sri Lanka at numerous conferences in relation to these.

He was a man of few words. He always said 'give every man thy ear but few thine voice'. He would never say anything without weighing his words. He would call a spade a shovel, if that would beget the required result from some errant pupil or trainee.

He won numerous awards for his not inconsiderable services to his country but his greatest achievement is his legacy to the people of Sri Lanka. In conclusion, one can best describe him with a quotation from Rudyard Kipling,

'If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!'

- Dr. S. Sivaloganathan.

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