116th birth anniversary of the founder of Wickramarachchi Ayurveda Vidyalaya :

'Gandhi of Siyane Korale'

by Aditha Dissanayake

Ever heard of Vata dosha, Pitta dosha and Kapha dosha? If you are into Ayurveda (Ayu meaning life and veda meaning 'the knowledge of' in Sanskrit) you would know about the five primary elements; ether (space), air, fire, water and earth, that just as in nature, we too have these five elements within us. The combination of ether and air results in Vata dosha. Fire and water combine to form the Pitta dosha while water and earth form the Kapha dosha.

These ratios of the doshas vary in each individual and because of this, Ayurveda sees each person as a special mixture that accounts for our diversity... But hold it. This is not a lesson on the traditional arts of healing.

This is about the founder of the foremost centre for Ayurvedic knowledge in the country, the eminent Ayurvedic physician, Professor Gabriel Perera Wickramarachchi, whose 116th birth anniversary falls tomorrow September 28.

Professor Wickramarachchi, also known as Pandit Wickramarachchi or as the Gampaha Vedamahattaya, began his primary education at the village school and graduated from the Vidyodaya Pirivena in 1913 specializing in Sinhalese, Pali, Sanskrit and Ayurveda, under the tutelage of Venerable Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Nayake Thera.

Legend has it that Pandit Wickramarachchi was such a brilliant student when he was at Vidyodaya he scored 100 out of 100 in his exams, and once when an irate student questioned Sri Sumangala Thera why Wickramarachchi was always given 100 marks was told "because I can't give him 101".

A true patriot who believed in the catch word Siyarata de siri sepa de (Nothing can be better than what we make ourselves) Pandit Wickramarachchi revived the practice of indigenous medicine, lived a spartan life, always dressed in white-home spun cotton clothing made from cotton he grew himself, and was nominated a Senator by the then Prime Minster S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1957.

Enroling himself at the Calcutta Astanga Ayurveda Vidyalaya where he studied under one of the most eminent physicians and erudite scholars of Ayurveda in India, Kaviraj Jamini Bhusana Roy, Pandit Wickramarachchi returned to Sri Lanka in 1921 determined to revive the traditional arts of healing, which had begun to disappear during the four hundred years of foreign reign the country was subjected to. With firm determination and strong will power he founded the Gampaha Siddayurvedha Vidyalaya in 1929.

"My father opened the medical school seven days after I was born. He believed I was his good-luck charm" recalls Ayurveda Keerthi Winayakantha Wickramarachchi, the son of Pandit Wickramarachchi. Though hailing from a generation of physicians Winayakantha says he did not take up medicine.

"My father never insisted that I should follow his footsteps but I have done everything I can to preserve the institute he built and to carry on making the medicine exactly the way he made them".

Rani Wickramarachchi, recalling the ways of her father-in-law says "He was a person of simple living and high thinking. In recognition of his services to the country the Vidyodaya Pirivena conferred on him the Honorary Degree of Ayurveda Chakrawarthi at the Convocation Ceremony held on August 7, 1960".

Having nurtured more than a thousand students across the years who have established dispensaries of their own all over the island providing an invaluable service to the suburban and the rural needy, in 1992 the institute began to market Ayurvedic medicine to ease the strains encountered by physicians and patients alike in preparing the intricate remedies.

Having moved on to the third generation, today Pandit Wikramarachchi's granddaughters and grand son-in-law, Sajith Wijeratne, keep the torches of the college of Ayurveda burning bright.

A great philosopher who was guided by his own initiative, intelligence and integrity Pandit Wickramarachchi seen by some as the Gandhi of Siyane Korale, is hailed today, on his 116th birth anniversary, as the savant of indigenous medicine and a heroic son of Mother Lanka.