Harischandra Wijayatunga

On his 90th birthday (25 October 2021), Dr Harischandra Wijayatunga was felicitated by Nalanda College, Colombo in a programme called Harisanda Harasara when two books ‘Abhinandana Special Issue’ and ‘Margagatha Abhinandana Sambhashanaya 2021’ were also launched.

In 2009 with the leadership of Mahinda Rajapaksa the 26 year civil war ended in the defeat of the LTTE.

Mahinda Rajapaksa won the 2005 Presidential election with slightly over 180,000 votes. Prior to the 2005 Presidential election, the government was considerably unpopular due to the escalation of hopeless civil war, economic collapse, and also due to the Millennium City incident.

Dr. Harischandra Wijayatunga did not contest the 2005 Presidential election intentionally by calculating the consequence to Sri Lanka if contested, but instead supported Mahinda Rajapaksa to win the Presidential election.

If Dr. Harischandra Wijayatunga had contested, the outcome of the 2005 Presidential election would have been more complicated due to the unpopularity of the then government and Mahinda Rajapaksa may have lost by a narrow margin resulting in the possibility of the war being dragged on further.

Wijayatunga was married to Kalukapuge Karuna Perera (B.A., Dip. Ed., Attorney-at-Law, Notary Public and Commissioner of Oaths) of Kiribathgoda, who died in 2000. Karuna's father, a Kalukapuge Bandaranaike, adopted the surname Perera during British colonial time. One of the descendant of the male lineage of the Kalukapuge Bandaranaike family is the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. Karuna's both parents were school principals.

In the third 1994 Sri Lankan presidential election, he was the candidate of his Party and polled 32,651 votes. Six years later, he contested again in the presidential elections of 1999, polling 35,854 votes. He also contested in the parliamentary elections of 2000, 2001 and 2004.

For his thesis "Legal Philosophy in Medieval Sinhale" he was awarded the PhD degree by the University of Kelaniya in 1990.

It was only Dr. Harischandra Wijayatunga who advocated that the war could and should be ended by combat since early 1990.

He is the compiler of the Practical Sinhala Dictionary (1982) and Gunasena Great Sinhala Dictionary, which are considered as the most comprehensive Sinhala-Sinhala dictionaries to date. Besides compiling these voluminous works of over 2000 pages, he also proposed scientific ideas to standardise Sinhala script.

Throughout the 1980s he held various offices such as Chief Editor of the tabloid Sinhala Bauddhya (The Sinhalese Buddhist), director, Sri Lanka Ayurvedic Drugs Corporation and member of the Directorate of the Siddhayurveda College, Gampaha. During the years 1984–1990, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Sinhalese Encyclopaedia as well as the Officer-in-Charge, Sinhala version of the Legislative Enactments of Sri Lanka.

The next step he took was to join the Sri Lanka Law College as a student. He took his oaths as an Attorney-at-Law in 1973.

He appeared for the accused in the 1971 insurrection before the Criminal Justice Commission. It is also noteworthy that he represented several parties at the Presidential Commission headed by the former Chief Justice Mr. M. C. Sansoni.

In 1965 he was appointed to the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) which started work in the same year. He was the first and the only member appointed to the staff, functioning as its Secretary. Under his supervision Divisional Committees on Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Agriculture and Chemicals, and Metrication of Sri Lanka were appointed.

Wijayatunga and Karuna are the parents of three sons (Widyasagara, b. 1965, Chakrapani, b. 1967 and Chandrakeerthi, b. 1970) and a daughter (Shyama Kumari, b. 1969). He has travelled widely in many Asian, African and European countries, and was invited to address various groups of learned societies in India, Japan, UK and Australia.

Immediately after his University education, Wijayatunga joined the staff of Dharmaraja College, Kandy as a science teacher. In addition, he also taught chemistry at the Mahamaya Girls' College, Kandy. It was during this time that he wrote his first book Miridiya Jivihu (Freshwater Life). In 1956 he was appointed as the Editor of the Science Section of the Sinhala Encyclopaedia, established at the University of Peradeniya. After some years of service there, he assumed the post of vice-Principal of his former work place, Dharmaraja College.

For the 1956 General Election, Mr. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike promised to Sinhalese Buddhists that if his party could set up the government, he would make Sinhala the only state language within 24hrs. However, Mr. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike did not honor the promise made to the people. Months after the 1956 General Election, Prof. F. R. Jayasuriya started a fast unto death to force S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's government to implement the promise with the support of Mr. Harischandra Wijayatunga and other extremists.

Prior to 1956, higher education was available in English for the English speaking elite in few colleges, and it was only the primary education given to masses in Sinhala language. The most important result was that the Sinhalese Buddhist masses got a chance to study beyond primary education up to advanced level in Sinhala. This effort resulted in Sinhala medium schools to produce the country's engineers, doctors, public servants, police, military and other higher positions.

In 1952 he entered the University of Ceylon and in 1955 graduated with a bachelor's degree in science.

Wijayatunga's political career goes back to his university days. He joined in the popular movement in 1950s to make Sinhala the Official Language of Sri Lanka, calling into life the "Sinhala Union of the University of Ceylon". During his stay in Kandy he associated himself with the work of Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Realising that none of the two major parties in Sri Lanka would espouse the rights of Sinhalese Buddhists, which was uppermost in his mind, he established the Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya in 1990 with a group of intellectuals. He became the leader of this party and holds this position to this date.

Wijayatunga Mudalige Harischandra Wijayatunga (Sinhala: විජයතුංග මුදලිගේ හරිශ්චන්ද්‍ර විජයතුංග; born 25 October 1931) is a Sri Lankan author, translator, lexicographer, teacher, lawyer and politician. He held various offices in different institutions of the Government of Sri Lanka. At present he is the leader of Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Party. During the presidential elections of 1994 and 1999, he was the candidate of that party for this high office.

Harischandra Wijayatunga was born in 1931 at Madamulla (Sinhala: මැඩෑමුල්ල) in Minuwangoda, Sri Lanka. His father, Wijayatunga Mudalige Don Bastian Wijayatunga, was an Ayurvedic eye physician, landed proprietor and a planter (coconut and paddy) and his mother was Amarawathie Jayasinghe. Wijayatunga was the fourth in a family of eight siblings.