If the status of Buddhism in the 19th century Sri Lanka and India were to be compared to a sky, that sky was engulfed by darkness unrelieved. Through that inky blackness emerged a shining beacon of light in the form of Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) that offered hope not only to Sri Lanka and India but also the rest of the world. Even as a very young person Anagarika Dharmapala had the rare ability to see the broader picture, and this gift had enabled him to realize before anyone else that revival of Buddhism only in Sri Lanka was a self-defeating tasks unless the philosophy had powerful supporters in those countries that had sway over the fates of other countries. With that end in mind on the 18th of September 1893, Anagarika Dharmapala tabled his concept of Buddha and Buddhism in his famous Chicago Address, “The World’s Debt to Buddha: A Critical Enquiry and Assessment” at the first Parliament of Religions in 1893 in Chicago, USA. This speech was made available in print form posthumously in 1934 as The World’s Debt to Buddha, a 74-page book.
Anagarika Dharmapala’s life story leading up to the address in World Parliament of Religions is quite fascinating. One needs to have at least the bare minimum of facts about this period in his life in order to understand the forces that drove Anagarika Dharmapala towards delivering that milestone speech.
Don David Hewavitharana born on 17th of September 1864 had barely left his infancy when the winds of the Buddhist revival movements began to sweep across Ceylon. Don David, the eldest of the six children of the well-to-do couple Don Carolis Hewawithrana and Mallika Srimathi Dharmagunawardena, had been deeply affected by the death of his youngest sibling who died in 1881 at the age of two. It is said that the trauma his mother underwent had made Don David pledge to himself “[n]ot to become an avenue for sorrow to a woman, it means to say never to marry”.
The reason for the crises the Buddhists and Buddhism were facing in Sri Lanka in the 19th and the 20th centuries were not due to any deficiencies in the moves made by Ven.Welivita Asarana Sarana Saranakara Maha Nayake Thera and his followers in the second half of the 18th century. According to scholars, one of the two main reason for the decline in Buddhism in Sri Lanka was that the kings of Kandy who were engaged in a perpetual battle with the Portuguese, Dutch and the British were not able to devote much time to the growth and expansion of Buddhism. The next, pressured by the missionaries, the British government took overt and covert measures to suppress Buddhism. In fact, this had been one of the key grievances of the freedom fighters of the 1848 Freedom Struggle led by the likes of Puran Appu and Gongaalegoda Banda. As a result of the reigns of terror of the likes of Torrington subsequent to the Freedom Struggle of 1848, a large number of Buddhist clergy that were not murdered by the British fled the country, leaving a vacuum that was both religious as well as socioeconomic in the lives of the Buddhists in the country. Making use of the situation, different groups of missionaries that operated here offered the children of the Buddhists a western education in missionary schools which would more often than not lead to a government position in exchange for conversion into Christianity. Under such circumstances, were it not for the interventions of the scholarly Buddhist revivalists, both lay and clergy, Buddhism in Sri Lanka would have long ceased to be the main religion. The first stage of the Buddhist revivalism had set sail under the capable leadership of Most Venerable Mohottiwatter Gunananda Thero. The Thero’s efforts were assisted by scholarly priests such as Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala thero and laymen such as Don Carolis Hewavitharana, Lansage Andries Perrea Dharmagunawardena, Andries Perrera and Col. Henry Steel Olcott.
Don Carolis Hewavitharana and Lansage Andries Perrea Dharmagunawardena being his father and uncle, Don David was in constant touch with the Buddhist Revivalists’ efforts throughout his formative years. The eldest scion of the Hewavitharana family was a mere lad of nine when he witnessed Most Venerable Mohottiwatte Gunanada Thero trouncing the missionaries at the Five Great Debates which culminated in the Panadura Debate, in 1873. Shaped thus, young Hewavitharana’s delivery was inevitably blunt to the point of painfulness when he denounced eating beef and consuming alcohol that were becoming popular among the Buddhists of the time as a result of the influence of the missionaries as well as the British. By 1890 Anagarika Dharmapala had distanced himself from the Buddhist Theosophical Society. However, upon establishing Maha Bodhi Society in 1893 he appointed Olcott as the honorary secretory. The stated aims of establishing Maha Bodhi Society were as follows:
- Gaining possession of the Buddhist Sites in India
- Disseminating Buddha’s teachings throughout the world
- Recruitment of young men to be Buddhist missionaries
- Founding a Pali and Sanskrit College at Calcutta
- Erecting monasteries at Buddha Gaya, Benares Kusinara and Kapilavastu.
Still, the status of Buddhism in Sri Lanka continued to decline. Understanding, the gravity of the situation, Anagarika Dharmapala, made a bold effort to garner international attention to his august cause by presenting a paper at the first ever Parliament of World Religions held in Chicago on 18th September 1893. The paper was read to a packed audience peopled by the likes of Vichand Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and G. Bonet Maury to name a few. The Chicago Address now available in book form as “The World’s Debt to Buddha” opened the eyes of the western intellectuals to the philosophical significance of Buddhism. In this groundbreaking speech, Anagarika Dharmapala traced the course of Buddhism in its heydays in India thus:
Twenty-five centuries ago India witnessed an intellectual and religious revolution which culminated in the overthrow of monotheism, priestly selfishness, and the establishment of a synthetic religion, a system of light and thought which was appropriately called Dhamma – Philosophical Religion.
Buddhism as a religion and a philosophy had lost its currency for the second time with the decline of the Maurya Empire. By 1891, Buddhism had almost vanished from India and it is the efforts of Anagarika Dharmapala that had restored Buddhism in India as a gift from Sri Lanka to India. The impact of Anagarika Dharmapala’s move is seen in the inclusion of the Dharma Chakra in the National Flag of India, the adoption of the capitol of Saranath Pillar as the Official Seal and the presence of the Mathura Buddha in the Indian Parliament. Today, Buddhism in Sri Lanka is braced by the interest in Buddhism in people of all levels across the globe. One might say that the seeds of global Buddhism were planted by Angarika Dharmapala on the 18th of September 1893 when he presented his groundbreaking paper at the first ever Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, USA.