Dharmaraja College

Dharmaraja College (Sinhala: ධර්මරාජ විද්‍යාලය), founded in 1887, is a boys' school in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is a Buddhist school with around 300+ teaching staff and over 4,000+ students.

A land area of 220,000 square metres (54 acres) is owned by the school spreading over half of the Dharmaraja hill. Dharmaraja has one of the oldest scout troops in the world, the 1st Kandy Dharmaraja Scout Group, which was established in 1913. It is one of the first Sri Lankan schools to start playing cricket. It has consistently ranked among the first two boys schools in Sri Lanka in the preference rankings based on year 5 scholarship examinees' demand.

Dharmaraja College, Kandy is one of the premier Buddhist schools in the country and is named after the Buddha. Dharmaraja College, as well as the other Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka, owes its existence to Col Henry Steel Olcott, philanthropist and the founder of the Buddhist Theosophical Society. Having read a printed version of the Panadura Vaadaya of 1873, a public debate between Buddhist and Christian representatives on the correctness of each belief, Col Olcott was impressed with the teachings in Theravada Buddhism, which were in line with his vision as a theosophist. It resulted in him arriving in Sri Lanka to study more on Buddhism, and starting a branch of the Theosophical Society, first in Colombo and then in Kandy and Galle. He was ably supported by the Venerable Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera – hero of the 'Panadura Vadaya', the Venerable Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera, the Venerable Dodanduwe Piyarathana Thero, the Venerable Walane Sri Siddhartha Thero and the Venerable Ratmalane Dhammaloka Thero, along with Anagarika Dharmapala, Walisinghe Harischandra, and Don Agaris Divakara Mohottige, Mudaliyar of Central Province. Mudaliyar Agaris was a popular and respected man throughout Kandy Province and had been given the title in 1878 after his father, Don Alexander-James Divakara Mohottige had died.

With Sir Olcott's initiative and guidance, the theosophists identified that a major factor for the decline of Sinhalese Buddhists was the lack of education facilities, and the best solution was to make available educational institutes with a Buddhist religious background. It was under this theory that foundations were laid for the beginning of the Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka, which include Dharmaraja College, Ananda College, Maliyadeva College and Mahinda College. In 1887 Sir Olcott visited Kandy and expressed his wish to start an English-medium Buddhist school with the help of Sumangala Thero and the Mudaliyar of Kandy at that time; D.M Agaris. Several Kandyan nobles were supportive of the idea, and it was decided that the plot of land in front of the Old Palace, adjoining the Natha Devalaya was the best for building the school. But there was an obstacle in that the plot was covered by a Bo tree, held sacred by the Buddhists, which had to be felled for putting up a school building. The British Administration opposed the felling citing that it would be an action against Buddhism. Wadugodapitiya Punchirala Korale felled and removed the tree in one night, and levelled up the plot for the building.

It was under this pretext that on 30 June 1887, Dharmaraja College, under the name of Kandy Buddhist High School, was opened. This occasion was graced by Sir Olcott, Mudaliyar Divakara Mohottige and several Kandyan nobles including Dullawe Adhikaram, Wadugodapitiya Punchirala Korale, T.B. Panabokke and A.D.J. Gunawardena.

Andiris de Silva was the first principal. He was the only teacher of the school at that time, which had enrolled 12 students. The number of students reached the 50s and the staff increased to three under Andiris de Silva, who was an efficient leader and an accomplished teacher. Many of the local nobles supported Mudaliyar Mohottige and the school by enrolling their children.

However, by 1890, the necessity of a more qualified principal emerged and appointed Sir D.B. Jayatilaka as principal. The school had around 80 students by then. The foundations of transforming Dharmaraja from a mere educational establishment to one of the best schools in Sri Lanka were laid by Sir Jayathilake. Sir Jayathilake was appointed the deputy principal of Ananda College in 1898.

H. Banbury succeeded Sir Jayathilake as principal and he ran a campaign to raise funds for a permanent school building, travelling even in remote villages collecting donations. He used the money to build a single storied building near the city premises of the school, which was later named the 'Banbury Building' in his honour. One of the most notable events during his time was changing the name of the school to Dharmaraja College. Banbury left to India in 1899 to further pursue his studies. Wilton Hack took over from Banbury.^{[citation needed]}