The cultural revolution of 1956 caused many a lasting result in the education field of the island. Implementing the Swabasha medium in higher education and upgrading two pirivenas to the standard of universities are two of them. The rural children were privileged to enter the universities while the traditional subjects including Pali received due recognition consequently.
Oliver, a brilliant student of Madampagama Maha Vidyalaya sat for Vidyalankara Entrance, offering Pali as a subject and having entered the university he outshone others, mostly who were the Buddhist monks. Finally, he got first-class honours at the special degree examination and was selected for a lecturer post. His next step forward was to go abroad for PhD winning a Common Wealth scholarship meant for youngest graduates. This was a great opportunity for him to gain modern knowledge keeping abreast with the world famous scholars and carry on his research on Pali based on more scientific methodology. Thus, he laid the foundation to be an international figure in the academic arena of Indology.
Instead of being qualified as a PhD holder by submitting something ‘easy’ just to pass the barrier of examination, he selected a topic covering a vast area “Development of latest addition to the Sutta Pitaka – Khuddaka Nikaya”, It must be mentioned here that the subject is so broad that handling a such a topic usually unthinkable by a young academic who does not possess the experience of monastic life. He promised by presenting the thesis future of an erudite personality, thus, and publishing the book itself elevated him to the standard of an international scholar.
Having returned to the motherland he established family life with the lifelong scholastic partner laying the foundation to enjoy the present happy and contented living, continuing the academic carrier. In the meantime, the country saw a leap forward in the higher education of Pali and Buddhist studies when Buddhist and Pali University was established in 1982. Prof. Abeynayaka’s services were demanded by the farsighted authorities for the institute where he became the Director of Research, Prof. of Buddhist Philosophy and Dean of Faculty of Buddhist Studies.
As the rulers agreed to take another praiseworthy step by introducing a Post Graduate Institute for Pali and Buddhist Studies, scholars of the subject area got due recognition and were employed as lecturers there. The courses were in both Sinhala and English media. Many foreign students were attracted. It is noteworthy that the courses were open to any first-degree holder irrespective of the subjects. As a result LLB, MBBS and BSc graduates were following the courses and gradually even some professors of other subjects joined the classes as students. Prof. Abeynayaka was an indispensable lecturer there and his presentations were so applicable to the needs of the modern scholarship that he was considered to be the ideal one to explain the aspects of Buddhist theories of economics, sociology, the evolution of human society and politics. The learned student gathered knowledge through him with the necessary subject integration.
The students found his greatness in every sentence uttered by him and they noted down them. He did not want to waste time by distributing notes. The discussions were based on surfaced topics of the subject, occasionally.
The following incident will explain the peculiar ways of his approach to the subject. After the retirement, he was invited to undertake the post of visiting professor at the Buddha Dharma Centre of Hong Kong for one year. His students were preparing for Master’s Degree in Buddhism. As usual, he did not want to distribute printed notes. But the authorities needed to accompany the lectures with notes and he complied. Later on, he published the lecture notes as a book, titled “The Social and Economic Dimensions of Early Buddhism”.
There he says in the preface “I have been teaching up to now in the universities for 51 years. During that period I never lectured on a prepared note, nor did I give lecture notes to students…”
His Sinhalese lectures have been so appreciated by his students that they have published some of them as books. Some others have been interested in publishing a felicitation for him. He has been honoured by Buddhist and Pali University by conferring a D.Litt. Meanwhile, he has been an Academic Fellow of CommonWealth and a UNESCO Fellow of Thesaurus constructions in Japan also. A few days ago, a large crowd of his students and well-wishers gathered at Luxman Kadiragamar hall, Colombo to wish him a happy birthday. The occasion was marked by the launching of his two books. With all that he is simple, humble and rich with human qualities. But mother Sri Lanka can be proud of him for producing a great son of scholarship of international recognition.
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