The History of Nalanda College
How It All Begin..
It was a time when the English rulers kept Buddhists under colonial heel. A time when Buddhist parents were compelled to send their children to missionary schools since there were no indigenous schools of their own. It is in this context that foreigners like Sir Henry Steel Olcott, Madame Blavatsky and Miss. Marie Musaeus Higgins arrived in this country, to help the few Buddhist leaders in their quest for moral and philosophical freedom.
When Ananda College was established in 1886, it attracted the attention of many Buddhists. Thus in no time students were drawn in from all corners of the island, craving for education catered to suit their own culture. As a result by the end of 1923, it was quite conspicuous that the infrastructure that was present could no longer cope, with the ever-increasing demand.
A New Wing For Ananda...
At that time the Ananda playground was located in Campbell Place, Colombo. Next to the playground was a stretch of land about one acre in extent. Mr. P. de S. Kularathne the then principal of Ananda College leased this land and moved in some junior classes of Ananda. These first classrooms were simply mud huts!
This new wing of Ananda was under the authority of Mr. E.W. Perera. He was a very efficient administrator, who did an excellent job in keeping the place clean and maintaining discipline among students. He was well rewarded for his hard work when this new institution was readily approved by the then director of education Mr. Robinson, who quite clearly was very impressed with the way it was functioning.
Mr. Kularathne went even further and bought another 4 acres, from an adjacent land, which cost him 55 000 rupees at that time. A new building consisting of 16 rooms was constructed on this newly acquired land soon after. Sir Gregory Thompson, the then Governor of Ceylon, laid the foundation stone in 1922. Out of its 16 rooms, which were the best that had been built for Ananda so far, 2 were used as laboratories and 2 others as the staff room and the principal’s office. The remaining 12 rooms were used as classrooms under the authority of Mr. L. H. Meththananda. Mr. E. W. Perera was appointed the head master. The Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maithriya Thero became the first Dharmarcharya.