E. R. Gooneratne

Person

E. R. Gooneratne

• E. R. J. Gooneratne
• Edmund Rowland Jayatilleke Gooneratne
• Edmund Rowland Gooneratne

• Edmund Rowland Jayatilleke Gooneratne Atapattu Mudaliyar of the Governor’s Gate
• Mudaliyar Edmund Rowland Gooneratne
• Mudaliyar Edmund Rowland Jayatilleke Gooneratne

6th May 1845 - 7th August 1914

E. R. Gooneratne was educated at St. Thomas’ College and was taught Sinhala by Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thero. Gooneratne's grandmother would encourage him to read Sinhala books while he simultaneously read English books as well. He would also begin to document his days in a diary in 1861, a habit that would continue to 1914, the year of his death.
E.R Gooneratne was born a Christian but also visited Buddhist temples and regularly conversed with Buddhist monks. In 1874, he was not allowed to attend mass at All Saints Church by the priest and church vicar on account of his wife not also attending (she was Buddhist). He got up and walked out in protest. Soon after, he converted to Buddhism, and in the following years continued to engage in the commitment to its cause and to raise Sinhala-Buddhist national consciousness.
He again put himself under the tutelage of Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thero- the outstanding visionary leader of the Buddhist Order of the time - and they would join each other in various Buddhist initiatives that would have a lasting impact on Sri Lankan history. There is a volume of letters exchanged between them which await editing and publication.

E.R. Gooneratne and his brother Francis began to work at Messrs Reid & Co. in Galle when invited in 1862. Shortly thereafter, E.R. Gooneratne was recommended to the Kachcheri to work as a translator and thus began his work there in 1865.
• While in his position as Land Registrar of Galle, he acquired a reputation for building roads. He had to mobilize sufficient resources of manual labour for the task of road making, while also supervising the Bentota-Wallawita Korale. He constructed two important roads connecting Katukurunda to Angulugaha, and Magedera to Walawe.
• He was rewarded with the Mudaliyarship of the Galle Kachcheri when acting Government Agent Dickson saw his efforts. Gooneratne continued to build the road from Walahanduwa to Akmeemana.
• As Mudaliyar in charge of Bentota-Wallawita Korale and Thalpepattu, he gained popularity among the local community, and earned the recognition of the Governor through a report submitted by the Government Agent by swiftly and effectively addressing local concerns.
• Gooneratne was regularly consulted by the Governor and other colonial authorities on matters concerning the Southern province. In turn he interceded on behalf of the people of the Southern province face-to-face with the colonial government.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVELS:
• He acted as the unofficial ambassador for a reawakening Buddhist Sri Lanka. He travelled to England, Bengal, Buddha Gaya, Thailand and Japan.
• His visits were not private sight-seeing visits but were made to both learn about the national awakenings in the region as well as to share the intellectual cultural legacy that he had acquired himself.
• Buddha Gaya – December 1883- January 1884. Accompanied by two Buddhist monks, visited Madras, Calcutta,
• Thailand – 1886. Buddhists in Galle had a close relationship with the Thai King Chulalongkorn. Gooneratne obtained the manuscript of the Vimanavattu which he later translated and published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
• Japan – His Excellency Hayashi, Foreign Minister of Japan met Maha Mudaliyar Conrad Peter Dias Bandaranayake in Ceylon, 1884 and requested the opportunity to send some Japanese monks to study Theravada Buddhism. Bandaranayake introduced the Minister to his nephew Gooneratne. Gooneratne sponsored two Japanese monks- Shaku Kozen (Yokohama) and Shaku Soen (Kamakura).
• London – In recognition of his services towards road development, E.R. Gooneratne, along with Nugawela RM, Kobbekaduwa R. M, Panabokke Dissava, Maha Mudaliyar Solomon Dias Bandaranaike and Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan attended Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

PATRON OF BUDDHIST REVIVAL:
• Actively helped the Theosophical Movement and helped collect funds for it in the south.
• He started many schools, including the Bataduwe Rathanjothi School (still functional). He started the first pirivena in the Southern province, and later one in the Walawwa premises. The curriculum included Elu, Pali, Sanskrit and Sinhala culture and literature.
• In the early 1890s he helped Anagarika Dharmapala in his attempt to restore Buddhism to its former glory in Buddha Gaya, by acting as a trustee.
• He restored the damaged bo madura and Buddha statue at the Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura after getting permission from the Atamasthana Committee in Anuradhapura.
He also maintained an office and regularly transcribed and rewrote texts from early on in his adulthood. i.e. the Kavyasekara of Totagamuwe Sri Rahula, with notes and annotations under his name, dated Galle, June 1869.
Other works include those published by the Pali Text Society of London:
o Telakatahagatha (1884)
o Dhathuwamsa (1884)
o Stories of Rasavahini (1884)
o Vimanavattu (1886)
o Pajjamadhu (1887)
o Dhatukatha (1892)
o Anguttara Nikaya Part I (1913)

• He contributed commentaries and translations to local newspapers and international journals, such as the Ceylon Friend and The Ceylon National Review.
• He had a very close friendship with Ananda Coomaraswamy, and their collaborative work included Coomaraswarmy’s first major work Mediaeval Sinhalese Art (1908).
• Gooneratne and his team of scholarly monks translated the Rupavaliya, which contained information Kandyan painters relied on (originally in Sanskrit) and Sariputra, containing the dimensions of images in general and the Buddha in particular.
• He also collaborated with T.W. Rhys Davids, the founder of the Pali Text Society, and reputed Buddhist scholar. Gooneratne helped him find contributors and recruit subscribers for the Pali Text Society’s journal.
Died a peaceful death from a heart-attack in 1914 at the age of 69. He is buried at the family cemetery at Atapattu Walauwwa and is marked by a prominent tombstone in marble.

ATAPATTU WALAUWWA – Primary Residence
• Original construction of Walauwwa- i.e circa 1780s-90s by Don Bastian Jayatilleke Gooneratne (1758-1812), a landlord official of the post ‘Mudaliyar of the Atapattu of Galle’
• Residence of his son Don David Jayatilleke Gooneratne (1802-1850), ‘Mohotti Mudaliyar of the Atapattu’.
• Residence of his grandson, Edmund Rowland Jayatilleke Gooneratne (1845-1914), ‘Mudaliyar of the Atapattu’ and ‘Mudaliyar of the Governor’s Gate’.
• Some distance away from the house is the family cemetery, containing the marble tomb of E.R.Gooneratne.
• It is a monument to its most distinguished occupant whose spirit still pervades the Walauwwa although he died more than a century ago: Mudaliyar Edmund Rowland Gooneratne

GENEALOGY
Eight Generations

GENERATION 01:
Kukul Korale Mahatmaya
Korale of the Wellaboda Pattu married a lady from Saffragam in 1690

Generation 02:
Don Domingo Jayatilleke Gooneratne
Mohandiram of the Atapattu (of Galle?) m 1722

GENERATION 03:
Don Philippoe Jayatilleke Gooneratne
Mudaliyar of the Galle Korale m.1751 Don Juana
d. of Don Juan Dias Abeysinghe;
(died 1773)

GENERATION 04:
Don Bastian Jayatilleke Gooneratne (1758-1812)
Atapattu Mudaliyar m. Anne Hertroyda d. of Nicolas Dias Abeysinghe Amarasekere Maha Mudaliyar (E.R. Gooneratne’s grandfather)
(died 1812)

GENERATION 05:
Don David Jayatilleke Gooneratne (1802-50)
Mohotti Mudaliyar of the Atapattu m. 1. Adriana Hertroyda (1800-22?) d. of Don Abraham Dias Abeysinghe Guard Mudaliyar; (no male issue);
m. 2. Dona Catherina Cecilia d. of D.J.F. Dias Bandaranayake Interpr. Mudaliyar and Mudaliyar of the Governor’s Gate.

GENERATION 06:
Edmund Rowland Jayatilleke Gooneratne (1845-1914) Atapattu Mudaliyar of the Governor’s Gate
m.1. 1873 Matilda d. of J.V. Ilangakoon, Mudaliyar of the Weligam Korale and Governor’s Gate;
m.2. 1877 Amily Cornelia d. of Dionysius Tillekeratne

GENERATION 07 m1 | m.2:
Valentine David (b.1874) | Lionel Felton (1878-93) | Mark Sigismund (1881-1958);
Eva Tagora (1883-1954 m. Abraham Dias Abeysinghe); Upali Nissanka Malla (b. 1888); Leelawathie (b.1892)

GENERATION 08 (Children of Eva Tagora):
Blanche (m. J.W. Kumbalwela); Dora Tagora (m. W. Dias Bandaranayake;) Roland (m.1. Manel Ilangakoon);
m, 2. Gwen Dias Bandaranaike; Felix (m. May Gooneratne); Stanley (m.Chandra Keppetipola); Vernon (m. Audrey de Livera); Anula (m. W.I.Pieris); Swarna (m. Eric Ratwatte)

L. F. Gooneratne (18th March 1878 - 18th May 1893)

25.286

• English
• Sinhala