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by Prof. Tilak Hettiarachchi, Vice Chancellor, University of Colombo

My first encounter with Professor Nanadasena Ratnapala was some fifteen years ago when at an interview where he was one of the members of the interview panel and I was one of those who faced the interview. Since that time we developed a relationship both as friends and colleagues working in the same field of academic discipline. During the course of last fifteen years I have met Professor Ratnapala on numerous occasions and often I met him to seek professional advice.

He was born in mid thirties, had his primary education in Bandarawela and then in Panadura. He completed his secondary education as a Royalist.

It is important to emphasize here that even though he completed his secondary education at the Royal College, his passage through the portals of Royal College failed to take away the simplicity, the love for humanity and the extreme humility of a man who always looked at human being not as "files", "Offices" or "Positions". One can see that the early associations of Professor Ratnapala with a very remote area among the hills of Bandarawela had a powerful influence on the development of his character in later years.

He completed his university career with colours. The real academic life of Professor Ratnapala started with his appointment as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Sinhala, University of Ceylon, Peradeniya in 1957. Subsequently, he changed his place of work to the newly established Vidyodaya University (now the University of Sri Jayewardenepura) and remained there till his retirement.

Although the undergraduate work of Professor Ratnapala was in the area of languages, his postgraduate work little by little leaned towards society, perhaps because of his love for humanity.

He started his postgraduate work at the University of Ceylon and obtained a Masters Degree in 1963. Then he proceeded to the University of Goettingen in Germany where he completed a Master of Philosophy in Anthropology.

Back in Sri Lanka he completed a PhD in Sociology and a few years later, on the research he carried out, he was conferred a D.Lit in Sociology from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, thus reaching the highest levels of academic attainment possible.

Prof. Ratnapala held numerous positions of administration at the University of sri jayewardenepura and also in many outside agencies which were concerned with research and social welfare.

`The early writings of Professor Ratnapala, as could be expected, relates to the discipline he belonged to as an undergraduate. He had published many short stories, novels and poems during this period. During this period, he had also published a number of books dealing with literary criticism. However, more people know Professor Ratnapala not as a novelist or a literary critique but as a Sociologist/Social Anthropologist. His research and publications running over thirty monographs and articles started only in 80s, almost three decades after his graduation. These publications are in many fields, which are primarily related to human social behaviour, such as Sociology, Anthropology, Criminology and Folklore.

Unlike many Social Researchers and Sociologists of today, who derive all their knowledge on human society, even on Sri Lankan society, from distorted writings of foreigners who could not fathom human society, particularly those of oriental societies like ours, and who for the most part depend on information badly collected and put into machines for analysis (which give some humorous and farcical outputs). Professor Ratnapala lived long periods of time among many communities who he tried to understand. The most well-known of such was his living among beggars disguised as a beggar which produced the well-known classic the "Beggar in Sri Lanka". Not so well-known are the times he spent among pick-pockets, sex workers, criminals, as a waiter in a hotel, as an assistant to an illicit alcohol brewer and even among Rodiyas and Veddhas. These short-term excursions to closed communities had given Professor Ratnapala experiences that various communities go through which no other social anthropologist in this country can ever lay any claims of.

Of course this life pattern, dedicated to research by the Professor, has made him a living researcher. Such experiences Professor Ratnapala wanted to share not only with his academic colleagues, but also with the common people. This is why some term Professor Ratnapala as a popular sociologist. However, those people who have understood the meanings of such writings would put them among classics, not as popular writing.

I am sure professor Ratnapala will continue to contribute to both the advancement of knowledge in his chosen field of Social Anthoropology and also for the well being of humanity through application of such research, thus making his retirement more productive and a blessing to himself and the society.

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