Prescription for a good life

by Lakmal Welabada

Today we meet Winya - Kanta Wickramarachchi who is the living branch on the ancestral tree of the Wickramarachchi family of native physicians which runs back into hundreds of years.

"My grandfather, Velum Perera was also a native physician. He was popular as a gynaecologist. It was my father Gabriel Perera who founded the Wickramarachchi Ayurveda College, Hospital and the medicine factory," begins Winya Kanta.

Winya Kanta's father's birth place was Nadungamuwa, Gampaha although he started off his childhood dream of having a Ayurveda College at Yakkala, Gampaha on his wife, Sumanawathie Adikari's (Winya Kanta's mother) property.

"I am the third of the four children in the family. All the others are sisters. So, I became my mother's pet. My father was a very calm and quiet person. He was eternally busy with his work. It was our mother who looked into our studies," says Winya Kanta.

Winya Kanta was born on July 4, 1929. His father's dream of having a Ayurvedic College came true on July 19 of the same year, just after 15 days of his birth. Hence Wickramarachchi Veda Mahaththaya always thought that his son brought him luck.

"My father didn't demand fees from his students, and the 6-year course was given free along with free lodging. They only had to find their food. He funded his college and hospital from the medicines he produced in his factory. Still we make Wickramarachchi medicines according to his instructions. Still we do not use gas, and instead use firewood to boil the medicine caldrons to produce our medicine," he reveals.

Winya Kanta had his education at Holy Family Convent, Gampaha where his sisters studied along with him, and then entered Ananda College, Colombo. "I entered Ananda College in 1940. But after an year the Second World War broke.

After the Japanese bombed Colombo the school was shifted to Gampaha. I was boarded all these days in a Colombo school hostel, and was thrilled over that as I could go to school from home," he reminisces. But his happiness was short lived. In 1944, Ananda College was shifted back to Colombo. "Oh! it was a nightmare again.

I refused to leave home and my mother. So, I started going to school from home. Had to get up early and came home late. Travelling from Gampaha those days was not that easy. So I didn't have much time to get involved in any extra activity at school. In vain, I killed my time on the road," he smiles.

However, Wickramarachchi Veda Mahaththaya didn't want his son to be a 'Veda' (native doctor) as the native physicians did not have recognition until S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike came to power with the five powers - Sangha, Veda, Guru, Govi, Kamkaru (Buddhist priests, native physicians, teachers, farmers and labourers). After sitting for the Senior Certificate, Winya Kanta started his own Copra export business (desiccated coconut) with his own mill, and was a great success.

In 1974 his father fell ill, and he was asked to get involved with the Wickramarachchi College. "I was not a native physician, so we had to get a native doctor for the post of Principal cum Director of our Ayurveda College. My father's student, D. M. Jayasinghe agreed to take over, but on the condition I will be the Registrar of the college as he did not know the management side of the place.

So I gave up my coconut business which I had been doing for 20 years by giving it on lease, and stepped into Wickramarachchi college and the medicine factory. It was not a challenge as I was in and out of it through out my life. My father wrote everything to me in his will when I was 10 years," recalls Winya Kanta.

Wickramarachchi Veda Mahaththaya started his medicine factory in 1934, and was producing 200-300 quality native medicinal items which gained a gigantic demand all over the island. He was a scholar of native treatment of Calcutta Ayurvedic University. Apart from that he had written about five to six books on Ayurvedic medicines and a route to a healthy life.

"My father formed a Board of Management of 11 for his College, and one member has had to come from the Maligakanda Pirivena as to respect the education he gained from that place. And I'm the only living member of the 11 founder members of the Board of Management," he says.

About 15-20 students were taken as a batch to the College at the initial stage, and today it is about 80. And nearly 50 native physicians pass out annually. Out of that 70 percent are females.

"My father didn't charge a cent from anybody for 35 years to run the College. In 1960s the government granted a sum of Rs. 10,000, and PM Sirimavo Bandaranaike made it Rs. 100,000 in 1972," he says. "The college was affiliated to Kelaniya University in 1995. It was the unanimous decision of us, the Board of Management as well as the students," says Winya Kanta.

Wickramarachchi Veda Mahaththaya was appointed to the Senate Council by Prime Minister S. W. R. D. "My father was the first Senator who spoke in Sinhala. There were 30 members in the Senate.

When Mrs.B wanted to become a Senator (she had to become a Senator before being a Premiership candidate) none agreed to give up their seat. It was my father who willingly gave it up. So after she became the Premier, she gave the vacant seat back to him. So my father was a Senator for two terms for about ten years altogether until 1967," he recalls.

Wickramarachchi Veda Mahaththaya despite his calm and quiet nature, had his own policies.

He never went to a hotel for a function. Even his daughters' weddings were held at home on this principle. However his son Winya Kanta managed to break his monarchic policy for his wedding. "My father got the Senatorship in 1957, just a few weeks before my wedding.

So I could insert his name as 'Senator G. P. Wickramarachchi' in my wedding card, and managed to argue on the fact that the whole Senate would be present at my wedding so that we would better hold it in a hotel. So he happily agreed to have mine at the Mount Lavinia Hotel," he laughs.

Well, it will be the 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration of Winya Kanta and his wife, Ranee Claris Karunaratne at the same venue on October 3 this year. "I was 19 years and Winya Kanta was 28 when we got married. I was born in Matara and then was living at Watarappola Road, Mount Lavinia.

I studied at St. Mary's Convent, Matara, Moratuwa Convent and finally Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo," says Ranee. "I wanted to be a doctor, but my mother wanted to give me in marriage soon though my father backed my idea a lot," she says.

Ranee then tried to enter her father-in-law's Ayurvedic College, but her husband didn't like that idea as by that time no girls were admitted to the college. "But I have had no regrets now as I was able to make my two elder daughters doctors.

Both studied Western medicine. Eldest daughter Sujeewa is in UK, and the second daughter Anusha looks after the Wickramarachchi Ayurvedic medicine factory now. The third, Rochelle is a graduate of Business Management," says Ranee.

"I could have studied native medicine, but was never interested. My parents didn't force me. But may be because I have been involved with it my whole life, I can diagnose the illness of someone just by looking at them. This is an instinct," he claims.

"My father was an honest man. He never observed Sil on Poyas saying 'I observe Sil everyday'... And every Poya Day he took us on a pilgrimage around the island. There's no place of worship that we have not visited. I follow his foot steps. I have a strong belief in the Buddha and the Noble Truth that He preached," concludes Winya Kanta.

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