Dr. G. P. Malalasekera:

A multi-faceted personality

G. P. Malalasekera is a name very familiar among students, as many use the Malalasekera English-Sinhala dictionary. Not only students, but also adults use this dictionary which is undoubtedly the most used dictionary in Sri Lanka today.

What do you know about Malalasekera who compiled this dictionary? He was no ordinary lexicographer. At the time he compiled the dictionary he was a Professor of Pali and the Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Ceylon, which was the one and only university in our country in the 1940s.

He published the dictionary in 1948, the year we got independence. He says in the preface dated September 1948, “with independence, the national language will gain its rightful place”, but “we should study at least one other language and among modern languages, English is certainly the most useful.” His aim was to give the local readers “a good English-Sinhalese dictionary on the lines of the best practical bilingual dictionaries’ as an aid to the study of the English language.

The original dictionary contained 4500 words, 1050 pages and was sold for Rs. 12. Since then it has been revised, and gone into five reprints, with the addition of about 4000 more words. It is so popular that it is referred to simply as the Malalasekera dictionary.

The dictionary was only one of Malalasekera’s many publications. He wrote a history of the Pali literature of Ceylon. He edited the commentary to the Mahavamsa and also the Extend Mahavamsa. Together with W. A. de Silva (a minister in the 1930s and early 1940s), he made a collection of Folk songs of the Sinhalese. Buddhism and the Race Question which he co-authored with K. N. Jayatileka was published by UNESCO and is now included in the Encyclopaedia Americana under the heading, The Race Question and Modern Thought.

His greatest work is the two volume Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, for which he was awarded the D Lilt. (Doctor of Literature) by the University of London. Although titled Dictionary, it is an encyclopaedia containing information on the Suttas and Jatakas and on persons and places mentioned in Pali literature written in India, Sri Lanka and Burma prior to 1700 AC.

If you want information on Alavaka Sutta, Jetavana or Sanghamittaa or even on Asura, it is all there in the dictionary.His many articles mostly on Buddhism and education published in journals here and abroad are as one writes stated “a living monument to his vast knowledge and wisdom.”

Malalasekera was a very versatile man. (moving easily and readily from one field to another).

The biographical anthology his daughter Chitra brought out to mark the father’s 100th birth anniversary was titled The Many Men that were Malalasekera.”

A very appropriate title indeed, for there was Malalasekera the professor, the historian, the demographer, the diplomat, the Buddhist worker, the public speaker and many more. He is a man all Sri Lankans can be, and should be proud of and he should be remembered with gratitude for he did so much for our country and our people during his life of 73 years.

Malalasekera was born in 1900 on November 9, in Malamulla, a village on the outskirts of Panadura. The father Malalage M S Pieris named the son George. He took the family name as the surname when he was conferred the title Muhandiram. Young George while still a school boy, became an admirer and follower of Anagarika Dharmapala who was urging fellow Sinhalese to give up their foreign names. George Pieris who was only nine when he met Anagarika became Gunapala Piyasena and added the family surname.

He became G. P. Malalasekera. When he got his PhD from the London University in 1925 he became Dr. G. P. Malalasekera and he was Dr. Malalasekera until his death. Dr. Malalasekera recalled in adult life how his father used to take him to the Panadura beach and write letters on the sand and he, who was barely four years old would go over the letters with his wee finger. This way he learned to write the Sinhala alphabet correctly.

The Veda Muhandiram admitted his son to St. John’s College - now Cyril Janz Maha Vidyalaya in Panadura, to be educated in English. The five year old boy was admitted NOT to the kindergarden, but to standard (now grade 3). St. John’s College was four miles from Malamulla, his village. Little George didn’t walk to school. Carrying his shoes in his hand he ran to school. “earning the name assaya - (horse).

An exceptionally bright student, he passed the London Matriculation exam at age 13. Students had to pass this exam to enter university or to do an external degree.

The father, being an Ayurveda physician, was keen to make the son a doctor qualified in western medicine. So, son Gunapala entered Medical College. Science and biology were not to his liking. While attending medical college he studied privately for the BA degree. The subjects he studied were logic, philosophy, Latin and Greek. He was only 19 years when he passed the BA exam coming first in Asia.Shortly alterwards, his father passed away and the family was in financial difficulties. So he left Medical College doubtless with no regrets.

He never cared for biology he was now qualified in another field.His first job was as a teacher at Ananda College. He even acted for Principal Kularatna when the latter went abroad. During that brief period he proved himself a good organiser. He had shown his organising abilities while still a schoolboy of 13 years; when he set up a school in his village Malamulla. It is now a Maha Vidyalaya.

- Sumana Saparamadu

More on this personality next week.