Harischandra Wijayatunga

Wijayatunga Mudalige Harischandra Wijayatunga (විජයතුංග මුදලිගේ හරිශ්චන්ද්‍ර විජයතුංග; born 25 October 1931) is a Sri Lankan author, translator, lexicographer, teacher, lawyer and politician.

He held various offices in different institutions of the Government of Sri Lanka.

At present he is the leader of Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Party.

Harischandra Wijayatunga was born in 1931 at Madamulla (මැඩෑමුල්ල) in Minuwangoda, Sri Lanka.

His father, Wijayatunga Mudalige Don Bastian Wijayatunga, was an Ayurvedic eye physician, landed proprietor and a planter (coconut and paddy) and his mother was Amarawathie Jayasinghe.

Wijayatunga was the fourth in a family of eight siblings.

Wijayatunga received his elementary education at the Government Bilingual School in Minuwangoda.

When the Nalanda College Colombo was relocated to Minuwangoda during the World War II, as a security measure, his parents took the opportunity to shift him to that school.

After the War Nalanda College Colombo was taken back to Colombo, and Wijayatnga continued his studies at Nalanda College Colombo.

Some of Wijayatunga's notable classmates at Nalanda College were Karunaratne Abeysekera, Dr Hudson Silva, Hon. Dr Dharmasena Attygalle, Hon. Rupa Karunathilake, Ravindra Rupasena and Stanley Jayasinghe.

He joined in the popular movement in 1950s to make Sinhala the Official Language of Sri Lanka, calling into life the "Sinhala Union of the University of Ceylon".

During his stay in Kandy he associated himself with the work of Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

In 1952 he entered the University of Ceylon and in 1955 graduated with a bachelor's degree in science.

In 1956 he was appointed as the Editor of the Science Section of the Sinhala Encyclopaedia, established at the University of Peradeniya.

After some years of service there, he assumed the post of vice-Principal of his former work place, Dharmaraja College.

In 1965 he was appointed to the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) which started work in the same year.

He was the first and the only member appointed to the staff, functioning as its Secretary.

Under his supervision Divisional Committees on Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Agriculture and Chemicals, and Metrication of Sri Lanka were appointed.

The next step he took was to join the Sri Lanka Law College as a student.

He appeared for the accused in the 1971 insurrection before the Criminal Justice Commission.

It is also noteworthy that he represented several parties at the Presidential Commission headed by the former Chief Justice Mr. M. C. Sansoni.

He took his oaths as an Attorney-at-Law in 1973.

Throughout the 1980s he held various offices such as Chief Editor of the tabloid Sinhala Bauddhya (The Sinhalese Buddhist), director, Sri Lanka Ayurvedic Drugs Corporation and member of the Directorate of the Siddhayurveda College, Gampaha.

He is the compiler of the Practical Sinhala Dictionary (1982) and Gunasena Great Sinhala Dictionary, which are considered as the most comprehensive Sinhala-Sinhala dictionaries to date.

During the years 1984–1990, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Sinhalese Encyclopaedia as well as the Officer-in-Charge, Sinhala version of the Legislative Enactments of Sri Lanka.

Wijayatunga's political career goes back to his university days.

For his thesis "Legal Philosophy in Medieval Sinhale" he was awarded the PhD degree by the University of Kelaniya in 1990.

On his 90th birthday (25 October 2021), Dr Harischandra Wijayatunga was felicitated by Nalanda College, Colombo in a programme called Harisanda Harasara when two books ‘Abhinandana Special Issue’ and ‘Margagatha Abhinandana Sambhashanaya 2021’ were also launched.

Immediately after his University education, Wijayatunga joined the staff of Dharmaraja College, Kandy as a science teacher.

In addition, he also taught chemistry at the Mahamaya Girls' College, Kandy.

It was during this time that he wrote his first book Miridiya Jivihu (Freshwater Life).

Realising that none of the two major parties in Sri Lanka would espouse the rights of Sinhalese Buddhists, which was uppermost in his mind, he established the Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya in 1990 with a group of intellectuals.

He became the leader of this party and holds this position to this date.

During the presidential elections of 1994 and 1999, he was the candidate of that party for this high office.

In the third 1994 Sri Lankan presidential election, he was the candidate of his Party and polled 32,651 votes.

Six years later, he contested again in the presidential elections of 1999, polling 35,854 votes.

Besides compiling these voluminous works of over 2000 pages, he also proposed scientific ideas to standardise Sinhala script.

His political philosophy is Mahasammatavada ('Great Consensus' or comprehensive consultation): consulting all people which he described "as going beyond democracy".

He also contested in the parliamentary elections of 2000, 2001 and 2004.

Mahinda Rajapaksa won the 2005 presidential election with slightly over 180,000 votes.