Don Baron Jayatilaka

Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka, KBE (Sinhala: ; 13 February 1868 – 29 May 1944) known as D.B. Jayatilaka was a Sri Lankan Sinhalese educationalist, statesmen and diplomat. He was Vice-President of the Legislative Council of Ceylon; the Minister for Home Affairs and Leader of the House of the State Council of Ceylon; and Representative of Government of Ceylon in New Delhi. Sir D. B. Jayatilaka is also considered as a flag bearer of Buddhist education in Sri Lanka.

Early life Born at Waragoda, Kelaniya, he was the eldest male child of ickremaratchi Imia Rajakaruna Liyana Atukoralage Don Daniel Jayatilaka Senanayake Liyana Aratchi of Pattalagedera, Veyangoda, a government servant, and his wife Liyanage Dona Elisiana Perera Weerasinghe, daughter of oriental scholar, Don Andiris de Silva Batuwantudawe of Werahena, Bentota. He had two brothers, and two sisters, both of whom died young.

Education When he was seven years old Jayatilaka was sent to the Vidyalankara Pirivena, where he learned Sinhala, Pali and Sanskrit by Ratmalane Sri Dharmaloka Thera. To study English and other subjects in the English medium, he was sent to the local Baptist school from where he was sent to Wesley College in 1881, there he passed the junior and senior Cambridge examinations, travelling daily by cart from Kelaniya to the Pettah. He applied for a clerical position in the government service, but was encouraged to follow higher studies. Jayatilaka graduated from the University of Calcutta with a BA in 1896, having offered Latin and English.

Legal career

He left for Europe in 1910, spending three years there. During which he attended as the representative of Ceylon, at the Congress of Religions in Berlin. He read for a BA in jurisprudence from Jesus College, Oxford in 1913 which was later upgraded to an MA some years later. He was called to the bar as a barrister from the Lincoln's Inn and became an advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon. Thereafter he started his legal practice in the Colombo unofficial bar specialized in Buddhist ecclesiastical law, Buddhist temporalities and constitutional law.

Theosophical society He first met Colonel Henry Steel Olcott in 1890 and joined his campaign to establish English medium Buddhist schools in the country. In 1890 he was appointed as the Principal of the Buddhist High School in Kandy (now Dharmaraja College), thereafter he became the Vice - Principal of the English Buddhist School in Colombo (now Ananda College) under Principal E. W. Buultjens. One year later in 1898 he succeeded Buultjens as Principal. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA) at Borella becoming its President in 1898 and holding the post until his death.

Representative of Ceylon in India In August 1943, he went to India to negotiate food shipments to Ceylon after they were stopped by the Indian Government. Following successful completion of negotiations he was appointed as Representative of Government of Ceylon to India in New Delhi.

Honors He was knighted as a Knight Bachelor in the 1932 New Year Honours for his service as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Ministers and Leader of the State Council of the Island of Ceylon. Sir Baron Jayatilaka was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1943 Birthday Honours while he served as the representative of the Ceylon Government in India.

Social services He served as president of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1935 to 1941. He was the founding chief editor of the monumental monolingual etymological Sinhala dictionary, Siṃhala śabdakoṣaya (completed in 1992), and the related A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language (with fascicles from 1985 titled A Dictionary of the Sinhala Language.) His extraordinary leadership of the project and editorial service extended from 1927 through 1941.

Sir D. B. Jayathilaka served as the president of Young Men's Buddhist Association for a continuous period of 46 years, from 1898 until his death in 1944. Under his influence Colombo YMBA inaugurated a program for promoting 'Dhamma School education', with the obligation of giving every Buddhist child in Ceylon the gift of Dhamma”. In 2018, a statue of Sir Baron Jayatilaka was erected at Thurburn House, Colombo.