Former Principal Gurudeva D. J. Kumarage

125th birth anniversary

Remembered in the Centenary Year of Rahula College, Matara

The Late Gurudeva D. J. Kumarage, born in 1898, and his 125th birth anniversary is marked this year, to coincide with the centenary year of Rahula College, Matara, where he reigned for 20 years (1937-1957) as Principal. Though opened in 1923 as the glittering star for English education under the clear blue sky of Ruhuna, by 1936 Rahula had lost its glamour and prestige unfortunately experiencing what is regarded as the bleakest period in its history, both in terms of infrastructure and human resources. When the new Principal Kumarage took office in 1937, he was confronted with the gigantic task of putting both deficiences right.

As his first task, he summoned a student/teacher assembly and said, “Let us, for a moment, give up the luxury of fashionable clothes and comforts. Let us work together with the ashes and the dust and tread the difficult path to recovery and make the College worthy of its name Rahula.” Gurudeva knew that he could do it. He infused the much needed dynamic leadership and energy the College needed. Not only the 295 students and 18 teachers, but even the parents and well wishers, galvanized by his strong words rallied round him to re-build the stature of Rahula. The results were apparent within three years when Rahula produced the highest number of passes in the entire country, at the Senior School Certificate Examination (1940) of the government. In order to prove that the achievement was not a fluke, it was repeated in 1942 having finished second in 1941, with just two passes below the best.

There was no question of looking back for Rahula under Gurudeva. The school was becoming stronger year by year and attracting more and more pupils from all over the Ruhuna. Apart from the deep South, parents even from Galle preferred Rahula to better know colleges there. Well qualified teachers from far away aspired to teach under Kumarage’s administration. Principal Kumarage was an ardent Sinhala Buddhist, who believed, professed and acted upon what he believed was right.

With the reputation of the College reaching great heights, in the 1940’s and the 1950’s and its student population was growing, classroom accommodation was becoming an acute problem. The teachers and old boys were contemplating a fun fair and carnival to raise funds for new buildings. He convinced the proponents that fun fairs and carnivals are means to profit through gambling, liquor bars, and other vices unsuitable for either Buddhist students or the College with a name like Rahula even though the funds were intended for a noble cause. In order not to discourage the well-intentioned group of fund raisers, he undertook to dedicate the next few years to raise building by himself. Within the next 10 years, seven buildings came up on the Rahula premises, Kumarage having ‘marketed’ his Sinhala Buddhist philosophy among several philanthropists in the South.

With his visionary stewardship and guidance, Rahula delivered to the nation thousands of well disciplined pupils each year. They entered higher echelons of learning, and then worked their way up to become eminent holders of important positions both in the public and the private sectors here and abroad. Once he retired from Rahula in 1957, but for a mere four year period he headed the school for 40 years at a stretch. Thereafter, the school was led by his pupils, one after the other, all well qualified and experienced to hold the position of Rahula’s principal with pride and honour.

Lal Hewapathirana