Agampodi Torontal Paulus de Zoysa (5 April 1890 – 26 May 1968: ඒ. පී. ද සොයිසා), popularly as A. P. de Zoysa, was a Sri Lankan
social reform
A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary move ...
er, pre-colonial era politician and a
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
scholar.
Early life
A. P. De Zoysa was born on 5 April 1890 in Randombe,
Ambalangoda
Ambalangoda is a coastal town located in Galle District, Southern Province of Sri Lanka. Governed by Ambalangoda Urban Council, the town is famous for its ancient demon masks and devil dancers. Situated approximately south of Colombo, it sits o ...
in the Southern province of British Ceylon (now
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
). Initially he was known as Agampodi Torontal de Zoysa, but later changed his name from Torontal to Paulus. His parents died in an epidemic when he was eleven, and thereafter he was brought up by his grandmother. He started his education in the nearby historic temple, the Maha Samudraramaya, and then received his primary education at the Wesley Sect School in Randombe and Rajapaksa College.
Later in 1902, he moved to
Wesley College in
Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...
. De Zoysa was not only a good student but also a keen cricketer, artist and actor. In 1907, he was admitted to
Mahinda College
Mahinda College is a Buddhist boys' school in Galle, Sri Lanka. The school was established on 1 March 1892 by the Buddhist Theosophical Society led by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott. As of May 2022 it is a national school providing primary and secon ...
, Galle where he came under the influence of its principal, the famous
Theosophist
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...
and
Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
scholar
Frank Lee Woodward
Frank or Franks may refer to:
People
* Frank (given name)
* Frank (surname)
* Franks (surname)
* Franks, a medieval Germanic people
* Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang
Curre ...
.
He passed the 1910 Cambridge Senior Examination, also received a Certificate in Art. In the same year, he taught at Mahinda College for three months as an assistant to the Principal, Woodward. Appointed to
Dharmaraja College
Dharmaraja College ( si, ධර්මරාජ විද්යාලය), founded in 1887, is a boys' school in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is a Buddhist school with around 300+ teaching staff and around 5000+ students. The school has many notable ...
, Kandy in 1911, Zoysa moved to several schools with the intention of earning a higher salary, and made sure to save most of his salary for a future purpose. While still a teacher, he passed the London Matriculation Examination in 1917.
Career
Then he taught for a few years at
Ananda College
''Appamādo Amathapadan''
(Buddhist quote from the Apramada Vagga in the Dhammapada)
, motto_translation = Heedfulness, Punctuality leads to Nirvana
, location = P De S Kularatne Mawatha
, city = Colom ...
, Colombo and at
Royal College Colombo
Royal College, Colombo is a selective entry boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started as a private school by Rev Joseph Marsh in 1835, it was established as the Colombo Academy by Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton in Janua ...
. In 1921 he went to England and continued his higher education.
In London he supported himself by coaching overseas students, and his wide social circle included the artist
William Roberts, who painted his portrait. In 1927 he qualified as a barrister. Zoysa became interested in postgraduate studies and enrolled at the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
in 1928 to pursue a PhD in Anthropology. After taking an external London degree, in 1927 he was called to the
Bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
at
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...
, and in 1929 he obtained a PhD in
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
at London University for a dissertation on 'Observances and Customs in Sinhalese Villages' under the supervision of Prof. C. G. Seligman and T. G. Joyce.
With his wife, née Eleanor Hutton, whom he had met at the Buddhist mission in London and married in 1929, in 1934 de Zoysa returned to Sri Lanka, and began work as a lawyer. He also served as an External Lecturer at University College. He was elected to represent Colombo South in 1936, and he continued to serve in the State Council (as an independent) until 1947. Causes which he supported included opposition to the death penalty, anti-
dowry
A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...
legislation, and improved state education. For many years he was also a municipal councillor in Colombo, taking up local issues and campaigning to improve the city's amenities.
In 1939 de Zoysa bought a
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...
, and began to produce a series of educational books in
Sinhala; he also edited a weekly
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
, the ''Dharmasamaya''. But his greatest project, which took over twenty years, with help from Buddhist scholars, was to publish a translation of the whole
Tripitaka canon of Buddhist scripture into simple Sinhala; this eventually ran to forty-eight volumes. A concise edition, in about ten volumes, was incomplete at his death. He also compiled and printed English–Sinhala and Sinhala-English
dictionaries
A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, p ...
.
Later life
He died, aged seventy-eight, on 26 May 1968. He and his wife had one child, the feminist scholar
Kumari Jayawardena
Kumari Jayawardena ( si, කුමාරි ජයවර්ධන; born 1931) is a leading feminist activist and academic in Sri Lanka. Her work is part of the canon of Third-world feminism which conceptualizes feminist philosophies as indigen ...
. In March 2009
Sri Lanka Post
The Department of Posts, functioning under the brand name Sri Lanka Post ( Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකා තැපැල් ''Shri Lanka Tæpæl''), is a government operated postal system in Sri Lanka. The postal headquarters is the Gene ...
issued a postage stamp commemorating A. P. De Zoysa's life as a social reformer and as a Buddhist scholar.
A biography by Kumari Jayawardena, ''A. P. de Zoysa: Comabative Social Democrat and Buddhist Reformer in 20th Century Sri Lanka'' (Sanjiva Books, Colombo, Sri Lanka), was published in 2012.
References
External links
Portrait of de Zoysa by William RobertsThe stamp commemorating de Zoysa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zoysa, A. P. De
Sinhalese academics
Sinhalese activists
Sri Lankan Buddhists
1890 births
1968 deaths
Alumni of Wesley College, Colombo
Alumni of Mahinda College
People from Ambalangoda
Faculty of Ananda College