Yagirala Pannananda Thera was a

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 ...

n Buddhist monk and scholar. He was the author of a number of works in Sinhala 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 ...

, including a biography of his teacher Hikkaduve Sumangala and '' Mahavamsa Part III'', an extension of the '' Mahavamsa'' chronicle covering the period from 1871 - 1935. In the 1940s, Pannananda became involved in a public debate with other monks regarding the proper role of Buddhist monks in Sri Lankan society. Pannananda was recognized as the leader of a faction that believed that monks should not participate directly in politics, and wrote several newspaper editorials to this effect. In this debate, he found himself at odds with

Walpola Rahula Walpola Rahula Thero (1907–1997) was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, scholar and writer. In 1964, he became the Professor of History and Religions at Northwestern University, thus becoming the first bhikkhu to hold a professorial chair in the Weste ...

and faced calls that he should be forced to give up his robe for having received an award of a gold medal from the UNP government (accepting gold being forbidden by the Ten Precepts).Colors of the Robe: Religion, Identity, and Difference, Ananda Abeysekara
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References

{{authority control Theravada Buddhist monks Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhists Sri Lankan Buddhist monks People of British Ceylon Sinhalese monks