Karuna Nayaka Ovitigalage Dharmadasa is one of the pioneers of linguistics in Sri Lanka and scholar of international repute. He is

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

, and the former Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the

University of Peradeniya The University of Peradeniya ( si, පේරාදෙණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය, ta, பேராதனைப் பல்கலைக்கழகம்) is a public university in Sri Lanka, funded by the University ...

, Sri Lanka.

Early life and education

Karuna Nayaka Ovitigalage Dharmadasa was born in a small village, Oruthota, north of

Gampaha Gampaha (Sinhala: ගම්පහ ; Tamil: கம்பஹா ) is an urban city in Gampaha District, Western Province, Sri Lanka. It is situated to the north-east of the capital Colombo. It is the sixth largest urban area in Western Province ...

. His early education was at the Buddhist Boys' School in Gampaha run by the BTS. Later he joined the Government Senior Secondary School (now Bandaranayake College Gampaha) and then Nalanda College Colombo. Dharmadasa then attended the University of Ceylon (Peradeniya) in 1959. Premasara Epasinghe was a classmate of Professor Dharmadasa at Nalanda. Dharmadasa was presented the Nalanda Keerthi Sri award by

Nalanda College, Colombo Nalanda CollegeG 498 ...

in 2013. He was awarded the "Swarna Puthra" by Bandaranayake College in 2014.

Family

Dharmadasa is married to Sumangalika, the eldest daughter of Mohottalage Dingiri Banda (former Cabinet Minister). They have two daughters, Dinithi Sevanji and Lahiru Chaturika. Dinithi is a lecturer in English at the University of Colombo and Lahiru is a lecturer in botany at the Open University of Sri Lanka.

Career

After graduating from the Peradeniya University, joined the Peradeniya University as a temporary assistant lecturer and was an academic getting promoted as senior lecturer, associate professor, professor and senior professor until he retired in 2004. He obtained M.Phil. (Linguistics) from The University of York (England) in 1968 and Ph.D. (Sociology of Language) from Monash University (Australia) in 1979. During his career he has received many international awards such as Fellowship from the Japan Foundation for the Promotion of Science, Scholar in Residence Award (Fulbright-Hays)Fellowship, International Forum of US Studies (Univ. of Iowa) and Senior Fellowship, The School of Oriental and African Studies, The University of London. He had written many books both in Sinhala and English on a variety of subjects and have been published locally and abroad. He is also the chief editor of the Sinhala Encyclopedia. The Rajarata University of Sri Lanka honored him with the award of D.Litt. (Honoris Causa) in 2012.

General references

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dharmadasa, K. N. O Sri Lankan Buddhists Sinhalese people Sri Lankan academics Alumni of Bandaranayake College, Gampaha Alumni of Nalanda College, Colombo