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This environment motivated
Gamlath to become a member of the Samasamaja Party. He completed his London Advanced Level examination with the intention of completing a Bachelor of Arts degree as an external student of the University of London. However, sensing that it was time to turn a new leaf, the young man gave up the robe and entered the University of Ceylon (now the University of Peradeniya) as a layman.
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their intellectual horizons. It is during this third period that his aesthetic vision blossomed to a rationalistic brim. With regards to the written literature the critical tools he has developed and introduced are quite adequate to give the needed critical judgement. When it comes to the criticism of pure and applied music they have further to be developed and refined.
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up the saffron robe by the name
Nakkawita Ananda. Life as a Buddhist monk gave him the rare opportunity to master the Pali, Sanskrit and Sinhala languages. Later in life, when questioned about the period of his life he spent as a Buddhist monk, he would often remark that he entered the Buddhist order to use every moment to further his knowledge.
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After attending the village school until grade 4, he realised that he could not gratify his thirst for knowledge by continuing his education at this little school. Thus, with the objective of furthering his education, he left with his uncle, who was a
Buddhist monk at a temple in Awissawella and took
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and in 1971 promoted as senior lecturer. In 1975 he was appointed as professor of
Sinhala language and literature of the University of Sri Lanka and was posted to the Jaffna Campus. He was the dean of the Faculty of Humanities, head of the departments of Philosophy, English and Sinhala and the chief
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Gamlath was born in
Nakkawita, a scenic village bordering the Sri Pada forest reserve and the Seetawaka river, in the Sabaragamuwa province. For generations, his father's family had been native doctors. He had two younger brothers, and his mother died when he was about nine years old. He learnt his
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He bravely introduced theories of
Sanskrit aesthetics having understood that it was to India that we ought to turn because it was the intellectual universe of our past. In his 'Rasavada Vivaranaya', 'Samskrutha Natya Kalava Saha Abinnana Sakunthalaya,' 'Natya Sastraye Rasavadaya', etc. We find that
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Later, he joined the
Vidyalankara Pirivena, a college for Buddhist monks to refine his knowledge further. The Vidyalankara Pirivena was an elite seat of learning in the country at that time, and the young monks who studied there gained a broad sense of political, social and cultural understanding.
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was renewed through the event, and both started working on a massive
Sinhala – Tamil – English dictionary. Due to the sudden demise of Prof. Sivathamby in July 2011, Prof Gamalth took the burden of completing it, though he wasn't able to get it published before his death. He was the most outspoken
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In the third period we find an aesthetics armed with dialectical materialism exploring the dialectical nature of aesthetics. In the 1980s
Gamlath flashed himself in the sky of literary criticism in Sri Lanka as an adjudicator to whom all with no hypocrisy went and listened in the hope of expanding
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effectively caters to the needs of those in search of a fitting equivalent term in
Sinhala. It is the largest-ever English-Sinhala dictionary in the history of lexicons in Sri Lanka, Ingirisi Sinhala Maha Shabdakoshaya. The dictionary claims to consist of more than 500,000 words. Of them, about
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Another area of his services that cannot be left unmentioned is the translation of literature into Sinhala. He has translated world literature into Sinhala without distorting the original work and in poetically opulent language. I must say that for any student of translated literature, Gamlath's
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Gamlath was one of the greatest aestheticians Sri Lanka has ever produced. His knowledge of both oriental and accidental aesthetics wasunquestionable. His massive contribution to literary criticism is yet unsurpassed, and can basically be divided into three periods. In the first period we find a
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At the University of London, he opted philosophy as his area of research for his PhD. Although he has not done philosophy as a subject for his first degree, University of London has unanimously agreed to offer him the chance. His political view was his religion and he can be claimed as an ardent
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In the second period of his literary service we find a transitional intellectual whose aesthetic philosophy had been inclined to western theories of aesthetics. His 'Sahithya Lokaya ha Seba Lokaya' is a fine manifestation to this tendency where he raises questions and suspicions relating to the
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Gamlath co-authored a book critical of Sarachchandra's aesthetic vision with late Kirthi Balasuriya. That book alone is a monumental contribution to the field of literary criticism because it makes a commendable and successful attempt at struggling with the remnants of idealism in the literary
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regime due to his strong political stand and his participation in the general strike in 1980. He remained unemployed for almost 15 years without compromising his convictions, and turning down offers extended by foreign universities. Later in 1994, he was reinstated under the government of
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scholar well-armed with the fundamentals of Sanskrit aesthetics into the literary criticism, then messed up with efforts by others to found an indigenous critical theory. His arguments to this effect could be found in his 'Kavsilumini Vinisa'.
417:, Peradeniya and carried away the awards, The Rowland's Gold Medal, The Jayanayake Prize and The Oriental Research Scholarship. In the same year, he was appointed assistant lecturer in Sinhala of the same university. In 1966 he entered the
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During the ceasefire, in October 2003, he became one of the leading intellectual supporters of the initiative in organising the biggest Sinhala-Tamil cultural festival in the recent history. He, along with Professor
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was written Principles of Marxist Criticism: A Reply to Sucharitha Gamlath. her series of cannons aimed at Professor Sucharitha Gamlath, who, after quitting the RCL, went onto attack her previous works baselessly.
464:), which was led by the late Keerthi Balasooriya. Soon, he became one of the leading theoreticians of RCL and along with Keerthi Balasooriya, initiated a strong movement to widely popularise
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criticism. When it is translated into international languages, the world intellectual community will realise that here in this tiny island are the twins of aestheticians of world class.
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academic who demythologised 'Mahavamsa' and continued to challenge the Sinhala readership to leave behind the 'Mahavamsa' mindset to form an alliance with the Tamil oppressed.
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to Sinhala readership. He became the most popular opponent of the then dominant bourgeois idealist literary tradition of the Peradeniya School led by the late Professor
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commendable attempt. I still think his 'Rasavada Vivaranaya' serves as a guide-book for the students who wish to have a grasp of 'rasavadaya' in Sinhala.
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Apart from the contributions as a critic, Gamlath's services have extended to the areas of introducing technical terms to the Sinhala language. His
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100,000 words are new entries – some of which the lexicographer coined or added, combing Sinhala classical literature or folklore.
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works will serve as guidelines in the field. A volume of essays is needed to assess the contribution of Gamlath to literature.
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letters from his paternal grandfather, Gamlathralalage Mohotti Appuhamy, who had a sound knowledge of oriental languages.
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comparing Indian and Western aesthetic theories and was awarded the PhD degree in philosophy by the University of London.
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or has been extensively edited by the subject or by someone connected to the subject
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A Philosophical Investigation into the Nature and Role of Emotion in Art
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follower of his philosophy. In 1969 he submitted a thesis titled
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concepts of beauty, truth, morality and aesthetic judgement.
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685:"Prof. Sucharitha Gamlath: The Plekhanov of Sri Lanka"
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He graduated with first-class honours for classical
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It may need editing to conform to Knowledge (XXG)'s
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605:"Sucharitha Gamlath: the exodus of a colossus"
444:In 1970 he was appointed as a lecturer of the
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667:"A genius of our time"
555:Karthigesu Sivathamby
486:Chandrika Kumaratunga
449:student counselor in
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383:Peradeniya University
238:neutral point of view
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451:University of Jaffna
419:University of London
415:University of Ceylon
391:University of Ruhuna
150:"Sucharitha Gamlath"
135:improve this article
379:Sucharitha Gamlath
364:University lecturer
16:Sri Lankan academic
466:Marxist aesthetics
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