OUR FOUNDER
Excerpt from an article published in the Sunday Times, 14th December, 1997
Celstina and Visakha
The story of Celestina Dias, Buddhist female philanthrophist and educationist,
by Manel Tampoe
Published by the Social Scientists Association
Reviewed by Mallika Wanigasundara
Celestina Dias (nee Patthinihennadige Warnadeepthia Kurukulasuriya Rodrigo), wife of Jeremias Dias of Panadura, the remarkable woman who founded Visakha Vidyalaya, Bambalapitiya, the premier Buddhist School for girls in Sri Lanka, was certainly not typical of women of her era.
In her extraordinary determination to found a superior Buddhist School for girls she showed a confident and single-mindedness characteristic of the manner in which she lived her life as a widow since 1902. She resembled, not a woman of her age and time, but the more enlightened, vibrant energetic activists of the 20th century's feminist movements.
Celestina was born in 1858. It was an era when a woman's worth and virtue were measured by her domestic competence. She was tied to home territory - husband, children, kitchen (ambul thiyal, kos polos), family weddings, funerals, alms-givings and the temple in almost all Buddhist families.
Celestina would have none of it. After she was widowed, she inherited her husband's massive fortune and became a business woman. "Renda nona" she was called and she strode her husband's arrack and plantation empire as if she was born to rule it. She is said to have shown no housewifely inclinations, but she managed her household staff with firmness and efficiency.
The foundations of her later philanthropy were laid quite early.
Celestina founded Buddhist Girls College (which later became Visakha Vidyalaya) in 1917 in an old house in Turret Road (Dharmapala Mawatha), Kollupitiya, called "The Firs" in memory of her son Edmund Wilson. Not a college for boys as you would expect.
She took the first step of creating two Trusts appointing W.A. de Silva first and later D.B. Jayatilaka, D.S. Senanayake and her son-in-law Thomas de Silva as Trustees.
Rs. 100,000 from her Good Hope estate, a valuable rubber property was set side for the school. Celestina's contribution to the school amounted to Rs. 450,000, a staggering sum in those days, out of a total of some Rs. 2 million given by her to charity.
It was not too propitious a time to start a Buddhist school for girls. Parents were still enamoured by the denominational schools and were wary about taking them out of these schools. Besides, Buddhist Girls College started off in the least flamboyant fashion. The house provided hostel accommodation (the done thing was to send your children to boarding school) for students and teachers. The classrooms were in old stables, garages, outhouses and cadjan sheds at the back. Hardly enticing, one would think.
Manel draws a picture of life in the school in those times culling from the memories of the few old students who are still living. It was compulsory to speak English in school, and the emphasis seemed to be to prepare the girls for genteel society in a kind of Victorian way at the beginning.
They learnt to play the piano, tennis in the evenings, art, drawing, clay modelling, embroidery, deportment, table manners. Physical exercise, games and dancing was also encouraged. All this tended somewhat to alienate the girls from traditional life styles in Ceylon and soon this was corrected. The going was never easy. There were financial deficits, and there was the need for a strict control of expenditure. D.B. Jayatilaka did just that. The only comic relief in those years of worry was the two feet long and three feet wide hostel accounts book which was lugged to D.B. Jayatilaka's residence every morning.
As time went on the situation improved, examination results were good and the school expanded rapidly.
Celestina is remembered visiting the school in her crisp cloth and "kabakuruththu" jacket with sweets for the hostellers. It is important to record that in her later years, she distanced herself from the arrack business on the advice of Arthur Dias, temperance worker.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt from an article published in the Sunday Times, 23rd August, 1998
...a friend in need
by Upali Salgado
.... Perhaps the most talked about persons of the clan was Miss Celestina Rodrigo (Later Mrs. Jeremias Dias) the founder/benefactor of the Buddhist Girls College in 1917 at "The Firs" Turret Road (now Dharmapala Mawatha.) The school was later renamed Visakha Vidyalaya, when it was moved to spacious four acre surroundings at Vajira Road.
Mrs Celestina Rodrigo was a remarkable woman, who was born to give her wealth
to the needy. She became a national figure, when decorated with the MBE. Manel
Tampoe in her book The Story of Celestina Dias says, " Her charitable
impulses did not diminish with age. As a woman she was not entitled to membership
in the "Rodrigo Friend In Need Society", though she was the most
illustrious member of the family at that time. (Later, membership became open
to both males and females of all Rodrigo families). But, it did not deter
her from making donations to the Society. She thoughtfully donated a handsome
lump sum to be used to provide dowries for daughters of the poorer members.
It is also known that, she had built a hearse, which was given with Petrol
free of any charge, to poor people who asked for it; and this proved to be
a boon to people of diverse ethnic groups."....
_______________________________________________________________
