Mahinda College - Henry Steel Olcott

Henry Steel Olcott

Mahinda College, as well as many other Buddhist Schools in Sri Lanka, owes its existence to Col Henry Steel Olcott, philanthropist and the founder of the Buddhist Theosophical Society. Having read a printed version of the ' Panadurawadaya ' of 1873, a public debate between Buddhist and Christian representatives on the correctness of each belief, Col Olcott was really impressed of the teachings in Theravada Buddhism, which were in line with his vision as a theosophist. It resulted in him arriving in Sri Lanka to study more on Buddhism, and starting a branch of the Theosophical Society, first in Colombo and then in Kandy and Galle. He was ably supported by Venerable Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera, Venerable Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thero, Venerable Walane Sri Siddhartha Thero and Venerable Ratmalane Dhammaloka Thero, along with Anagarika Dharmapala, Walisinghe Harischandra, and Sir.D.B. Jayatilaka.

With Col. Olcott's initiative and guidance, the theosophists identified that a major factor for the decline of Sinhala Buddhists was the lack of proper education facilities and the best solution was to make available educational institutes with a solid Buddhist religious background. It was under this theory that foundations were laid to the beginning of the "Buddhist Schools" in Sri Lanka, which include the likes of Mahinda College in Galle, Dharmaraja College in Kandy, Ananda College in Colombo and Maliyadeva College in Kurunegala.