Saturday Dec 28, 2024
Saturday Dec 28, 2024
Saturday, 30 August 2014 04:39 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
“I drove along the Galaha road until I reached the plateau which we now call Convocation Hill. Climbing through the incipient jungle was no easy matter, and I knew not whether there were snakes around. Sitting on a tree trump on the bank of the Mahaweli Ganga, I spread Sir Patrick Abercrombie’s site plan before me. I began at last to see the magnificence of the scheme. There was no doubt about it, Mr. D.R. Wijewardene was right. This could be a great university. Next I drove up the Old Peradeniya Road so as to look down on the site. Finally, I crossed Peradeniya Bridge, climbed up the railway bridge, and walked along the Nanu-Oya. It is from that point, where the new Gampola Road is being driven through, that the finest view of the site may be obtained. In a few years’ time the view from the Nanu-Oya Bridge will be one of the most famous in the world.
“The scheme was of course magnificent and if the reader will follow my example ten years later, he will see it taking shape, though even in 1941 it could be visualised. Over there on Convocation Hill would be the Library, with the Arts Building stretching behind it. To the right of the Library, joining it to the Convocation Hall, would be the Administration Building raised on granite pillars like the Brazen Palace at Anuradhapura. On the extreme right would be the Convocation Hall to seat 1,750 persons. To the left and right would be Halls of Residence and other buildings. The whole would be framed in the tea-clad hills of Old Peradeniya, and above them the ‘patana’ of the Hantane Ridge. No university in the world would have such a setting.”
"I am in no way tied to Ceylon and I can leave when the spirit moves me. I can therefore back my judgement without fear of personal consequences and can concentrate on the main issue, that of providing the Island with the sort of university which her independent status requires and the 
intelligence and good humour of her people deserve. This of course not only, or even primarily, a problem of supporting the architects in the magnificent work which they are doing under great difficulties; it is also a problem of developing a tradition in the University itself, so as to make it a fraternity of “masters and scholars”, engaged in the advancement and dissemination of knowledge and the production of young men and women with personality and judgement – Sir Ivor Jennings, ‘The Road to Peradeniya’ (1952)"
Ten years later, the narrator, Sir Ivor Jennings, the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Ceylon (previously it was the University College headed by a Principal), himself was enjoying the scene much to his delight. When we went there in 1953 as first freshers of the Arts Faculty, we regularly saw him, clad in a checked short-sleeved shirt and a pair of tussore trousers, doing a brisk walk with a walking stick in hand.
He visited the Peradeniya Gardens the day after his initial visit and observed what could be done with trees, shrubs and grass. He decided that landscaping of the Campus should be done on the same lines. Back in Colombo, he consulted Sir Nigel Ball, Professor of Botany and both of them went and met the Curator of the Gardena, Mr. Parsons who was willing to start the landscaping if money could be given. This was arranged and landscaping was done in two large sections.
“Especially notable is the beautiful valley of the Meda-Oya, sometimes called Abercrombie’s Dell. These sections give some idea of what the University Park would look like when the building operations are completed,” Sir Ivor wrote in his 
Autobiography, ‘The Road to Peradeniya’.
‘The Garden University of Sri Lanka’
What he visualised is there for anybody to see today. ‘The Garden University of Sri Lanka’ has been completed. Watching a classy documentary produced last month with this title, I was going down memory lane but watching the film I realised there is much more now than our days in the early 1950s.
It is a fascinating film and takes the viewer through beautiful Hantane hills to the greenery of the Campus and a panoramic view of a mix of traditional and modern architecture in the buildings. All this with Pandith Amaradeva and young Umaria singing a duet on Hantane legends and dreams. The imaginative documentary has been conceptualised, produced and directed by a young lecturer, Dr Madhava Meegahakumbura for the iPURSE 2014 event (the international Annual Research Sessions of the University of Peradeniya). It not only captures the beauty but the cultural and academic diversity of the University as well.
It’s nice to see that the original buildings built on plans drawn by Sir Patrick Abercrombie, a distinguished British Town Planner, executed by Sri Lankan architect Shirley de Alwis and his team still remain as solid constructions. Though we were the pioneers of Peradeniya, I must confess that we can appreciate the grandeur and splendour of the campus now much more than when we were there. Possibly because then we were part and parcel of a residential campus which was trying to find its feet and set up traditions for generations to come.
Down memory lane
When we entered as first freshers to the Arts Faculty in mid-1953, seniors had moved over from Colombo in September 1952 joining the undergrads in the faculties of Law, Agriculture and Veterinary Science. Only seven halls of residence had been completed. Marrs Hall – named after the first Principal of University College – was on the hill to the left as one entered the campus on Galaha Road. Then there were Jayatilake and Aruncahalam Halls to the left of the Shirley de Alwis memorial pond and moving down the road were the two women’s halls – Hilda Obeysekera and Sanghamitta, and men’s halls Peiris and Ramanathan.
The Arts Theatre and Hall B – the two main lecture theatres cum auditoriums – the library, the administrative block, the Lodge – the Vice Chancellor’s residence – were all completed. The remnants of the South East Asia Command (SEAC) British military base under Lord Louis Mountbatten (he lived in the Botanical Gardens and his office was also housed there) were still noticeable. Some of them were used by the engineering division and the University canteen was also located in one of them.
Construction of the university
Even though the project was approved by the State Council after lengthy debates, World War II had intervened and construction work had got postponed. In fact, the origins of the need to set up a European style university date back to
1906 when Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalem took the initiative in forming the Ceylon University Association. The request was partly granted after 15 years with the setting up of the Ceylon University College on 1 January 1921.
The University Council which administered the University College set up several committees to work on the academic activities of a fully-fledged university. When a tussle began between the administrators and politicians as to where the university should be located, Governor Hugh Clifford appointed a committee headed by Justice M.T. Akbar on 20 December 1926 which recommended that the university should be unitary, residential and outside Colombo.
Another committee appointed in 1928 under Sir Walter Buchanan-Ridel, a British barrister, proposed a site at Aruppola in the Dumbara valley. Showing the disadvantages of this site, Dr. S.C. Paul and Dr. Andreas Nell suggested a larger site at Peradeniya. This was accepted and land in an abandoned tea estate was acquired by the Government in 1928.
Things began to move after the arrival of Sir Ivor, who first came here as the Principal of University College following the retirement of Dr. Robert Marrs. Education Minister C.W.W. Kannangara played a very active and crucial role in getting the legislation passed. The University recognised him for his efforts by conferring the honorary LL D.
Acknowledging his role, Sir Ivor wrote in his Autobiography: “…Even more helpful was Mr. Kannangara, without whose energy and persistence the Bill would never have been passed at all. It pleases us to make him a doctor of laws honoris causa at our first convocation.”
