Swamy Vipulananda College of Music and Dance

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Born in 1892 in Batticaloa, Swamy Vipulananda also known as Vipulananda Adigal, was a Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu literary critic, author, poet, teacher and ascetic from the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka who was influenced by and associated with the Indian-based Ramakrishna Mission. Along with other social reformers and cultural revivalists during the British occupancy of Sri Lanka, he played a key role in the revival of Hinduism and its related traditions in a bid to rectify the nullification of local culture over 500 years of colonial rule by the Portuguese, Dutch and British respectively.

During his service to the nation as a teacher he had completed his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of London and attained the status of Tamil Panditha, after being awarded a degree by the Madurai Tamil Sangam in Tamil Nadu.

Thereafter, dedicating many years to research Tamil music, diverse Indian musical forms and musical instruments he produced the Yazh Nool, or Book of Stringed Musical Instruments, published just before he died in 1947, explaining technicalities of Tamil music in general and basing the study on calculations connected to mathematics and physics. He served as the first professor of Tamil in the University of Ceylon.

The Swamy Vipulananda College of Music and Dance (SVCMD) was established in 1982 in Kalladi, Batticaloa by the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Hindu Culture in Sri Lanka in memory of his contribution to uphold traditional arts in Sri Lanka. It was officially affiliated to the Eastern University, from March 2005 with the functioning of the three main departments; of Carnatic Music, Visual and Technological Arts, Dance and Drama and Theatre.