The State wing of the Maha Bodhi Society of India observed the 149th birth anniversary of Buddhist missionary Ven’ Anagarika Dharmapala at the Kalinga Buddha Vihar here on Tuesday.
Anagarika means homeless; they don’t have family and do not stay at one particular place. Dharmapala was a great Buddhist missionary and devoted his whole life in restoring Buddhism in India as well as in other parts of the world, noted educationist and former Secretary of Odisha Sahitya Academy Prof Raj Kishore Mishra, attending the function as the chief guest. He further said that Buddhism was virtually extinct after the 12th century. Portuguese, Dutch and British people, preaching for Christian religion had wanted to change other religions everywhere and started establishing missionary schools. Dharmapala had taken a stand to promote and revive Buddhism.
Prof Mishra also gave a brief history on the various battleships that had occurred between Buddhism and Christianity in the 18th century. The colossal clash between the two religions in 1873 had drawn two foreigners to come and preach Buddhism in Sinhala, he informed. Dharmpala had visited various parts of the world like America, Japan, Italy, France, England, Sri lanka, Burma and spread Buddhism among people. He had also established the Maha Bodhi Society in several parts of the world including India.
Maha Bodhi Society national vice-president of the Dr Bimalendu Mohanty informed that Dharmapala had visited Odisha twice and travelled to the Buddhist places like lalitgiri and Udaygiri. He also had a darshan of lord Jagannath as he believed that lord Jagannath is the real incarnation of Buddha.
After the publication of his book light of Asia, keenness towards Buddhism gained worldwide, added Dr Mohanty. Among others, society secretary Dr SK Mohapatra, member Arya Kumar Jnanendra also spoke on the occasion.