By
D.B.S.Jeyaraj.
Commemorative Article for 80th Birthday on November 18th.
Mahendra Percy Rajapaksa known to his country and the world at large as Mahinda Rajapaksa will celebrate his 80th birth anniversary on 18 November 2025. In a political career spanning more than five decades ,Mahinda Rajapaksa has served as Menber of Parliament, Cabinet Minister,Leader of the Opposition,Prime Minister and Executive President.
”Medamulana Mahinda” as he is referred to at times, is a colourful politician who has been demonised by his opponents and deified by his supporters. Whatever his detractors may say,there is no denying that Mahinda Rajapaksa will go down in history as the man who ended the war against the LTTE.This two-part article t focuses -with the aid of earlier writings – on Mahinda Rajapaksa this week to denote his 80th birthday.
Mahinda’s father Don Alvin (DA) Rajapaksa was the younger brother of Don Mathew (DM) Rajapaksa. DM Rajapaksa was elected to the State Council from Hambantota in 1936. He passed away in 1945 and was succeeded by DA Rajapaksa who was elected uncontested at the by-election. DA Rajapaksa was the MP for Beliatte from 1947 to March 1960 and from July 1960 to 1965. He crossed over from the United National Party ( UNP) with SWRD Bandaranaike and was a founder member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party(SLFP).
Don Alvin Rajapaksa married Dona Dandina Samarasinghe Dissanayake of Palatuwa, Matara. They had nine children – six boys and three girls. Their names in the order of age are Chamal, Jayanthi, Mahinda, Tudor, Gotabaya, Basil, Preethi, Dudley and Gandini. Though called Mahinda by family and friends, his given name at birth was Percy Mahendra.
Mahendra
Why did DA name his second son Mahendra? Former Secretary-General of Parliament and Ombudsman Sam Wijesinghe who was also related to the Rajapaksas revealed the answer..
Delivering the DA Rajapaksa memorial lecture in December 2005 Wijesinghe stated as follows: “After D.M.’s death in May 1945 and the entry of his brother, D.A. into politics, I took George (DM’s son), who had just passed the entrance examination, to the University hostel (Brodie), which was then at Ward Place. D.A. as a new Member of the State Council used to come to the hostel to see his nephew.”
“ On one occasion, I was reading from Nehru’s book ‘Discovery of India’, when he dropped in, I left the book aside and was talking to him. He casually mentioned that his wife was expecting another baby. I told him, ‘Uncle, that will be a son of the Member of the State Council’. But he said that he already had a son and a daughter and then I humorously suggested to him that they were born before he entered State Council, but this one will be the son of the State Councillor.”
“Then I showed him the page of Nehru’s book, which I was reading when he came in and read out: ‘Emperor Ashoka’s messengers and ambassadors went to Syria, Egypt, Macedonia, etc. conveying his greetings and Buddha’s message. They went to Central Asia and Burma and Siam and he sent his own son and daughter, Mahendra and Sangamitta to Ceylon in the South’. I asked him rhetorically – ‘Why don’t you call him – Mahendra?” Several months after, when he met me, he said, ‘I gave that name’.
Though the given name at birth was Percy Mahendra, he was called Mahinda by family and friends.DA Rajapaksa’s eldest Chamal and second son Mahinda were extremely attached to each other as children. Chamal and Mahinda were admitted by their father to his alma mater Richmond College, Galle, run by the Methodist Church then. The brothers were initially boarded at the residence of Weeraketiya village council chairman Bandara.
Mischievous
According to information provided by lawyer and former MP , Buddhika Kurukularatne in his eminently readable series of articles published in ‘The Island’ under the column ‘Men and Memories,’ Mahinda was a mischievous and naughty child but quite studious.
Mahinda then six years old had cried when his father and mother left after leaving him with the Bandaras. He had also refused to go to school the following morning. Mrs. Bandara however had dressed him up and taken him to school. After a few days Mahinda and Chamal together with other students in the vicinity began walking to school and back.
Mahinda got well-noted for his mischievous ways then. He would often shake his little suitcase from side to side while walking. Another habit was to keep kicking stones like playing football. He was also fond of walking on the railway track and would place coins on it before a train approached. Mahinda was apparently delighted by the sight of flattened coins after the train ran over them.
Another amusement was to climb a rock by the rail track and hoot at passengers. Mahinda also liked to play ‘Tarzan’ at times. There were large ‘pusbatri’ creepers hanging from two huge mango and breadfruit trees near a junction. Mahinda, like the Tarzan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, would jump and hang on to the creepers, swinging wildly like the ape man did.
Another encounter was with a tame elephant tethered in the compound of a house. Excited by seeing the pachyderm at close quarters, young Mahinda ran up to it and hit the jumbo on its legs and challenged it. Fortunately the good-natured elephant took no notice of the tiny brat who was pulled away by grownups (perhaps Mahinda’s anti-UNP tendencies came to the fore when he saw the elephant).
Mahinda’s stay with the Bandara family did not last long. Young Mahinda’s mischievous conduct made Mr. Bandara often resort to the cane in a bid to discipline the ‘Manthrithumage Putha’. Naturally Mahinda resented it. He would often run away before the elderly Bandara could reach him with the cane. Matters came to a head when Mahinda threw a stone at Bandara and drew blood. The boy ran away to another house and refused to return.
Singapore House
Finally Mahinda’s mother had to move to Galle and rent a house and live with her children Chamal, Jayanthi, Mahinda and Tudor. The house was known as ‘Singapore House’. This helped things and soon Mahinda began studying well. He took away the class prize when in the upper kindergarten and in standard two for two years in succession.
There was a small playground nearby which was close to the railway station. The boys used to play cricket there in the evenings and weekends. Once young Mahinda wanted to bat but was not allowed to do so. Peeved by the refusal, Mahinda went near the railway station and climbed the steel ladder to the top of the signal post, refusing to climb down unless he was given a batting chance.
Apparently Mahinda had often resorted to climbing high and making demands. According to a story related by Chamal Rajapaksa to Buddhika Kurukularatne, Mahinda had once climbed a huge cashew tree in the Medamulana house compound when their father had attempted to cane him for some prank of his. Mahinda had run away and climbed to the very top of the cashew tree. He demanded that his father should throw the cane away if he wanted him to get down from the tree. With a lot of support from a very frightened and concerned mother, Mahinda won his first demand, with the father meekly giving way by acceding to his son’s ultimatum.
Mango
Another story about mischievous Mahinda lingering in the collective memory of his Medamulana household was about how a missile thrown by Don Alvin Rajapaksa’s second son collided with Sir John Kotelawela. Apparently D.A. Rajapaksa had gone to see the laird of Kandawela at Ratmalana. Chamal and Mahinda were in the car. While the loku putha remained in the vehicle, podi putha had got down and plucked a mango.
He was happily chewing on it when Sir John and his father came out. Seeing Mahinda and the mango, Sir John had humorously asked the boy who gave him permission to pluck and eat the mango. Angry at being questioned, the enraged boy had thrown his half-eaten fruit at Sir John hitting him in the chest. An embarrassed D.A. apologised profusely, while an amused Sir John chuckled at the boy’s impertinence.
Thurstan College
Mahinda’s parents moved to Colombo in the mid-fifties. While Chamal and Jayanthi were placed in the hostels of Richmond and Southlands respectively, the younger kids including Mahinda were taken to Colombo. Mahinda was enrolled at Nalanda College. After a few years he was moved to Thurstan College in 1957.
After a few years Mahinda’s mother went back to Medamulana and D.A. Rajapaksa began staying at the Shravasti MP hostel. Mahinda was first boarded at a home near Thurstan College but later began residing more and more at Shravasti itself than in the boarding. Often he would travel to and from Shravasti to Thurstan.
According to contemporaries at Thurstan, Mahinda was an impish student in College who often fell foul of the master in charge of discipline – the late Kingsley Fernando. Mahinda played cricket and rugger. He was good in batting being a ‘polladiya’ but was a horrible fielder known for repeated ‘bokkus’. In rugger he played in the pack as both prop and lock forward. He was good in athletics also and was the putt shot champion. Mahinda also ran in the 4×400 relay team. He was also a good orator and debater in Sinhala.
Mahinda left school after sitting for his A/Level examination and worked as an assistant librarian at the Vidyodaya Oirivena later to be made the Vidyodaya campus and now the Sri Jayewardenepura University. Colleagues remember him as a jovial, fun-loving person. ‘Kana bona minihek’ (eating, drinking man), described one. (Of course nowadays he is both a teetotaller and a vegetarian.) It was during this time that Mahinda got enamoured of left-leaning politics. He became a card carrying member of the Ceylon Mercantile Union (CMU) and was elected CMU branch secretary in 1967.
Beliatta
Meanwhile elder brother Chamal Rajapaksa joined the Police force as a Sub-Inspector. Their father D.A. Rajapaksa who had lost elections in 1965 passed away on 7 November 1967. SLFP Leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike offered the post of party organiser for Beliatta to Chamal after D.A. died. Chamal however declined and recommended his malli Mahinda instead. Initially Mrs. Bandaranaike was hesitant thinking Mahinda was too young and somewhat irresponsible. Later on she relented and appointed Mahinda as Beliatta Organiser in 1968.
This brought about a marked change in Mahinda. He buckled down to the task and strove to meet the challenge. He gave up his Assistant Librarian job and relocated to Medamulana. He began working with the people at grass roots level. All the Rajapaksa brothers had been nurtured and brought up in a simple, down-to-earth lifestyle by their parents. Thus it was quite easy for Mahinda to capture the hearts and minds of the ordinary people.
MP
The 1970 elections saw the United Front sweeping the polls with the SLFP getting 91 seats and the LSSP and CP winning 19 and 6 seats respectively. Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa defeated his rival from the UNP, Dr. Ranjith K.P. Atapattu. Mahinda got 23,103 votes and Ranjith 16,477. In 1977 the roles were reversed with Ranjith Atapattu winning with 24,289 votes while Mahinda Rajapaksa got 17,896.
Interestingly Mahinda’s father D.A. Rajapaksa and Ranjith’s father D.P. Atapattu had been rivals contesting Beliatta in each election from 1947. Sadly both fathers were not alive to see their sons become Beliatta MPs.
Backbencher
Mahinda Rajapaksa from Beliatta and Edwin Wickremaratne from Mahiyangana were the youngest MPs in the newly-elected Parliament. Those were the days when ministers were proportionately few and the fresher Mahinda remained a backbencher throughout the life of the 1970-’77 Parliament.
Attorney-at-Law
Some changes made in the admissions criteria to Law College enabled Mahinda to enrol as a law student while being an MP. In July 1977 he lost the election but took his oaths as an Attorney-at-Law in November that year. After becoming a lawyer, Mahinda moved to Tangalle and established a lucrative practice in the south. His politics too continued albeit on a lower scale.
Shiranthi
Mahinda got married in 1983 to Shiranthi Wickramasinghe, the daughter of Navy Commodore E.P. and Mrs. Wickramasinghe. Shiranthi is an old student of Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya and a Catholic by religion. She is professionally-qualified in child psychology and pre-school education. Shiranthi is a former beauty queen who was crowned Miss Sri Lanka in 1973. She was also a contestant representing Sri Lanka at the Miss Universe beauty pageant in Athens and the Miss World Competition in London in the same year.
It is said that Mahinda was helped by former Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva in ardently wooing Shiranthi Wickramasinghe. Though the former President and ex-Chief Justice got politically estranged later , it was Sarath who played both cupid and matchmaker in bringing the couple together. The Chief Justice of that time Neville Samarakoon and the Parliamentary Commissioner (Ombusman) of the day Sam Wijesinha were the attesting witnesses. Shiranthi and Mahinda have three sons – Namal, Yoshitha and Rohitha. All three are old Thomians, with an abiding interest in rugby and racing. Only Namal is in active politics today and is a national list MP.
Ruhuna
Though the SLFP was shattered by the colossal defeat of 1977 and the removal of Mrs. Bandaranaike’s civic rights in 1980, the party began reviving itself to some extent after the 1982 presidential poll and referendum. The swing was more visible in the Ruhuna. What happened thereafter would be related in detail in the second part of this article.
D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com
This article appears in the “Political Pulse”Column of the “Daily Mirror”dated 08 November 2025.It can be accessed here –
https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Mahinda-Rajapaksa-at-80-Demonised-by-Opponents-and-Deified-by-Supporters/172-324425
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