Yagirala Pannananda

Yagirala Pannananda Thera was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and scholar. He was the author of a number of works in Sinhala and Pali, including a biography of his teacher Hikkaduve Sumangala and Mahavamsa Part III, an extension of the Mahavamsa chronicle covering the period from 1871 - 1935.[1][2]

In the 1940s, Pannananda became involved in a public debate with other monks regarding the proper role of Buddhist monks in Sri Lankan society. Pannananda was recognized as the leader of a faction that believed that monks should not participate directly in politics, and wrote several newspaper editorials to this effect.[1] In this debate, he found himself at odds with Walpola Rahula and faced calls that he should be forced to give up his robe for having received an award of a gold medal from the UNP government (accepting gold being forbidden by the Ten Precepts).[3]