Biography

A.P. Buddhadatta Mahāthera

The Venerable Ambalangoda Polwatte Buddhadatta Mahanayake Thera (A. P. Buddhadatta) (1887–1962) was a Theravada Buddhist monk and a professor of Buddhist philosophy at Vidyalankara University. During 1928 he travelled to Switzerland to teach Pāli but found no suitable students.

In 1954, he was the first Sri Lankan monk to be awarded as the Agga Maha Pandita by Burma (Myanmar). He wrote several books on Pali language, and was a member of the inaugural staff of Nalanda College, Colombo and a member of the Ananda College staff