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life and teachings of our Lord Buddha. And not a few have been the conversions to the Faith of the Master.
A member of the Kolar Branch of the Society, Mr.C.Lingiah was sent to Ceylon by the society to take robes and study Pali at Malikaganda Vidyodya College - the first instance after a lapse of centuries that an Indian went over to Ceylon to become a Bikhshu. Some 260 Buddhist Visitors Bikhshus and lay men and women from Holland, China, Japan, Burma, Ceylon, Siam, Singapore, Chittagong, Benares, Calcutta, Budhgaya and other places have called and stayed here on different occasions. A Charity Fund for the relief of the disabled workmen at Marikuppam, Mysore Mines, was started by the Kolar Branch and is in full working order.
Thanks to the devotion and zeal of Bhikshus like Gunalankara of Ceylon, Uthaduthaya of Bharrvady, Burma, Dhammananda of Poona, Nandarama of Ceylon, U. Wilasa, Winayalankara and U. Tezzavansa of Burma, the propagation of the truths of Buddhism has received not a little stimulus. Mr. M. Ragavar, a member of the Sakya Buddhist Society, Madras, went to Kolar and with the help of some kind friends started S.B.S in Kolar whither I had been to a lecturing tour. Later on I went to Bangalore where another S.B.S was founded. In connection with it a Library and a School were started. Similar movements have began in Thirupatur, Secunderabad, Rangoon and other places. The latest accession to the ranks of the Branch Societies is that started in South Africa as reported in the Natal Advertiser. In the work of propagation of Buddhism the zeal and exertion of Samana Visuddha Sami cannot be too highly praised.
In Schools established under the auspices of the Sakya Buddhist Society, special care is taken to impart moral instruction to children. In the course of a little more than a decade the Sakya Buddhist Society has become a Centre of Buddhist activities. When the late lamented Col. Olcott cast off his mortal coil, I was the recipient of an invitation from Mrs. Annie Besant to perform the last and solemn ceremony - as a Buddhist. The Birth Day anniversary of our Lord and Master, which has been celebrated this year, has become an institution here. On this joyous day many hundreds of the poor are fed - aye the poor thousands look forward to the day with hope and pleasure. With a desire to circulate the Dharma throughout the length and breadth of the Tamil speaking world, single handed and unaided I have started a Weekly, The Tamilian.
So much has been and is still being done by the S.B.S. of Madras - with practically little help in the shape of donations beyond the monthly payment of the rent of the Society building by the kind hearted lady Mrs. Annie Besant, P.T.S. Adyar, Madras, and the gift to me of a small printing press by the good Buddhists of Kolar - towards the re-establishment of the Religion of Love and Universal Brotherhood founded by the Great Master, the Madhyamikha in thought as well as in life, in the land of its birth which since its disappearance has been suffering under the evil influence of an alien secretive and exclusive religion enjoining the idol workship of false gods and goddesses and strict observance of the rules of the tyrannical caste system, charming however to the ignorant on account of its highly ceremonious rites and bloody sacrifices of animals.
But to bring back the long forgotten teachings of the Lord of compassion and love to millions of such highly superstitious and unsympathetic
