Nyanaponika Thera
Six months after the death of his teacher, the career of Ven. Nyanaponika Thera was to be launched in a new direction, a permanent contribution to the spread of Buddhism worldwide. A.S. Karunaratne (a prominent lawyer in Kandy, who was Mayor of Kandy in 1945) suggested to his friend Richard Abeysekera (d. August 1982) (Trinity College teacher in retirement), that they start a society for the publication of Buddhist literature in English, mainly to be distributed abroad. The unanimous decision was that Ven. Nyanaponika Thera, in the Udawattekelle Forest Reserve Aramaya, would be the best director of the institution. Thus, on January 1, 1958, the Buddhist Publication Society (BPS) was born.