D. V. J. Harischandra

Dikwelle Vidanage Jayaratna Harischandra (Sinhalese: ඩි.වි.ජේ.හරිස්චන්ද්‍ර; 11 March 1938 – 1 March 2013) (known as D. V. J. Harischandra) was a Sri Lankan consultant Psychiatrist, orator, author, Buddhist scholar and a senior lecturer attached to the University of Ruhuna. He was also Head of the Psychiatrist Study Division UOR and Chairmanship of the Psychiatric Medical Science Study Council of the Colombo Post Graduate Medical Institute. He took part in many Buddhist TV discussion programmes and was a key resource contributor to Nanapahana (a programme to which he actively participated for about 13 years, transmitted on Teleshan Networks) and Doramandalawa on ITN.

Harischandra was born on 11 March 1938 in Mihiripanna Thalpe Galle, a town in southwestern tip of Sri Lanka. He had his academic studies at St. Aloysius' College Galle. In 1964 Harischandra married Padma Gunawardana; they had three children, Neshantha Harischandra (Senior lecturer in English at UOR), Tolusha Harischandra (Cardiothoracic Specialist) and Navodya Harischandra( consultant phychiatrist)

Harischandra died on 1 March 2013 at the Kalubowila Teaching Hospital, where he had been admitted following a myocardial infarction.