Polwatte Buddhadatta Thera

{{Infobox religious biography

|name = Agga Maha Pandita Polwatte Buddhadatta Thera

|image = File:Venerable Polwatte Buddhadatta Thera.jpg

|caption = Most.Ven Polwatte Buddhadatta Thera

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|dharma name = Ven. Polwatte Buddhadatta Thera

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|birth_place = Sri Lanka

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|death_place = Sri Lanka

|nationality = Sri Lankan

|religion = Buddhism

|school = Theravada

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|teacher = Theravada Buddhist monk and professor of Buddhist philosophy at Vidyalankara University

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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.{{cite web |url=http://ncba.nalanda.sch.lk/?page_id=76 |title=Religious instructors |publisher=ncba.nalanda.sch.lk |accessdate=31 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130108135204/http://ncba.nalanda.sch.lk/?page_id=76 |archivedate=8 January 2013 }} During 1928 he travelled to SwitzerlandBuddhist Annual of Ceylon, 1928, p. 161 to teach Pāli but found no suitable students.

In 1954,{{cite web|author=thichnhattu |url=http://www.buddhismtoday.com/english/world/figure/005-progress.htm |title=Dda.o Pha^.t Nga'y Nay, default page-english |publisher=Buddhism Today |date= |accessdate=2012-04-04}} 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.