Edmund Rowland Jayathilake Gooneratne, Gate Mudaliyar, JP, (Sinhala: එඩ්මන්ඩ් රෝලන්ඩ් ජයතිලක ගුණරත්න) was a Ceylonese British colonial-era administrator and a literary figure.

[3][4][5] E. R. Gooneratne was the most influential native official of Southern Ceylon during the British colonial rule in the country.

[6] Edmund Rowland Gooneratne was born on 6 May 1845, as the second son of the family of Mudaliyar David Jayathilake Goonaratne and Catharina Cecilia Dias Bandaranaike.

Young E. R. Gooneratne had his education at S. Thomas' College, Mutwal, shortly after the institution was founded by Bishop Chapman.

[7] He was a friend of Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera, Rhys Davids, Maharaja Jyotindra Mohun Tagore, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Henry Steele Olcott and F. L. Woodward.

He repaired and reconstructed the Buddhuge (Shrine hall) and the Buddha Statue in Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura.

A committed editor and translator of Pali texts, E. R. Gooneratne wrote commentaries on classical Sri Lankan literary works such as Rasavahini, Sariputta and Rupamala.