Ranaweera Appuhamilage Leslie Herbert Gunawardana (17 August 1938 – 16 November 2010) was a Sri Lankan historian, academic, politician and government minister.

[2][3][4][5] He received a PhD degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1965 for his research, guided by Arthur Llewellyn Basham and Johannes Gijsbertus de Casparis, on Buddhist monastic institutions in Ceylon during the early medieval period.

[2][4] His thesis was published by the University of Arizona Press in 1979 under the title Robe and Plough: Monasticism and Economic Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka.

[2][3][5] Rising up the academic ladder, he was appointed Personal Chair in History in 1982 and dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1991 before serving as vice-chancellor (1997-00) of the University of Peradeniya.

[2][4] He was appointed as one of the People's Alliance's National List MP in the Sri Lankan Parliament following the 2000 parliamentary election.