His father was Muhandiram Don Andris Tudawe Pandita Gunawardene, a well known Oriental scholar at the time and his mother was Dona Gimara Serasinghe.

At the age of 15, on July 20, 1890, he was ordained a monk under the tutelage of Weragampita Siri Revata Maha Thero, who was himself a well known oriental and Buddhist scholar, at Devagiri Vihara, Kabmurugamuwa with the given name Palane Vajiranana.

[1] In 1897, he was admitted to Vidyodaya Pirivena, Colombo under Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Mahanāyaka Thero and passed in 1900 winning the Siyāmarāja Prize for the best student of that year.

They constructed a small room with basic facilities as an adjunct and in 1901 invited young Pelene Vajirañāna to come and reside.

Among his contemporaries were Kalukondayave Pannasekera Mahanayaka Thera, Anagarika Dharmapala, Piyadasa Sirisena, W. A. Silva, Sir D. B. Jayatilaka, Dr. G. P. Malalasekera and Munidasa Kumaratunga.

[7] In 1937, he started the Bauddha Lamaya magazine in Sinhala and it had continued to date as a monthly publication of the Vajirārāmaya temple.

Other Maha Theras were Madihe Pannasiha, Piyadassi, Ampitiye Rahula, Ñānamoli and Ñānavira English monks.

Madihe Paññāsiha Maha Thera, one of his pupils, succeeded him as the Mahanayaka of the Amarapura Sri Dharmarakshita sect.