Veditantirige Ediriweera Ranjitha Sarachchandra (born Veditantirige Eustace Reginold de Silva; 3 June 1914 – 16 August 1996), popularly known as Ediriweera Sarachchandra Sinhala: එදිරිවීර සරච්චන්ද්‍ර), was a Sri Lankan playwright, novelist, poet, literary critic, essayist and social commentator.

[1] Considered as the premier playwright in Sri Lanka, Sarachchandra produced several critically acclaimed theatre plays in a career spanning more than four decades.

[6] His daughter Sunethra is also a popular actress in cinema, television and theatre who entered acting with her father's stage play Kapuwa Kapothii.

[5] From 1942 to 1944 he worked on his master's degree in Indian philosophy as an external student of the University of London while holding the position of Sub-Editor of the Sinhala Dictionary.

[5] During that time, he made the stage plays Mudalalige Peraliya (1943), Kapuwa Kapoti (1945), Hangi Hora (1949), Valaha, Magul Prasthava and Manager (1950) which were adaptive natural dramas produced by him.

Then he made three independent, natural short plays: Vala Ihagena Kema, Tharuna Lekakaya and Sathwa Karunawa.

[5] After the successful venture, he continued as a playwright, developing his next stylist play Sinhabahu in 1961, which is widely considered as his best work.

[5] Most of his plays were adaptations from Buddhist Jathakas or Sinhala folklore giving his work instant and lasting popularity with the population that identified with their roots.

[8] Composed and first produced in 1969, the lyric drama Pematho Jayathi Soko was based on the classic poetry "Swarnathilaka" included in "Saddharmalankaraya".