Hikkaduwe Sumangala (1827-1911) was the most learned Theravada bhikkhu of late-19th-century Ceylon — Pali scholar, principal of Vidyodaya College in Colombo (the first major Buddhist monastic college of the modern era), and the senior figure to whom the Sinhalese sangha turned during the British colonial period. Olcott’s dedication is not a courtesy. Sumangala vetted this catechism, lent it the authority of his rank, and made its adoption in Buddhist schools possible. Without Sumangala’s imprimatur, a Theosophist American writing on the Dhamma in 1881 would have had no standing in Ceylon at all. With it, this small book became the standard primer for two generations of Sinhalese Buddhists.