දයාන් විතාරණ
41 songs performed
Dayan Witharana (දයාන් විතාරණ, also spelled Dayan Vitharana) is a Sri Lankan singer whose smooth, classically shaded voice carried a string of romantic hits through the late 1990s and 2000s. He is best remembered for Daffodil Mala, the love song that became his signature and a fixture of Sinhala radio and wedding playlists.
Witharana was born on 18 April 1962 in Nuwara Eliya, the youngest child in his family with two elder sisters. His father, Piyasena Witharana, worked as a local government officer, and his mother, Nalini Daisybelle Jayasooriya, kept the home. He began his schooling at Dharmaraja College in Kandy and later moved to St. Thomas’ College, Matale, before the family settled in the Colombo area in the 1980s.
Dayan Witharana began recording in the early 1980s and went on to release more than 485 songs across pop, soul, rhythm and blues, and Indian classical idioms. The veteran composer Rohana Weerasinghe, whose own catalogue is collected on Rohana Weerasinghe, arranged several of his early recordings, giving Witharana the orchestrated, melody-forward sound that defined his style.
His reputation rests on tender, slow-burning love songs. Obe Susum Pawan Salai anchored his early-2000s work, and titles such as Mage Jeewithe Sathuta and Mawune Sada Wandina Detha kept him on heavy rotation. He also recorded a devotional tribute, Dayama Pubuduwalu, in memory of Gangodawila Soma Thero.
Above all there is Daffodil Mala, which the site hosts under several titles, including Sitha Ma Soragena Giye Ayda Daffodil Male and Hitha Ma Soragena (Dafadil Male). Among his other enduring numbers are Obe Niila Nethu Nimnaye and Waten Eha Mal Padure. Across his catalogue Witharana shared the studio with singers such as Nirosha Virajini.
Witharana’s appeal lies in restraint, a clear, unhurried delivery suited to ballads about longing and devotion. Alongside music he has worked for decades as a professional photographer, beginning in the mid 1980s. Sinhala listeners and the diaspora still return to Dayan Vitharana’s romantic catalogue, with Daffodil Mala remaining the song most closely tied to his name.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Dayan Witharana.