The History of Ayurveda in Sri Lanka

Ayurveda in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka ayurveda medicine is based on the country’s centuries old treasure trove of indigenous knowledge base, natural environment and cultural repertory. According to archeological evidence, human civilisation dates back 30,000 years. Cave men of that age domesticated many wild plant varieties and used them for food and medicines.

Sri Lanka’s indigenous medicine has similar origins, linked to the 30,000-year-old native habitants of the land known as the Balangoda man (manavaya).

With its ancient history, traditional ayurveda medicine, as it is practiced today in the country, is based on an indigenous heritage preserved over 3000 years.

The royal patronage extended throughout history to the nation’s healthcare was supported by the ayurveda practice of the time.

Sri Lankan tradition of indigenous medicine has its own teachings based on outstanding norms and laws. Historical information gathered from chronicles, inscriptions and epigraphic records indicate that the country’s royalty extended their patronage and custodianship to healthcare through traditional medicine. Throughout its course, history shows that traditional medicine has been preserved and practiced to build and maintain the health of the nation. While there is historical evidence of the existence of a national healthcare system, ancient rock inscriptions reveal the existence of a contemporary medical service in the country. These ancient hospital sites, active centuries ago have now turned into tourist attractions, symbolizing the healing and care prevalent at that time. With the royal patronage bestowed on them ayurveda physicians of ancient times enjoyed a noble position in the social hierarchy, endorsing the local belief that, “If you cannot be a king, become a healer”.

This inter-relationship between ayurveda and royalty has placed ayurveda and its connections with Buddhism in the forefront of Sri Lankan life.

Ayurveda Medical Degree

The Ayurveda medical degree BAMS, a six year full time training at Ayurveda institutes affiliated to universities, include the study of modern medical science in addition to the Ayurveda course of medicine.

In ayurveda medical practice the key, most valuable parts of knowledge are often kept within the family and not printed as a document. In ancient times Ayurveda physicians served the community with royal honour. Traditional medicine was handed down the generations through family lineage in an education system called Guru Kula which accommodates skills-based and practice-oriented training. Ancient medical artifacts are another aspect of the heritage of the national treasure of ayurveda medicine.

As a nation, the importance of the preservation of this ancient medical science is reflected in the fact that today, Sri Lanka is the only nation with a cabinet ministry for Indigenous Medicine. The government policy and institutional system inevitably support the island-wide curative and preventive services provided by ayurveda sector. The Ayurveda Medical Council maintains and controls the registration of physicians and code of practice, ethics and conduct.

The Department of Ayurveda, headed by a Commissioner, is the regulatory authority for the manufacture of ayurveda medicine. The National Ayurveda Research Institute works out nationally important research projects and solicits private sector partnership to update standards of ayurveda products. Finally, ayurveda has its own unique quality, which encompasses the whole being, treating the disease holistically. It examines the components which construct a particular afflicted person, and the factors which influence its development or regression. Thus, it treats the person, rather than the disease.

Sri Lankan Heritage

The legend of Ravana in ancient Sri Lanka, renowned as the most powerful emperor in the region, is inextricably woven around the origins of indigenous systems of medicine of Sri Lanka.

The history of Sri Lanka is documented in two chronicles in ancient scripts of Sanskrit and Pali called the Mahavamsa and Chulavamsa, recount the journey of traditional medicine though out history.

The chronicles refer to the royal patronage and custodianship rendered by the Sri Lankan kings for healthcare through traditional medicine.

Plant species endemic to the country have been used in traditional medicine throughout the centuries. The country’s biodiversity and its natural rain forest Sinharaja, listed as a world heritage site and other natural habitats in all parts of the country shelter a critical range of medicinal plants, which are not totally exposed to scientific validation but used in traditional medicine.

In traditional ayurveda practice, the medical knowledge was preserved within the family and passed on from one generation to the next by personally teaching the science to the new generation. It was not documented and therefore the knowledge was not disseminated to anyone else outside the family.

Evidence of advancements in medical science and the concept of hospitals and surgery are documented in the chronicles and refer to revered monks and famous kings who practiced this ancient medicine.

The concept of hospital where a number of patients could be collectively housed in special centers with the attendant advantages to the sick was recognized as early as the fourth century BC during the reign of King Pandukabhaya (294 - 307 AD).

Existence of the first hospital in the city of Mihintale on a ninth century BC site, described as being perhaps the oldest hospital in the world, has been verified archeologically.

The practice of medicine in ancient times was a highly respected profession and the art of healing was practiced by kings, like King Buddhadasa, a noble physician with expertise in internal medicine, surgery and midwifery as recorded in the chronicles. A famous story recorded in Mahavamsa elaborates how this royal physician performed a cephelotomy (a brain surgery by opening the skull) to cure a person suffering from severe headache due to cerebral cyst (Probably a cyst of teniaechinococus larvae). In another story this royal surgeon cured a person suffering from acute abdomen pain caused by an abscess. He was the first medical writer in Sri Lanka, who composed a well-known medical text called “SararthaSangraha” in Sanskrit. King Buddhadasa was reputed for appointing physicians to every village and extending healthcare through traditional medicine.

Sri Lankan tradition of indigenous medicine consisting of well-preserved literary sources with some great texts and personal manuscripts is an invaluable national treasure trove of knowledge. The non-formal knowledge base in traditional medicine in Sri Lanka is called ParamparikaVedakama or DeshiyaChikitsa, which is inherited indigenous knowledge in this country. Sometimes it is known as HelaVedakama or Sinhala Vedakama which articulates its ethnological origin parallel to the evolution of community-based healing system.

Over thousands of years, this knowledge system had thrived within the territory of Sri Lanka nurtured by various cultural values and norms. This has three major sources like written, oral and practice. These written sources are originally embedded in palm-leaf manuscripts which are several centuries old.

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