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Jantagharaya:

The bath house

“Prevention is better than cure”

This saying is not a new one. For centuries, the human race was concerned about their health in order to prevent physical and mental illnesses. Our archaeologists have traced an ancient place called ‘Jantaghara’ that suggests that bhikkhus performed health activities during the times of the ancient Anuradhapura kingdom.

Location

Jantaghara is located next to the great ‘Samadhi Buddha’ statue and it belongs to the ‘Abhayagiri’ premises which is 500 acres in extent. Jantaghara is surrounded by ‘Panchavasa complex’, ‘Dharanee Mandapa’ and several unspecified ruins.

Purpose

Legend has it that the contemporary documents reveal there were over 5000 bhikkhus in the Anuradhapura region during its golden era. These bhikkhus had to undergo some kind of exercises to lose weight and maintain their physical fitness because of their stationary positions while meditating. The Jantaghara was actually built to meet this purpose.

Records

The ruins of Jantaghara complete with stone towers and slabs emphasis its size. Several items pertaining to it have been discovered such as the ‘herbal spa’. At the centre of the complex, we can still observe the pond with by stone slabs, where the bhikkhus used to pour hot water. The drain system attached to the pond was used to emit the excess water.

Ruins of brick hearths which the bhikkhus to heat water are found near the pond. At the top of the pond is a carved stone slab used to chop, grind, mix and keep the herbals stone grinders were also used to grind nuts and other solids.

Archaeological hypothesis

Archaeologists believe that the Jantaghara was a closed building, which had the characteristic of resisting heat transmission to an external area. For this purpose, the wall of the Jantaghara had been made using bricks and its roof was made with clay tiles.

The water supply path to the pool is yet undiscovered. Maybe it was done by bhikkhus themselves as an additional exercise to draw water from a nearby water pond.

Buddhism is a philosophy which involves the natural environment. So this might be the reason for building such a nature-friendly complex for the benefit of bhikkhus. Today, we can say that this would have inspired the foundation of modern herbal treatment and herbal spas.

 

 

 

 

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